WHAT WE DON'T USE IN OUR PRODUCTS
Animal ingredients
Our support of non-animal-testing models also includes the belief that we don’t need to use animal ingredients to create effective products. Just one example: glycerin, used in toothpastes and soaps, is often made from animal ingredients, but ours is vegetable-based.
Artificial colorants
Because we do not add artificial colorants, the appearance of our products may vary from batch to batch.
Artificial flavorings or scents
We do not use any synthetic flavors, colorants, or scents. Our customers prefer the fresh, natural taste and smell of herbs, fruits, and flowers (or no scent at all!).
Artificial preservatives (EDTA, formaldehyde, parabens, etc.)
Natural preservatives work as well or better than artificial alternatives. For example, we use rosemary to help guard freshness in our soaps.
Ethylene glycol
Ethylene glycol can be found in hair care products and facial/body washes as a fragrance ingredient, a solvent, and as an aid in controlling viscosity. We use water and ingredients derived from corn, coconut and palm kernel oils, and sea salt to control consistency in our body washes, and natural fragrances in all of our products.
Gluten
Aside from our liquid hand soap and body wash, which contain wheat protein, all other Tom's of Maine products are gluten-free. We do not use alcohol, casein or caseinate, MSG, wheat, oats, barley, rye, malt, spelt, kamut, HPP, or HVP. None of our flavor oils are grain-distilled. We do not use flour of any kind in our manufacturing process for conveyor belts or for any other purpose, and our containers are not dusted with flour before filling.
Grapefruit seed extract
Studies have shown that natural preparations of this ingredient do not show antimicrobial activity; instead, it is commercial preparations that include synthetic antimicrobials or preservatives that show antimicrobial activity due to those artificial ingredients. We instead use hops for their natural antimicrobial action in our deodorants. (Armando, C., Maythe, S., Beatriz, N. P. Antioxidant activity of grapefruit seed extract on vegetable oils. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 1997 Dec:77(4):463-467.)
Parabens
Parabens are used as fragrance ingredients or as preservatives. We rely instead on natural preservatives and ingredients.
Peroxides
We do not use bleach or peroxide in our whitening toothpastes; we instead use silica from sand to clean your teeth and create a whiter appearance.
Phthalates
Phthalates are used to improve the performance of some personal care/cosmetic products (for example, to fix fragrance in a formula), but we have always avoided this class of ingredient.
Saccharin or other artificial sweeteners
Many conventional toothpastes contain artificial sweeteners; our customers prefer a less-sweet natural flavor. We use natural sweeteners such as xylitol and rely on the naturally delicious tastes of fruits and herbs to flavor our toothpastes.
Triclosan
We rely on naturally sourced zinc instead of triclosan to fight tartar.
We also offer you a choice
Aluminum and aluminum-free
Our long-time fans may remember that we used to make a natural antiperspirant. Antiperspirants block the production of sweat using aluminum, a natural ingredient mined from the earth that is then processed. We used buffered aluminum sulfate for this wetness reduction benefit in our antiperspirant product, which was discontinued a number of years ago due to changes in the federal monograph for antiperspirants. Our consumer dialogue team still receives requests to bring back this product!
We currently offer our aluminum-free deodorants, which kill odor-causing bacteria using hops without stopping your body’s sweating function. These are some of our most popular products today, as well as among our most classic.
Fluoride and fluoride-free
Fluoride is currently the only toothpaste ingredient recognized by the US Food and Drug Administration to prevent cavities. The FDA recognizes three forms of fluoride: sodium monofluorophosphate, sodium fluoride, and stannous fluoride and regulates the levels at which they can be included in toothpaste formulations.
Consumers who do not wish to use an anticavity toothpaste may choose from our line of fluoride-free toothpastes. We feel it is important to offer individuals a choice and trust that they will work with their dental care professionals to establish an oral care regimen that is right for them.
SLS and SLS-free
We use SLS to disperse the ingredients in some of our toothpastes due to its long history of safe use, its lack of odor or taste, and its low level of concentration in our products.
For those of our consumers who prefer to use a toothpaste without SLS, we also offer a line of SLS-free toothpastes which use glycyrrhizin, derived from licorice root, to foam and disperse ingredients.