List of Coconut-free shampoos

This is a hard one. I went to the health food store today and read shampoo bottles for about an hour. This was bad because I had my two-year old with me. Unfortunately, I was disappointed and found NONE. All the shampoos use some kind of coconut product. So, online I found some:



Morroco Methods:
Natural Shampoos, have small samples available. Not a traditional lathering shampoo, but gets the job done well.  Be careful which one you choose, some have changed their formulas recently.

Clean Kids Naturally  - it's a baby shampoo that smells like orange.  VERY gentle, Love it.  We have used it on ourselves and our babies for a year or more now.


Go shampoo and conditioner free! This blogger tells how to use baking soda and apple cider vinegar.

Let me know if you've tried any of these or any others!

List of Coconut-free soaps

Did you know that most soaps are made using coconut oil or sodium laurel sulfate, etc? This list is always a work in progress, but so far I am happy to say that I have found a few soaps that will make me wash with something other than water again:

Kiss my Face:
Pure Olive Oil Bar Soap (in addition to plain olive oil, there are several different varieties with no coconut)

Trader Joes:
Oatmeal Honey Bar Soap

Coconut-derived ingredients

This is a list that I compiled from several sources (not sure how reliable all my sources are, so don't come pummel me if you are a chemical engineer and I'm wrong). After finding all of this, I thought, no wonder 95% of soaps shampoos make me itchy and make my pores flare up.

These ingredients, commonly found in soaps and shampoos, come from coconut in some way, shape, or form:

1,2 Octanediol
2 Phenoxyethanol
Ammonium Lauryl Sulphate
Capryl Glycol
Caprylic Acid
Caprylic Glycol
Caprylic/Capric
Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides
Caprylyl Glycol
Ceteareth-20
Cetearyl Alcohol
Cetearyl Glucoside
Ceteth-20 Phosphate
Cetyl Alcohol
Cetyl Esters
Cocamide MEA
Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Cococaprylate/Caprate
Coco Glucoside
Cocomide DEA
Coconut diethanolamide (CDFA)
Cocos nucifera (another name for coconut oil)
Coconut Oil

Decyl Glucoside
Disodium Cocamphodiprop
Disodium cocoamphodiacetate
Emusifying Wax
Glyceryl Caprylate
Glyceryl cocoate
Hexyl Laurate
Isopropyl Myristate
Laureth-3
Lauric Acid

Lauryl Glucoside

Lauryl Alcohol
Lauramide DEA
Myristic Acid
Olefin Sulfonate
Organic Sodium Cocoate
PEG - 7 Glyceryl Cocoate
PEG -100
PEG – 100 Stearate
Phenoxyethanol
Polysorbate 20
Sodium Cocoate

Sodium Coco-Sulfate

Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate
Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate
Sucrose Stearate

Sodium Lauroamphoacetate

Sodium Laureth Sulfate
Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinat
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
Sodium Stearate
Sorbitan Stearate
Stearyl Alcohol
Stearalkonium chloride
Sucrose Cocoate
TEA-Laureth Sulfate
Vegetable Cetearyl Glucose
Vegetable Glycerine

My personal battle with coconut

I want to make it clear that I like coconut, er, um, used to like coconut. Macaroons were my favorite cookie and german chocolate cake were one of my favorite cakes. But then the unthinkable happened.

I started having allergic reactions to the most random things a few years ago.

I found out from the allergist that I am officially(and SERIOUSLY) allergic to coconut about a month ago, and I wasn't surprised. I knew I had to be allergic to something totally random. If I went to certain movie theaters and ate the popcorn, or tried certain baked goods, my mouth would blister up and my eyes turned red. And I would have trouble breathing and felt like my throat was crawling, my lips would go numb, you get the idea. That's all a precurser to anaphalaxis.

Now I am finding that coconut is in absolutely strange and uncalled for foods and products. In the course of this blog, I will attempt to bring these wrongful items to light.

If you are also an unfortunate soul whose body attacks coconut, email me and feel free to share your info, so I can post it and all may be safe.