Uncovering Consumer Insights on Personal Care Product Ingredients and Label Reading

Earlier in the year, The Motherhood conducted consumer research to determine mothers’ opinions, concerns and knowledge regarding the ingredients in the everyday bath and body products they purchase for their children.

Using a national survey, we learned that 90.1% of parents plan to pay closer attention to ingredient labels on their children’s bath and body products in 2013 than they did in 2012. Only 9.9% of respondents reported, “ingredients in bath and body care products don’t bother me.”

What exactly is the biggest concern regarding skin care products? Moms say they’re most worried about chemicals (96%), dyes (80.1%), preservatives (69.2%), fragrance (57.6%) and petroleum-based ingredients (55.4%).

But how much do they actually understand about these ingredients? In the survey, 78 percent of respondents reported that they trust mineral oil. However, mineral oil is a petroleum-based ingredient – and 55.4 percent of respondents say such ingredients concern them.

The results overall convinced us that there is a need for greater education on the subject.

“It’s hard to know what’s safe and what’s not,” said one survey participant. Another agreed, “I can’t even pronounce most of these ingredients.”

When unsure of a product or product ingredient, 78.5% of parents say they turn to Google for information. Others consulted friends and family (55%), blogs (53.1%), company websites (51.5%), news outlets (24.9%), government websites (24.6%), and Facebook (23.8%).

Although concerns about product ingredients run high, the survey showed that price still remains the number one factor when parents are purchasing personal care products for their children. Fifty-nine percent of parents cite price as the number one factor, with the second most important factor (for 49% of parents) being the products’ ingredients.

As one respondent admitted, “I would [read bath and body care product labels], but I can’t afford what I would LIKE to buy, so I can’t handle seeing what I don’t like in them. Makes me feel helplessly guilty.”

The Motherhood conducted this survey in partnership with Seventh Generation. As a company representative said, “The survey results provide us some insights on how we can better continue to help parents make healthier, mindful decisions through ingredient transparency and straightforward labels.”