What’s that smell? Nope, it’s not just a citrus essential oil or “natural fragrance.” Now, thanks to a transparency campaign by SC Johnson, if you want to know what’s in the company’s new Glade Fresh Citrus Blossoms collection of fragrances, you can see it all — from the aldehydes and esters to the ketones and terpenes.
Though home product manufacturers are notoriously secretive about listing fragrance ingredients, SC Johnson’s new site, WhatsInsideSCJohnson.com, lists them all alphabetically, including those hard-to-pronounce chemical names.
The company says the effort serves multiple purposes. While food manufacturers have been under increased pressure to disclose ingredients and switch to natural additives, companies dealing with personal care and home products have faced similar scrutiny about the chemicals in their products.
Not only does SC Johnson aim to give consumers more information about the company’s products, they hope to also send a message that not all chemicals are bad and that chemistry can improve the quality of our lives.
"Making thoughtful ingredient choices has been an SC Johnson priority for decades, and key to this is continually challenging the status quo," Herbert Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO of SC Johnson said.
"By sharing the full ingredient list for this fragrance – all the way down to the component level – we’re going beyond the norm of even so-called ‘natural’ products. And, we’re also acknowledging the valuable role chemicals play. Everything from the water we drink to the air we breathe is made of chemicals, and fragrance is no different,” he added.
The move makes SC Johnson the first major company in the household chemicals industry to list 100 percent of the ingredients used in one of its fragrance products.
The question is: Will the company’s move help ease consumer fears about chemical ingredients, or only give them more reason to question each ingredient’s potential toxicity?