This is the sixth and final article in the LJO Explains series — a glossary of cosmetic terms, decoded honestly. Because understanding what is on your label is the first step to understanding what is on your skin.

This is the most important instalment of the LJO Explains series. The previous five posts gave you the language of skincare — what ingredients do, how products are formulated, what skin conditions mean. This one is different.

This post is about the words that are designed to stop you from asking questions.

Greenwashing. Naturalwashing. INCI names. Fragrance. These are the mechanisms — some deliberate, some systemic — through which the beauty industry obscures what is actually in the products you buy. Understanding them does not make you cynical. It makes you informed.

At Le Joyau d'Olive, we have nothing to hide. Which is precisely why we are happy to help you understand how some brands do.

Greenwashing

What it means: Greenwashing is the practice of making misleading or exaggerated claims about the environmental benefits of a product, brand, or practice — presenting a company as more environmentally responsible than it actually is.

In the beauty industry, greenwashing takes many forms:

  • Vague claims — "eco-friendly," "green," "sustainable," "earth-conscious" — with no specific, verifiable meaning or third-party certification to support them
  • Irrelevant claims — marketing a product as "CFC-free" (CFCs have been banned globally since 1989) or "paraben-free" when the product never contained parabens and was reformulated for other reasons
  • Hidden trade-offs — a product marketed as "organic" that uses organic plant extracts but is packaged in non-recyclable plastic with a high carbon footprint supply chain
  • False imagery — packaging covered in green leaves, botanical illustrations, and nature photography that implies natural credentials the formula does not possess
  • Selective disclosure — highlighting the one natural ingredient in a formula while burying the synthetic ones in small print

Why it matters: Greenwashing exploits the growing consumer demand for sustainable and natural products — diverting purchasing power away from genuinely responsible brands toward those that merely appear to be responsible. It undermines consumer trust and distorts the market.

How to spot it:

  • Look for specific third-party certifications (ECOCERT, COSMOS, B Corp, Soil Association) rather than generic green claims
  • Read the full INCI ingredient list — not just the front of the packaging
  • Ask: "What does this claim actually mean? Is it measurable? Is it verified?"
  • Be sceptical of brands that use environmental language extensively but provide no verifiable data to support it

Le Joyau d'Olive: We operate on solar energy. We recycle our production water. We pay our artisans triple the Lebanese minimum wage. Our soaps are fully biodegradable. We are pursuing organic certification and will not claim it until it is verified. These are not marketing statements — they are verifiable facts. We invite scrutiny.

Naturalwashing

What it means: Naturalwashing is a specific form of greenwashing — the practice of presenting a product as natural when it contains significant synthetic or chemically modified ingredients. It is enabled by the fact that "natural" has no universal legal definition in cosmetics — making it one of the most freely and frequently misused claims in the industry.

Common naturalwashing tactics:

  • Listing one or two natural ingredients prominently in the product name or front-of-pack while the formula is predominantly synthetic
  • Using terms like "nature-inspired," "botanically enriched," or "plant-derived" for ingredients that have been so heavily chemically processed that little of their natural origin remains
  • Claiming "no nasties" or "free from" specific synthetic ingredients while including others of equal concern that are not mentioned
  • Using INCI names that sound natural (e.g., "Cocos Nucifera Oil" for coconut oil) alongside synthetic derivatives without distinguishing between them

Le Joyau d'Olive: Our formula has four ingredients. Every one of them is what it says it is. There is no room for naturalwashing in a formula this short.

INCI Name

What it means: INCI stands for International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients — the standardised system for naming cosmetic ingredients on product labels globally. INCI names ensure that ingredients are identified consistently across different countries and languages, regardless of their trade names or the language of the market.

How INCI names work:

  • Plant-derived ingredients are listed using their Latin botanical name followed by the plant part used — e.g., "Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil" for olive oil, "Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil" for lavender essential oil
  • Synthetic and chemically modified ingredients use systematic chemical nomenclature — e.g., "Sodium Lauryl Sulfate," "Methylparaben," "Phenoxyethanol"
  • Ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration — the ingredient present in the highest amount appears first
  • Ingredients present at 1% or less may be listed in any order after those present at greater than 1%

Why INCI names matter: The INCI list is the most reliable source of information about what is actually in a product — more reliable than any claim on the front of the packaging, any marketing material, or any brand narrative. It is the one place where full disclosure is legally required.

