A different
approach

Safety in hair care encompasses the use of ingredients that are safe for hair, scalp, and overall body health. In addition, we look at physical environmental safety, to eliminate or significantly minimize our environmental footprint as relates to toxic impacts on our ecosystem.

Scalp hair follicles and skin are 4x more absorbent than other skin and what is put on it can be absorbed into our body. This includes toxins, chemicals, and ingredients from hair products like carcinogens and endocrine disruptors that cause long term negative impacts that are incurred with continued use. Ingredient transparency is an ethical and moral standard that NUELE has always upheld and that should be adopted by the haircare industry as a whole.

In continuation to NUELE’s ethical practices, it’s important for us to make aware and educate our customers on ingredients and any possible risks, if any. NUELE partners with MADESAFE and EWG to ensure that our products are made safe for family use and do not impart any adverse reactions.

NUELE’s focus is non-toxic natural, organic, non-fragrance, non-toxic natural preservatives, with no synthetic ingredients.

Ingredients used in each formulation are chosen with intention for the efficacy of each benefit and high level of performance. Formulations are diluted only to enhance product experience, benefits, and for use with all or specific hair types. Formulations are never diluted to the point in which performance decreases or for the use of misleading larger packaging. Formulations are alway packaged in materials that uphold the integrity of the formulation. All formulations are made by NUELE, and are never sourced from third party labs, to maintain consistency in performance, health, and safety.

NUELE’s commitment to sustainability is shown on our labels with a symbol that shows the interconnectivity of packaging, ingredients and a globe. Within each of these tiers we consider the environmental impacts related to ingredient sourcing, carbon footprints during the manufacturing process, pollution, and waste disposal. The reduced use of non-recyclable packaging, reduced use of plastics, minimal destruction of ecosystems in the process of sourcing ingredients, replenishment of crops/trees that are used for sourcing ingredients, and decreased use of synthetic chemicals that are toxic to flora and fauna are each priorities of NUELE.

NUELE maintains an intentional effort to identify and engage with suppliers who uphold our same values. A close relationship with our suppliers is important for the purpose of maintaining consistent and reliable access, and to ensure ongoing ingredient integrity. A continuous assessment of the economic, environmental, political, and trade relationships with regions from which ingredient suppliers emanate is essential, as disruptions impact sourcing. Along with ingredient integrity, fair trade engagement is an important factor in ethical sourcing. Engaging with suppliers who enable equity in the workplace and treat their employees with dignity aligns with NUELE’s ethos.

Seek to promote 100% natural products that do not contain any synthetic ingredients. The goal would be to enhance the production of 100% organic natural products to support the ultra-clean hair industry. At this time, there are many 100% natural products that are “organic”, but the caveat is that they may have been derived from GMO’s. The quest for fully natural and fully organic (per USDA definition) may require that there be two levels of standards, where the description can be organic or 100% organic.

Synthetic fragrances contain several chemical compounds which can produce by products such as formaldehyde which is a known carcinogen. In addition, many of the solvents used to enhance fragrance production elicit allergic reactions in individuals. The use of natural florals and essential oils to attain fragrance is acceptable. One thing to note is that the extracts are organic and do not have solvents that contaminate them.

The addition of synthetic dyes leads to inflammation, bioaccumulation in various organs such as the skin, liver, adipose tissue, and brain, and may also cause significant breaking and hair loss. Organic dyes are not always natural. In fact, henna is the only natural dye that can be found from organic sources; however, it may have metal contamination from the soil in which it is grown. The process of adding dyes to hair includes the use of non-organic ingredients so the key is utilizing natural plant-based dyes that have been certified organic by the FDA.

There are nearly 1400 different natural organisms that can be used to make personal care products, based on the given intrinsic ingredient properties and the desired effect. A key resource for identifying toxic ingredients is the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) which has done a good job of classifying natural plants and identifying toxic natural ingredients that producers need to steer clear from.

There should be no addition of natural ingredients that are known toxicants, or safe natural products used at concentrations that would be considered toxic.

We cannot dictate what the maximum number of ingredients in a product should be because the flexibility required to achieve functionality in a product is driven by the ability to arrive at the desired effect. It is of concern when a product has more than 20 ingredients, because the additive value as relates to hair would be brought to question. Certainly, the creativity of the formulation chemist must come into play, however inclusion of a bolus of micro-ingredients for ornamental purposes to thwart the efforts of product mimics is not found to be beneficial to the consumer.

Synthetic ingredients sometimes elicit an immune response which impacts our health. In addition, we are beginning to learn that there are larger ecosystem impacts of these synthetic ingredients in waterways, fish populations, and plant health. Synthetic products have been shown to directly impact male fertility, cause cancer, trigger early baldness / alopecia, cause inflammation etc. Certainly there are natural products that also cause toxicity, however synthetic compounds seem to have a larger environmental impact. It is important that the consumer be mindful of what they are using at all times.

• It is disingenuous to the consumer who will not attain their anticipated result from purchasing the product. When a formulation intentionally includes significant dilution beyond the determined potency of the ingredients, it essentially achieves “junk food status” because it reduces the effective potential of the key functional ingredient (s). Unlike the joy that one may attain from eating a bag of potato chips (that they bought with the clear knowledge that there is little to no nutritional value to it), there is no joy in finding that a hair product that was purchased for its perceived value is nothing but junk.
• It is not a sustainable practice for the environment. The less valuable extra diluent along with the increased unnecessary weight of the diluted product translates into higher packaging and freight costs, along with a larger carbon footprint. The use of extra water to dilute ingredients beyond what is necessary, is a wasteful practice, in addition to increasing the amount of preservative that is required, which in some instances (phenoxyethanol / triclosan) is detrimental to human or environmental health. For oil-based preparations, carrier oils (such as castor, jojoba, coconut) are sometimes used to significantly dilute the effective ingredients that have been included, thereby minimizing the full impact of the incorporated ingredients, or worse yet the product may be more oily than desired and less penetrative into the hair.

At NUELE, we pride ourselves for developing an authentic product that has full potency. We describe our product as being concentrated because it has been designed to pack a lot of long-lasting nutrient rich moisturizing potential in each drop. Less is more!