My Thoughts on Carina Organics

I had found out about Carina Organics through some wavy and curly hair groups on Facebook but kept putting off placing an order since they required you to spend $99 before you get free shipping. Before that, you'll have to pay $7.99 for shipping. I've been spoiled and expect free shipping. I was thinking that I should just spend $99 so that I can get free shipping. However, since I had never tried any of their products, I didn't want to end up with a bunch of products that I didn't like. I finally decided to suck it up and buy 3 products and just pay for shipping.

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Carina Organics has been around since 1972 and they say they want to have 100% natural products in order to avoid potentially harmful ingredients. Although I do try to buy green and natural products, I do realise that chemophobia exists and it appears that Carina Organics propagates this fear.

They state that they want to have a healthier approach to self-care and that while synthetic ingredients are often inexpensive, they are potentially harmful. They say that they use the highest quality ingredients and harvest ingredients throughout the year. Their hands-on approach means that all their products are products by hand in Vancouver, Canada.

I do like the idea behind their company, but I don't like how they imply that natural is better than synthetic. There are a lot of things in nature that can harm or kill you. Natural doesn't necessarily mean good or safe.

Customer Service

I have sent them a Facebook message and they got back to me quickly. They are not that active on social media (I checked out Facebook, Instagram,  Twitter, and Google+). Their Facebook has about 3,000 likes and a few posts from 2017; Instagram has 32 posts total; Twitter has 1; their Google+ account no longer exists. I think they should update their website to reflect that their Google+ account doesn't exist. I also think they should just delete their link to Twitter since they only have one post and that's from 2015.

I do find it a bit strange for a 45 year old company not to have a ton of social media fans, but it appears that they are a small company. Plus since they are an older company, they've been around much longer than social media and may already have a loyal customer base. They might also prefer to keep costs down and avoid having to hire a social media manager and instead use their budget on their products. In addition to selling online, they have a store that is open Monday to Friday from 10am-4pm.

Products and Prices

They have 4 main lines: hair care, body care, face care, and baby care. Each line has two main categories: regular and botanical therapeutic, with the latter being more expensive. They also have gift cards and their collections tab lists all their scents: botanical therapeutic, citrus, lavender, peppermint, pink grapefruit, sweet pea, and unscented.

• Hair care: shampoo, conditioner, styling
• Body care: body wash, bubble bath, deodorant, skin cream, and hands
• Face care: toning, cleansing, and moisturizing
• Baby care: bubble bath, shampoo + body, lotion

The baby care line is also cross-listed under hair and body care. They don't have many products, but that's something I like. I had thought that I could buy $99 in order to get free shipping. However, I don't use shampoo. I had enough soap (and I prefer bar soap anyways since there is less packaging), I make my own body butter, I use vinegar as a toner and milk of magnesia as deodorant, and carrier oils to moisturize. I had enough bubble bath for the kids, a couple of huge bottles of Dr. Bronner's for hand soap, and a few bottles of facial cleanser. So in the end, I decided to get a daily conditioner, deep conditioner, and gel. I decided against a leave-in conditioner because I figured I could just water down the daily conditioner.

Ingredients

I have two issues with their ingredients. The first is preservatives and the second is emulsifiers. I didn't know about this when I ordered from them. It was only a few months ago that I started looking more into the safety of products. They do have information about their ingredients where they indirectly say that natural is good and artificial is bad. They also have a nice ingredient glossary on their site.

I am confused about them being certified organic. I don't see any organic certification on any of the three products that I bought. They claim that their ingredients are certified organic though. That is totally possible to use certified organic ingredients, though due to laws, they cannot claim that the final product is certified organic.

I really had my doubts about their products, so I wrote to them and asked about their emulsifiers and preservatives. They wrote back rather quickly. They did have some grammar mistakes but I'm not sure if the person I messaged was a native English speaker or not. The products I bought had water, bark extract, carrier oils, and extracts in them. Below is their reply

Preservatives
If you have water in a product, you need a preservative. Preferably a broad spectrum preservative or a variety of other preservatives to avoid gram positive and gram negative bacteria and mold. They use tree bark extract (Birch, Cedar, Douglas Fir, Spruce, Hemlock, Alder, and Pine) in their products and they say it functions as a preservative. 

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To be completely honest, I have my doubts.  I have not found anything that points to pine bark extract that says it can be used as a preservative. Now just because I haven't found any articles on it, doesn't mean there aren't any studies out there, nor does it mean it doesn't work. It just means I haven't found it and that makes me skeptical. One thing that does ease my mind is that they have been in business since 1972. I would hope that if their products weren't safe, someone would have reported them long ago. The few articles I have found talk about health benefits and uses.

• Does Pine Extract Have Health Benefits? A Look At The Research
• Pine Bark Extract: the Superb Antioxidant for Healthy Circulation 
• Tapping the Pine Tree . . . Plant Resins and their Uses

A second thing that eases my mind is that if bark extract is their preservative, it is high up on the ingredient list meaning that it quite possibly could function as a preservative. Usually preservatives are at the end and only make up a small part of the entire recipe. If you're using natural ingredients as a preservative, you need to use a lot of it in order for it to function as a preservative. Chemists Corner also has some articles about using natural ingredients as preservatives.

• Natural cosmetic preservatives ingredients and strategies
• Natural preservatives in cosmetics - a trend
• Alternative cosmetic preservatives - what are your options?
• Natural cosmetic preservative questions answered

Ironically, extracts can function as parabens depending on the solvent used for the extract. But since Carina Organics says their products are paraban-free, this probably isn't an option.

Emulsifier
The second issue I have is about emulsification in order to bind the water together with the other ingredients and make a cream. They say that the bark extract also does this. Again, I haven't found anything on bark extract. I did find a website saying that it's impossible.

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Carina Organics states that they use coconut oil as an emulsifier. That didn't make sense to me but their Facebook reply and the screenshot below says that the saponification process is able to work as an emulsifier. That still really doesn't make sense to me. I'm not a soap-marker, but I do know that saponification can produce a cream or a solid, such as a lotion or a bar of soap. Vegetable oils or animal fats are combined with an alkali and ta-da, you have your product. Bark extract is an alkali, so it seems like it could work.

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Conclusion
I'm not a chemist or formulator, just a normal person trying to figure out the ingredient list. I don't have their exact recipe nor have I had the product tested in a lab for bacteria and/or mold. I'm hoping that everything is ok since I like a lot of things about the product and company. I'm not a fan of the chemophobia they propagate though.

Ethics

Their products are synthetic-free, hypoallergenic, cruelty-free, vegan, 100% biodegradable, paraban-free, soy-free, gluten-free, and dye-free. They use bark extract in their products and they harvest the sap from the trees during the weeping season so that the tress remain unharmed. While they do use palm oil, they use sustainable sourced palm oil from the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil.

My Reviews

Below are the Carina Organics products that I have reviewed. I have reviewed other companies and their products as well and you can find those on my complete list.

• Alcohol-free Stylist Gel, Sweet Pea: read my review. 
• Daily Light Conditioner, Pink Grapefruit: read my review.
• Deep Conditioner, Citrus: read my review.

Sales and Discount Codes

I write about all the sales and deals that I know of. Here is the label for all the past sales and deals. You can also find a list at the bottom of this post.