UPDATE 24 HRS LATER: In a HUGE coincidence, I received a copy of an internal memo sent to all Reps that they brought production for the dish soap & 20some other items in-house the very day I published this (I published at 11pm CST on 1/22, it does show a date of 1/23, due to WordPress being in a different time zone I assume). So NOW there is a brand new dish soap label as well as many others. That created quite a bit of confusion yesterday. REGARDLESS of their new dish soap, PLEASE read what they’ve been selling hundreds of thousands of bottles of to people thinking it was an ORGANIC product.
REPORT: For those who like to skip right to it, here’s the report WHICH CONCLUDES: THE DISH SOAP CONTAINS 73% WATER & NONE OF THE ORGANIC PLANT-BASED OILS THE LABEL CLAIMS: AvaDishSoapREPORT
Kevin Dunn, who authored the report goes by the nickname “Dr. McSoapy”, if there’s anybody that knows their soap, it’s this man. You can check out his extensive list of credentials here: http://www.hsc.edu/Academics/Academic-Majors/Chemistry/Professors/Kevin-Dunn.html
For those who like to start from the beginning: This dish soap has been plaguing me for 3, yes THREE, years now. Here’s a brief history: originally I had Ava Anderson Non-Toxic (AANT) on my ‘approved’ list. I read several labels & liked the ingredient lists. When an Ava Rep contacted me to see if I’d like to do a review on some products I said sure, ingredients can look good, but does the product work? Once I received several items I noticed Geogard Ultra in the middle of several ingredient lists. Upon further research I learned that was a combination of sodium benzoate & gluconolactone. None of the lines on my ‘approved’ list contained sodium benzoate so I moved AANT to my So-So list at that time. Issue #2: the dish soap worked way better than other natural ingredient based soaps I’d tried. A safe, effective dish soap has been/is one of the most FAQ I get, and believe me, I’ve read labels for them all. Wow I thought, this ingredient label is great AND it works so well. But then it hit me: it really doesn’t add up. What makes the suds? So I asked the consultant who sent me the products, you can see our thread here:
Then when she didn’t get back to me after a couple more weeks I asked Kim, Ava’s Mom, directly which you can read here:
Her response was it’s the organic kelp serum that makes it bubble. We went back & forth several times on other matters (me moving them to my So-So list), and she said this about misinformation that had been given to me from one of the Ava customer service reps (wow am I glad I don’t erase emails):
SO WHICH IS IT: did the owner of this company know “where everything is from, how it is made and from what materials”, or did she just find out that their products contained unknown synthetic fragrance oils, emulsifiers, and about the dish soap in the last couple of weeks? Which is the lie?
The report is quite scientific & I’m still working to fully understand what it means. Here are the easy to understand parts:
1st, what they claim is in it:
Reasons I’m beyond irate about all of this:
1: Their motto is: It’s all about the ingredients. And I agree, yes it IS! This misrepresentation of their product is beyond comprehension to me.
2: This creates a very uneven playing field for those using TRULY natural & organic ingredients. Why doesn’t brand X work as good as Ava’s? Because they’re totally lying about what’s in it is why WHILE charging the same or more for this product that is NOT what it says it is at ALL! This dish soap is 73% water.
3: They were/are making a HUGE profit on the mark-up for the cheap product they were putting in a bottle & slapping their label on. HUGE. This independently wealthy family lined their pocketbooks immensely over the last 7 years on the backs of very hard-working Americans (they boast 14,000 reps currently) some of whom quit their day jobs to sell this product they got duped into believing in. The company sponsors trips to Disneyland, Mexico, etc. for top-sellers annually. People made real money selling these fraudulent products to their friends, family & neighbors.
4: It is EXTREMELY dangerous to have off-label ingredients. Those who choose organic products don’t do so on a whim. We’re major label-readers, many of us for serious reasons: our kids have life-threatening allergies, our Husband is in remission from melanoma, we’ve just beat breast cancer, the list goes on. It is super frightening & absolutely appalling that a company can get away with slapping their label on a product which is completely, absolutely a fabrication & misrepresentation of what’s inside. There’s absolutely no forgiveness for this.
5: I’ve been stone-walled by this company, they flat out refuse to answer any questions I send them, which have been very valid questions such as: how is it possible your lotions do not contain an emulsifier? What’s the Ph of the dish soap? And other similar types of questions regarding things I felt did not add up. Their response: We won’t be answering any questions from you. How is that transparent?!
6: They boast $20,000,000 of revenue in 2014, yet they had no money for quality control? Even if they were completely clueless to the secret ingredients, THE BUCK STOPS WITH THEM. They bought this product & put their label on it, they need to be held accountable. Also, if they truly were in the dark, the 1st thing they’d be doing is suing the manufacturer. If this manufacturer truly is some evil company duping people into buying their non-organic product while leading them to believe it is, they NEED TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS IMMEDIATELY. There aren’t a ton of these manufacturers in the US, a lot of the stuff comes from the same place then the 3rd party slaps their label on it. SOMEONE needs to be held accountable, will it be the manufacturer, or AANT?
7: I know some will say: Oh, it’s OK, they’re moving to in-house production now, no biggie… If anyone thinks it’s OK for a multi-million dollar company to lie to you for 1/2 a decade, then I really have no response. It’s not OK with me, it should not be acceptable for any company, no matter what they do or make, to get away with this!
