The maker of Natural Instinct hair and skin care products will have to change the labels on some of its products and offer refunds to affected customers after being targeted by the country's consumer watchdog for providing misleading information.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) raised concerns that Natural Products of Australia's Natural Instinct and Organic Instinct range carried inaccurate ingredient information.
According to the ACCC, Natural Instinct did not list chemicals such as sodium laureth sulphate, cocamide DEA and cetrimonium chloride as ingredients and later listed them incorrectly.
"Consumers should be able to rely on labels to provide accurate information about the chemicals and other ingredients in cosmetic products," ACCC deputy chairman Peter Kell said.
"This is particularly important for consumers with allergies who need to avoid particular ingredients and chemicals. Further, consumers who are increasingly conscious of the kinds of chemicals in the home may wish to avoid certain ingredients."
A Natural Instinct spokeswoman said most of the concerns raised by the ACCC had been rectified since a management shakeup in October 2007 and only the foaming products required new labels.
The ACCC was also concerned about claims that Natural Instinct products were made 100 per cent pure oils and organic herbs because they contained "relatively insignificant amounts of herbs and oils".
"The 100 per cent can be used quite loosely and so can the word natural on many products," the Natural Instinct spokeswoman said.
"Because water is in most products, water can be seen as a chemical and not completely natural. There is no chemicals in our products. All of the products we use are plant derived."
As well as relabelling and providing refunds, Natural Instinct will place corrective notices in all stores that sell the products, and publish them in the media.