They began by making a pact to select only the purest, gentlest ingredients, and put them through a series of rigorous testing procedures that would reflect their high standards. Over the years these tests have grown more rigorous. Just because an ingredient is plant-based doesn’t mean it should go into a personal care product. Hemlock is a great example of a natural ingredient to avoid! Also, ingredients that are innocuous individually can produce toxins when combined in formulations. Finally, some natural ingredients can be irritating if too much is used. The safety testing that the JĀSÖN^® brand insists upon accounts for all of these possibilities and has grown increasingly more rigorous over the years. It takes our dedicated team of formulators an additional three or four months of testing after a formula is “approved” to ensure its safety. Only after a JĀSÖN^® formula passes our stringent safety tests is it actually approved for production.

To ensure our products will retain their original integrity and quality over extended time periods, we test formula samples at a variety of extreme temperatures. Extra hot and extra cold temperatures as well as freeze/thaw tests aggressively age the formulas and help simulate what might happen to a product during its life cycle - from manufacturing, to store shelf and finally into the homes of our loyal users. A personal care product might well be stored in a steamy shower for months at a time, so we need to be sure that our formulas will stand up to these kinds of conditions. After 12 weeks of extreme temperature testing, we evaluate the samples. If changes are minimal within the acceptable range, we can feel confident the product will retain its original quality on store shelves, and then on consumer shelves at home as well.

Because of the manner in which personal care products are used and stored, certain preservatives are required to maintain a formula’s safety and integrity. Unlike a perishable item, we expect that a personal care product should continue to work and be safe over long periods of time, even when the cap is removed for use. Over the course a product’s lifecycle, it’s possible that some common household contaminant might be introduced to an open container. To ensure that even when that happens, our formulas will still be safe, we test our preservative efficacy. We do this by taking a small amount of formula and introducing common, household microorganisms in a controlled environment. We monitor these tests to prove that, even over time, the formulas have the ability to suppress microorganism growth and remain stable.

Every formula is tested on human skin to make sure there is minimum potential for skin irritations or allergic reactions. These tests are essential to ensure safety. However, we only test on human volunteers. We will never conduct these, or any other tests, on animals.

To make certain our formulas are compatible with their packaging, we conduct extreme temperature tests with formulas in their final packages. We do this to make sure that the ingredients in the formulas don’t react negatively with the packaging materials. If the formula in its packaging passes these rigorous tests, we can feel confident about sending it out to stores.

Whenever we create a product (such as sun protection, anti-cavity or dandruff relief) that makes what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) calls an over-the-counter drug claim, we send the formulation to an independent laboratory. The lab tests the formula to ensure it meets the FDA’s required level of active ingredient. Any formulation that doesn’t have the correct level of the specific active ingredient will not be allowed to make the specified claim and will not be allowed to ship to stores.