miessence Review

This miessence review is a survey of questions posed by the Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) to ONE Group about its miessence products and its company. Questions WEN posed relate to human and environmental impacts, safety, ingredients (for example - Does ONE Group or the miessence products use synthetics ingredients, nano technology, gmo, phthalates, etc. Does ONE Group animal test?), processing, purity, complaints, policies, packaging, certification, and so on. WEN is a registered charity educating, informing and empowering women and men who care about the environment (see link at left). Thanks go to the Women’s Environmental Network, Narelle Chenery and MyOrganicFamily for making this miessence product review possible.

Read about how Narelle Chenery started miessence.

# Women’s Environmental Network
miessence review Survey Questions		 ONE Group
Answers
1 What testing and assessment do you do to ensure your products do not harm human health or the environment? All of our ingredients are either fully biodegradable botanical ingredients or pure mineral pigments.  None of these pose any harm to the environment or human health. In terms of finished products, we subject them to preservative efficacy tests and stability tests. 

Our products are guaranteed to be of an organic food grade standard (see comment on certificates below)
2 What steps do you take to minimise the environmental impact of the manufacturing process? We do not use any cleaning chemicals in our certified organic processing plant. We have close to zero wastage coming out of our factory. We don’t use any toxic chemicals at all in our factory or our products.
3 What steps are you taking to ensure your packaging is environmentally friendly, both avoiding waste and produced from sustainable materials? We use fully recyclable and leach-free PP and PET plastic. We use wheat starch filler is our shipping boxes. We use recycled paper and boxes. We recycle all office paper.
4 Does your company agree that the precautionary principle should be applied to the use of potentially risky chemicals, i.e. that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, action should be taken to prevent it, even though there is not full scientific certainty?
Does your company apply the precautionary approach to suspect ingredients, even though they are at present approved for use?		 Of course!! Synthetic chemicals have no place in skin care products.
We don’t use ANY toxic synthetic ingredients in any of our products.
5 Does your company have:
a) an environmental policy?
b) a corporate social responsibility policy?		 a) Yes
b) Yes
6 a) Have you received any complaints from customers about health effects arising from use of your products?
b) If so, what action have you taken to investigate, undertake further tests or eliminate the problem?		 a) Yes, but they are usually detoxification reactions and subside after a week or so.
b) None, not necessary.
7 a) What ingredients do you use in your preservative system ? If you buy them in how do you guarantee they do not contain parabens or other potentially harmful ingredients?
b) Is there any research suggesting health implications associated with the ingredients you use ?		 a) Proprietary ingredients, all natural and certified organic herbal, flower, fruit and tree extracts. We test our preservative ingredients for synthetic preservative contamination.
b) No
8 What type of messages/images do you focus on in your marketing material ? e.g. do you mention anti-aging, cellulite reduction etc..., or focus on promoting a healthy rather than a ‘perfect’ body image? Focus on the healthfulness of certified organic ingredients and enhancing natural beauty with certified organic skin care products. Healthy skin is beautiful skin is our message.
Please indicate Yes or No against each claim (where the column is left blank, we will assume the claim is not made).
Product Claims Yes / No Comments
1. INGREDIENTS
Free from Bleaching Agents? yes
Free from Chemically manufactured/synthetically made/nature identical ingredients? yes All products
except for 2 which have the following exception:
One ingredient in our shampoo is not certified organic. In fact, Narelle calls it a synthetic in all her training, even though most other companies would call it ‘naturally derived’. The coco polyglucose in our shampoos and bodywash is synthesised from fatty alcohol from coconut oil and glucose from corn, wheat and potatoes. The choice was this one synthetic ingredient or no shampoo at all. We figured it was better to offer a 75% organic shampoo than none at all, and our customers seem to agree!
Free from Detergents such as Ethoxylated alcohols including PEG and SLF; Amines and derivatives including Diethanolamine (DEA), cocamide, lauramide, myristamide and oleamide DEA, DEA-cetyl phosphate, DEA oleth-3 Phosphate, triethanolamine (TEA)? yes
Free from Genetically modified ingredients? yes
Free from Lanolin? yes
Free from Hydriabietyl Alcohol? yes
Free from Methyl Cellosolve? yes
Free from Melissa Officinalis (Lemon Balm) oil? yes
Free from Nano-particles? yes
Free from Parabens? As Methyl-, propyl-, ethyl- and butylparaben (aka hydroxy methyl benzoates). yes
Free from Phthalates as Dibutylphthalate (DBP) butyl ester or plasticizer; diethylphthalate (DEP); di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP); butylbenzyl phthalate (BBP); dimethyl phthalate (DMP); di-isononylphthalate (DINP); di-isodecylphthalate (DIDP) yes
Free from petro-chemicals? Such as petrolatum, mineral oil, prolylene glycol, isopropyl alcohol, paraffin, petroleum and petroleum by-products? yes
Free from Synthetic Preservatives? yes
Free from Retinol? Such as Tretinoin, adapalene, tazarotene, retinyl? yes
Free from synthetic colours? yes
Free from synthetic fragrances? Including artificial musks. yes
2. POLICIES
Against animal testing? yes
Contain ingredients which carry the certified FAIRTRADE Mark? yes Our coconut oil and cacao powder are Fair Trade certified.
Full ingredients list always included in product catalogue and/or available on website? yes
All products carry recognised certification?
(please specify certifying body)		 no, All but 4 We have over 80 products.
Only 4 of our products do not carry any certification.

