While Breyer's was certainly on to something, I do want to point out that simply not being able to pronounce an ingredient is not immediate cause for avoiding it. Particularly when reading labels for products that contain many herbal ingredients, you're going to be seeing a lot of Latin that you may not understand. And that's (usually) okay.
Take my favorite Miessence product, the Rejuvenating Skin Conditioner, for example. If the label didn't list the herbal ingredients by their English names as well, the only things I would understand are Aloe and Aqua. Many toothpastes and deodorants, both traditional formulations and more natural ones, include sodium bicarbonate, often listed as bicarb (of) soda in Commonwealth countries, but this is just plain old baking soda. Sometimes a little biology or chemistry is required to understand the labels, and that's okay.
It is VERY important to be an informed consumer. If you don't know what something is that is in one of your products, whether it is food, skin care, hair care, or anything else, look it up! We are all busy people, I know, but the Internet has made this SO easy that there's really almost no excuse anymore. A simple search will give a good sense of whether an ingredient is generally considered safe or not. It takes about 15 seconds to get an idea, and if you are interested you can spend more time delving into the details. Consumers becoming informed and knowledgeable is also what leads to businesses pushing for better, safer products.
And if you aren't sure, ask me! I can't promise that I will know the answer right away, but I would be honored if you would trust me to look into a specific ingredient for you. We're all in this together, right?
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