MY QUESTION NOW, as they are bringing product in-house:
–Are they reformulating every product to match what the label says, or starting from scratch with brand new recipes making this a whole new line? That’s the only way even remotely possible that they’d ever get USDA certified organic.
I believe not a single product they’ve sold can be trusted to be accurately labeled. Several people have reported recent inconsistencies, such as this:
Eye cream change??
UPDATE a few hours after publishing this. Indeed, there was a stop-sell on the eye cream at the same time as the AvaScent line that now we know had synthetic fragrance oils & I’d bet everything I have it was reformulated to remove the synthetic fragrances they KNEW where in there (in my opinion):
IT JUST KEEPS GOING ON: Another email question asking me what could make the kids wash bubble, with a photo of the label on the bottle. Nothing in there adds up. Check online, the label has been updated to include potassium cocoate. So what, it just was suddenly added or it was in there all along & left off the label? The latter.
And this is on the heels of them announcing there were unlabeled emulsifiers in several products, as well as synthetic fragrance oils instead of organic essential oils used in their scent & Men’s line in just the past couple of weeks. You can read about that here: https://ecofriendlymamausa.com/2016/01/12/ava-anderson-moving-to-my-greenwashers-list/
This was forwarded to me from a very irate ex-rep yesterday. Customer service says they had no clue:
Not only do I have the screen shot above of me asking Kim directly about the dish soap nearly 3 years ago, but I also have this, her commenting on my Fb page when I posted a thread with the bubble bath photo asking how it could make that many bubbles with the ingredients listed. Her name is grayed out because she is blocked from my page so only I as admin can see her comment:
Also, I never had proof of the zinc oxide issue until NOW. For those unaware, many claimed that they strongly felt there was zinc oxide in the diaper cream, but it wasn’t on the label. One day the company came out & announced that indeed, the manufacturer had left it off after all. This was pre-screen shot era for me, and I wasn’t into documenting everything at the time. I’ve brought this issue up several times and been told it never happened, and I didn’t have proof until I found this. Kim Anderson also says that they test the products: 
I’ve taken a great deal of time out of my own life to gather up all this info, and some money to fund these tests myself because it matters to me THAT MUCH! It’s been years in the making obviously. Believe me, I’m one of the nicest, drama-loathing, negativity-loathing, Mamas you’ll ever meet, it’s the truth. But the facts I’ve shared with you above are absolutely unfathomable to me & there’s no way I’d give any company, ANY company a pass knowing all this. The CA Baby scandal from a couple years ago involved something that seems so, so minor compared to this AANT scandal: CA Baby reformulated by adding sodium benzoate to the product. Several Moms started complaining of rashes & inquired if anything had changed & CA Baby said no. Then finally they did fess up to the sodium benzoate addition (it was on the label folks, read it), and it was a major deal online. Angry Moms flooded their Fb page, CA Baby deleted all comments which really ticks people off. And still, years later people remember that & don’t trust CA Baby. In my book, this scandal is much, much worse than what happened there.
I’ve had 2 conference calls with attorneys in the past few days regarding this issue. All have agreed, the situation is appalling & they’ve been super encouraging that there is potential for a case here. AANT NEEDS to be held accountable for their wrong-doing! What I need from YOU: share this post any & everywhere that may be appropriate. The best bet is to send it to the inbox of your favorite natural Mama bloggers, or leave it on their wall with a nice note about how you’re sharing to help spread the word about this terrible fraud. The more people that share & bring awareness on this issue the better. If you’ve ever asked me for advice or used any of my many resources, sharing this for me is the only favor I ask of you. This SHOULD go viral, it deserves to, I need YOUR help making that happen. If you’re brand new to my site, I still hope you’ll do the right thing & share this with your personal page & any other pages you can.
My email: ecofriendlymamausa@gmail.com
I consider this part 3 of a series, I wrote about how they violated USDA certified organic policy here, part 1: https://ecofriendlymamausa.com/2015/12/15/ava-anderson-their-not-so-certified-organic-eos/
Part 2 is the synthetic fragrance oils & missing emulsifiers: https://ecofriendlymamausa.com/2016/01/12/ava-anderson-moving-to-my-greenwashers-list/
This is part 3, and guess what, part 4 will be coming very soon, I should have lab results on 4 more products (totally different test that this) in the next week (although I’ve learned when they say a week, it could be a month, but soon). So, stay tuned for more adventures in Greenwashing….
Again, the link to the full report: AvaDishSoapREPORT
The great news, there are many companies out there making great, safe products, here’s my ‘approved’ list: https://ecofriendlymamausa.com/product-reviews/safe-products/
Please, do not tell me about this great new company forming & the fresh start we should all be excited about. This post is not about giving the company’s ‘rebranding’. THIS is about a terrible, awful injustice that was done in the name of organic products. THIS equals the biggest, greatest greenwashing scam in the history of organic personal care products, in my opinion & to my knowledge. Whether the Anderson family knew about it or not is beside the point. They put THEIR name on these products. It happened. Kim Anderson stated she knew “where everything is from, how it was made & from what materials”
Eco-Friendly Mama: Safe product recommendations with a focus on organic and Made in USA! 