ONE Group Organic Certifications PDF

3 Certificates:
There are two levels of certification for organic food products that miessence® skin care products comply with:

1) AUSTRALIA CERTIFIED ORGANIC (ACO)ACO certified organic
Products branded "miessence® certified organics" are certified organic:
These products contain (excluding water and salt) at least 95% organically produced agricultural ingredients. The remaining ingredients (up to 5%) can be non-agricultural substances or non-organically produced agricultural ingredients, with strict processing criteria (eg. absolutely no GMOs or synthetics chemicals). These products bear the Australian Certified Organic logo.

2) BIOLOGICAL FARMERS OF AUSTRALIA (BFA)BFA registered product
Products branded “miessence© organics’ are either made with organic ingredients or are mineral-based products:
Made with organic ingredients products contain (excluding water and salt) at least 70% organically produced agricultural ingredients. Any remaining can be non-agricultural substances (eg, clay, bicarb soda, minerals) or non-organically produced agricultural ingredients, with strict processing criteria (eg. absolutely no GMOs or synthetics chemicals).
Mineral-based products contain non-agricultural substances (eg, clay, bicarb soda, minerals), with strict processing criteria (eg. absolutely no GMOs or synthetics chemicals). These products bear the BFA Registered Product logo.

3) USDA ORGANICUSDA certified organic
These products meet the strict ingredients and processing criteria in accordance with the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program.

Notes:
ACO is both an IFOAM and USDA accredited certifier. ACO certifies most of Australia’s exported organic goods to international standards.
ifoam
History:
Miessence certified organic products were certified organic by ACO in January 2001.
The USDA launched their National Organic Program in October 2002, after which we applied for, and were granted USDA certification.

dated 2008 February
Products contain plants gathered from sustainable, managed areas? yes
Is the company carbon neutral? yes
3. PACKAGING
Product information printed on recycled paper? yes
Printed by a carbon neutral company registered to ISO 14001 and EMAS, using vegetable based oils and no film or processing chemicals? no

NOTE: Women’s Environmental Network posed these survey questions to Narelle Chenery, Director of ONEGroup, and MyOrganicFamily (independent representatives of ONEGroup) in 2008. Completed on 2008 02 27 by Narelle Chenery
PRIVATE PROPERTY: This ONE Group miessence review is not to be copied or distributed by others including ONE Group representatives without the consent from MyOrganicFamily.


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