Cosmetics Unmasked - Choosing Ingredients

We would like to believe that manufacturers choose their ingredients because they are the best ingredients available. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you examine the ingredients listed on a shampoo bottle and a conditioner made by the same manufacturer you will often find that many ingredients are common to both.

This is not because they are necessarily the best ingredients, but because the manufacturers can maximize profits by bulk-buying one ingredient rather than two, or make cost savings for other reasons - such as reducing the need for raw materials. The upside to this is that if you do use a number of products made by the same manufacturers, you are probably exposing yourself to a smaller overall number of cosmetic ingredients, thereby reducing the risk of adverse effects. 

On the other hand, if you buy a product that has been manufactured in the USA and compare the ingredients with an identical product manufactured under license in the UK, you will often find that the ingredients, will have the same name, same packaging, and even the same television advertisment.

The differences are not due to the ingredients being restricted, banned, or unavailable in the UK, but simply to there being cheaper alternatives that do exactly the same job. The same is true of beer: American beer brewed under license in the UK just doesn't taste the same.

Reference: Cosmetics Unmasked : Dr Stephen & Gina Antczak