Why a Ban List Comes Before a Product

Most brands build a product first, then figure out the ingredients that make it manufacturable at scale.

We did it the other way around.

Before a single SKU existed, Colin and Allison agreed on five categories of ingredients that would never enter anything carrying the BHG name.

Not five specific chemicals, five entire categories, because the problem with the personal care industry isn't one bad actor.

It's a system that normalizes cheap, unregulated, or actively harmful inputs because they're cost-effective and consumer-unfamiliar.

A ban list is the only honest place to start.

Everything else every formula, every material, every sub-brand from Steely to Dentō to ATLA is downstream of that standard.

Ban #1: Endocrine Disruptors

Endocrine disruptors are compounds that interfere with your body's hormone signaling estrogen, testosterone, thyroid hormones at concentrations far lower than regulators historically assumed were dangerous.

The most common ones in personal care products are parabens (methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben), used as preservatives in shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and toothpaste.

Phthalates are another major category plasticizers that often hide behind the word 'fragrance' on a label.

Triclosan, once widely used in antibacterial soaps and toothpastes, is an endocrine disruptor that also contributes to antibiotic resistance.

The challenge is that these ingredients don't cause immediate symptoms, they accumulate, they mimic, and they disrupt systems your body relies on for decades.

We ban the entire class: parabens, phthalates, triclosan, benzophenones, and any compound with demonstrated hormonal activity.

That standard applies across every BHG line skincare, oral care, sleep, and beyond.

Ban #2: Synthetic Fragrances

'Fragrance' is the most misleading word in the personal care industry.

In the United States, 'fragrance' is a legally protected trade secret a single word that can represent dozens or even hundreds of undisclosed chemical compounds.

Many of those compounds are phthalates, which, as noted above, are endocrine disruptors.

Others are allergens, respiratory irritants, or compounds with no safety data at all.

The word 'fragrance' appears in roughly 75% of consumer personal care products including products marketed as 'clean,' 'natural,' or 'gentle.'

We don't use it.

If something in a BHG product has a scent, the source is named full stop.

Ban #3: Ultra-Processed Fillers

Fillers are the ingredients that pad a formula ingredients that exist to improve texture, extend shelf life, or reduce cost, with no functional benefit to the person using the product.

This category includes PEGs (polyethylene glycols), propylene glycol in high concentrations, mineral oil derivatives, and synthetic thickeners that serve no biological purpose.

The honest version of a moisturizer doesn't need seventeen inactive ingredients to deliver three active ones.

ATLA's tallow balm is a clean example of the opposite philosophy: three ingredients, all of them functional, none of them padding.

Beef tallow, sustainably sourced and grass-fed, mirrors the fatty acid profile of human skin which is why it works without needing a carrier, an emulsifier, or a filler to back it up.

Ultra-processed fillers aren't necessarily dangerous in isolation, but they displace real ingredients and obscure what a formula is actually doing.

We ban anything that's in a product to serve the manufacturer rather than the customer.

Ban #4: Cheap Plastics and Plastic-Leaching Materials

This one extends beyond formulas and into materials, the containers, tools, and vessels that hold what you consume or apply to your skin.

BPA has been the headliner, but BPA-free plastics frequently substitute bisphenol-S (BPS) or bisphenol-F (BPF), which appear to carry similar hormonal activity.

Plastic containers especially when heated, scratched, or exposed to acidic foods leach compounds into whatever they're holding.

That's the reason Steely exists: surgical-grade stainless steel doesn't leach, doesn't retain odors, and doesn't degrade into your food over time.

The same logic applied when we built Dentō conventional toothbrushes shed microplastics from their bristles with every use, directly into your mouth.

Dentō uses boar bristle and stainless steel tools instead, making it the first oral care line built without plastic.

Cheap plastics aren't a packaging decision they're a formula decision, and we treat them that way.

Ban #5: Unregulated 'Natural' Claims

This is the one that makes us the most quietly defiant.

In the United States, 'natural,' 'clean,' 'non-toxic,' and 'green' are marketing terms with no legal definition and no regulatory standard.

Any brand can put them on any product regardless of what's inside.

The 'natural' personal care market has grown into a multi-billion-dollar category built largely on consumer trust that isn't backed by ingredient verification.

Poison ivy is natural that word means nothing without context.

What we ban is the claim itself as a substitute for transparency: if a product can't be evaluated ingredient by ingredient, it doesn't meet our standard.

Every BHG product discloses every ingredient, explains what it does, and names its source.

Natural is a starting point, not a finish line functional, disclosed, and verified is the actual standard.

How to Actually Read a Label

Ingredients are listed by concentration, highest to lowest, the first five ingredients make up the majority of the product.

If 'fragrance' or 'parfum' appears anywhere on that list, something is undisclosed.

If you see any -paraben suffix, that's a paraben, methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben.

PEG followed by any number (PEG-40, PEG-100) is a polyethylene glycol derivative a synthetic filler.

If the word 'natural' appears on the front and the ingredient list doesn't match, trust the list.

The back of the bottle is always the more honest document.

Flip it over that's how this whole thing started.