Ingredient Names

[jducoeur]

[Happy birthday to _lackey_!]

Having recently bought a fresh bottle of the Neutrogena shampoo I usually use, I was amused to see that the main active ingredient was "2% Neutar". All right, think I -- nice to have a unique ingredient, but it's a bad choice of name: it gives the impression that the stuff is made of coal tar or something. So I look at the fine print, and see that it it actually made of (scanning down the list) -- coal tar.

Ick.

Okay: props to them for truth in advertising. But I think I was happier not knowing. (Yes, yes -- intellectually, I know that it's used for all sorts of filtering purposes. But the image of shampooing with tar now must be expunged from my brain.)

Of course, then there's the facial cream that msmemory has on the sink, which advertises itself as "Non-Comedogenic". Now, I know what that actually means (having looked it up -- it means "doesn't cause acne"), but my brain insists on parsing that as "won't make people laugh at you"...

Comments

[tpau]

see, non-comedogenic always makes me think that it will not turn me into one of those dragon things :)

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Tar was a traditional ingredient in old-fashioned dandruff shampoos, although I thought it was pine tar. I remember the smell of my mother's shampoo from my childhood.

[mindways]

I believe it's still used, too, by folks for whom H&S / Selsun Blue / etc don't work well.

Had no idea it was in Neutrogena shampoo, though.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

I don't believe regular Neutrogena shampoo does have it; they also make at least three "therapeutic" shampoos, of which I at least two do use it.

[jducoeur]

Yaas. This is T-Gel, their basic dandruff shampoo. (The one that had the old ads with Mr. Worf saying in his most ominously Kirkian voice, "T-Gel: It... Works".)

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I, too, find myself thinking comedogenic is something that causes comedo. Err, comedy. But more in the sense that clown face paint makes comedy.

So does that mean what LJ needs is some non-dramadogenic features?

[richenza.livejournal.com]

"2% Neutar" beats "2% Neuter", which is how the word scanned the first time I read it. All things considered, tarred and feathered is better than neutered...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

You probably know that it's used in shampoo as a dandruff prevention. If you're not into tar, you can look for shampoo that uses saliclyic acid instead. Some people think that coal tar reduces hair growth, but I haven't looked for stats on that.

[jducoeur]

Intellectually, I have no problem with it. It just kind of blindsided me with surprise. (No, I hadn't previously realized it was common in dandruff shampoos...)

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Which Neutragena shampoo? My "Neutragena T/Gel Therapeutic Shampoo Original Formula" just says "Active Ingredient ... Coal Tar 0.5%" And I knew it going in: I started using it almost 20 years ago, when my dermatologist told me I should "try a coal tar shampoo, like Neutragena T/Gel."

[jducoeur]

That's exactly what it is, but the *front* label (at least on my box) says "2% Neutar", or something like that. You have to look at the small print to see what it actually is...

[new-man.livejournal.com]

Non-Comedogenic

To my mind = 'will not remind people of a commode', which is a good thing, but not necessarily a feature you want to advertise.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

*chortle*

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Coal Tar Solution is/was very commonly used in dandruff shampoos and psoriasis remedies. I used to use it all the time, back in the day when compounding wasn't all that rare. Vile stuff in the lab: stains like the devil, and you smell of it all day. I still remember learning Dr. Schwartz's infamous tricolor ointment in compounding lab in school. Depending on the order in which you added the ingredients (one of them being CTS), it would come out gray, brown, or green, and Schwartz reportedly used to specify the shade he wanted, and call you up and yell at you if you got it wrong. I later got a job across the street from him, and I don't recall that he ever did that. Maybe the MCP professors just used him to invent a bogeyman; I wouldn't put it past 'em.

I believe Neutar is a proprietary synthetic version. The idea is that all those less-than-yummy compounds in the coal tar disrupt the already-deranged DNA replication that's resulting in the psoriasis. Personally, I don't relish smearing my scalp with a satanic glop that's probably full of carcinogens either, but the stuff has been used for, well, centuries, with definite benefit, so there ya go.
--- Steve Mesnick, RPh
(Baron Steffan thinks you need a good bleeding and a poultice of goat droppings)