Druide's Citronella Insect Repellent Lotion (spray)

I contacted Druide this week, a company who makes an all-natural, biodegradable insect repellent, to find out if their product is gluten free. Here is my inquiry:

I'm very interested in purchasing Druide's Citronella Insect-Repellent Lotion (spray) and have a question regarding it's composition. I would like to use this product on my son, who has celiac disease. He is extremely sensitive to trace amounts of gluten (wheat, rye, oats and barley) and while this product shouldn't enter his mouth I just want to find out if it would be safe (from a celiac perspective) for him just incase. Are there any gluten-containing ingredients or could any of the ingredients be cross-contaminated with gluten?

Your response to this inquiry would be greatly appreciated. Your product looks wonderful and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to use it!

Their response:

Thanks for your great care in The DRUIDE's Ecological Line.

The Citronella Insect Repellent lotion is a gluten free product.

Succinct response, but provided the information I needed! This product seems to be sold in quite a few locations in Canada (not sure about the US). You can check their store locator to be sure, though all locations are not listed. I found the product on the Mountain Equipment Coop website (I believe they ship outside of Canada) as well as locally in a grocery store and a couple of natural foods stores. The reviews of it on Mountain Equipment Coop are great. Sounds very effective. I'll be picking some up for sure!

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The Body Shop

I love products from The Body Shop, so I contacted them to find out if they have any gluten free products. Here is their response:

Attached is a list of products which contain a low level of Wheat, Corn, Rye, Barley or Oat and as such may possibly contain low level of Gluten. Also, is attached a list of gluten free products.

Please understand however that Gluten is not cited as an impurity in our raw materials and our vendors do not actually test for it, as such. If any of the products in our assortment which contain Wheat, Corn, Rye, Barley or Oat derivatives have Gluten as an impurity, the level would be extremely low. We are not however in a position to guarantee that the rest of our portfolio is Gluten free. It has to be stressed that this is the same for all reputable cosmetic manufacturers and brand owners.

I wanted to clarify what they meant by this so I wrote back and got a very clear answer:

Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the products to be 100% gluten free, but the list does include products thought to be free of gluten.

We're going to keep products from The Body Shop out of our house but there are a lot of people for whom this level of security is suitable.

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Burt's Bees

I contacted Burt's Bees to find out whether their products are safe for those with Celiac disease or a severe gluten intolerance and here is their response:

Thank you for contacting Burt's Bees. While we can identify products in which we do not use raw materials containing gluten, we cannot certify that our vendors did not process these ingredients on equipment where contamination could occur. For the most accurate source of information, please refer to the list of ingredients on our website or on the product. Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

This one is not so clear cut - for us extreme types we'll take a pass.

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Gillette

Here's the response from Gillette regarding gluten in their products:

All Gillette products are gluten free, and we do not have any cross contamination with any products that have gluten in them.

For more gluten free personal care products check out the rest of the site!

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Blistex

Here is a helpful gluten / cross-contamination statement from Blistex:

Thank you for your interest in Blistex products and wanting to know if they are gluten free. We are pleased to inform you that all of our Blistex lip care products are gluten free meaning that they are free from wheat, rye, barley, and oats.

In reference to cross contamination: we clean our processing equipment in a manner that meets the highest standards in our industry. However, we are unable to certify the absolute removal of all gluten residues.

I have found that Blistex Lip Medex is the best product for dry lips in the winter, so I'm happy to hear that it is safe!

And what goes better with the cold weather than an incredible cup of hot chocolate? This is the best hot chocolate recipe EVER!

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Unilever - Another Great Company

I love companies that voluntarily identify gluten ingredients and cross-contamination risks on their labels. Another great company for this is Unilever. As stated on their FAQ

If our ingredients contain even trace amounts of peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, milk, eggs, fish, soy, sulfites or wheat (and ingredients that may contain gluten), it will be stated on the label.

Unilever products cover a large number of brands covering food, home care, and personal care products.

Food Brands

Becel
Ben & Jerry's
Blue Bonnet
Breyers
Brooke Bond
Bru
Hellmann's
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter
Imperial
Klondike
Knorr
Lipton
Lipton Tea
Popsicle
Ragu
Red Rose
Salada
Skippy
Slim Fast

Home Care Brands

Vim

Personal Care Brands

Axe
Degree
Dove
Dove Men+Care
Lever 2000
Nexxus
Noxzema
Pond's
Q-Tips
St Ives
Suave
Sunsilk
TRESemme
Vaseline
V05

Thank you Unilever!

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