How to read an INCI list:

  • The first ingredient listed is the most abundant — often water ("Aqua") in liquid products
  • Long, chemical-sounding names are not necessarily synthetic — "Sodium Olivate" is simply the INCI name for saponified olive oil (the natural soap produced by our cold process)
  • Short INCI lists indicate simpler formulas — and usually fewer potential irritants
  • "Parfum" or "Fragrance" — always worth noting, for reasons explained below

Le Joyau d'Olive INCI list for our bar soaps: Sodium Olivate, Aqua, [Essential Oil Name], Glycerin. That is the complete list. Four lines. Nothing else.

Fragrance / Parfum

What it means — on the surface: "Fragrance" or "Parfum" is a single entry on an INCI ingredient list that indicates the presence of a scented component in the formula.

What it means in reality: This is the most consequential loophole in cosmetic labelling. In most global markets, "fragrance" or "parfum" is treated as a trade secret — a single word that can legally conceal an unlimited number of individual chemical compounds, none of which are required to be disclosed on the label.

What hides behind "fragrance": A single fragrance compound can contain anywhere from a handful to several hundred individual chemicals. These may include:

  • Synthetic musks — nitro musks and polycyclic musks, some of which are suspected endocrine disruptors and are poorly biodegradable
  • Phthalates — used as fragrance fixatives; associated with hormone disruption and reproductive toxicity in animal studies
  • Known allergens — the EU currently requires 26 specific fragrance allergens to be individually disclosed when present above certain thresholds — but hundreds more remain undisclosed
  • Benzene derivatives — aromatic compounds, some with carcinogenic properties at high exposure levels
  • Synthetic fixatives — compounds used to make fragrances last longer, some with poor environmental profiles

The scale of the issue: Fragrance is the single most common cause of allergic contact dermatitis in cosmetics globally. The European Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) has identified dozens of fragrance compounds as Category 1 or 2 skin sensitisers. And yet, under current regulations, a product can list "Parfum" and disclose nothing further.

The distinction between "fragrance" and "essential oil": Pure essential oils — such as those used in Le Joyau d'Olive — are also fragrant. They are also, technically, complex mixtures of chemical compounds. The critical differences are:

  • Essential oils are disclosed by name (e.g., "Lavandula Angustifolia Oil") — there is no concealment
  • Their constituent compounds are well-characterised and documented
  • They have been used on human skin for thousands of years with a well-understood safety profile
  • They are biodegradable and derived from natural sources without petroleum-based chemistry

What to look for on a label: If you see "Parfum" or "Fragrance" on an ingredient list, you are looking at an undisclosed mixture. If you see "Lavandula Angustifolia Oil" or "Citrus Aurantium Amara Flower Oil," you are looking at a disclosed, named essential oil. The difference is transparency.

Le Joyau d'Olive: We use no synthetic fragrance. Ever. Every scented variant in our collection is fragranced exclusively by a single, named, pure essential oil — listed by its full INCI name on every label. Jasmine Allure contains Jasminum Officinale Oil. Lavender Whisper contains Lavandula Angustifolia Oil. Amber Eternal contains Ambergris (Amber) Extract. Every ingredient. Named. Disclosed. Nothing hidden.

What These Four Terms Have in Common

Greenwashing, naturalwashing, INCI opacity, and fragrance concealment are not isolated phenomena. They are symptoms of an industry that has, for decades, prioritised the appearance of transparency over its substance.

The good news is that the tools to see through them are available to every consumer — and they are simpler than they appear:

  1. Read the INCI list. Front-of-pack claims are marketing. The ingredient list is law.
  2. Count the ingredients. The fewer there are, the less there is to hide.
  3. Ask what "fragrance" means. If a brand cannot tell you, that is your answer.
  4. Seek third-party verification. Certifications are not perfect, but they are better than unverified claims.
  5. Trust formulas, not stories. A brand's narrative can be constructed. Its ingredient list cannot.

At Le Joyau d'Olive, we have four ingredients. We have been making soap the same way since 1804. We have won nine international awards from bodies that scrutinise what we actually make — not just what we say about it.

We believe the most powerful marketing statement a luxury brand can make is a formula with nothing to hide.

This is ours.

This is the final instalment of the LJO Explains series — a glossary of cosmetic terms, decoded honestly.
Read the full series: