Sodium lauryl sulfate was detected in Honest Co.'s liquid laundry detergent, after The Wall Street Journal commissioned two independent lab tests.
Honest is a company that sells sustainable goods that it guarantees contains fewer toxic chemicals than comparable products. In the company's Honestly Free Guarantee, SLS is listed as one of the chemicals it never uses in the formulations of its products.
A chemist told the Journal that Honest's detergent had roughly the same concentration of SLS as Procter & Gamble's Tide detergent. The Journal reported that Honest disputed the results, saying that no SLS was found in its own tests.
However, David Andrews, a scientist at the Environmental Working Group, told the Journal that SCS contains SLS.
"The general process of making sodium coco sulfate would have sodium lauryl sulfate in it," Andrews said.
In its company blog, promised that it would never use SLS or SLES, a related chemical, and instead uses sodium coco sulfate (SCS), a similar but coconut-derived substance instead.
"To set the record straight, we use Sodium CocoSulfate (SCS) in our brand's laundry detergent because it is a gentler alternative that is less irritating and safer to use," Honest said in a subsequent statement.
"Rigorous testing and analysis both by our internal research and development teams as well as further testing by external partners have confirmed this fact."
Honest said it had provided the Journal with "substantial evidence" contrary to the newspaper's claim and added that it was standing behind its laundry detergent.