Defining “Natural” Skin Care
June 13, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
As you walk through today’s health and natural food grocery stores you will find an extensive selection of “natural” skin and body care products. These products will range from toothpaste and deodorant to cosmetics, lotion, and hair care. It seems that many of the companies providing these products are striving to promote their products as “natural” since today’s consumers seem to have a preference towards any product labeled “natural”. This definitely makes sense because really who would walk up and purchase a bottle that says “loaded with silicone derivatives” or “extra carcinogens”.
Now you’re thinking no one in there right mind would do this right. I mean who goes to the store and actually tries to buy a skin care product that will cause their body damage. Actually most people these days do exactly that, unknowingly of course as they aren’t aware of the toxic ingredients in the product of their choice. What people need to start realizing is that not every company that throws the word natural on their product really cares about the ingredients being truly natural. If you do a little research on the ingredients in skin care the information is alarming as you find that many skin care products contain carcinogens and other toxic ingredients. Check out a website called skin deep for more information on what is in your skin care.
Aren’t skin care products supposed to be helping your body not hurting it? Yes, they are but unfortunately that isn’t the case with all of the products available. This is where certified organic skin and body care products come in. When they are certified organic they have to meet strict requirements by the certifying body and are very safe for the consumer. Certified organic skin care products are made up of ingredients you can actually read and understand such as avocado oil and safflower oil not six syllable words that don’t mean a thing to you. This way you actually know what you are feeding your skin rather than just hoping it works because the company that made it claims it will.
When you go to purchase a “natural” product be sure to research the company producing it. Find out what their stand is on ingredients such as silicone derivatives and the like are. See if there focus is on a toxin free line of skin care or just one that smells good etc. There are wonderful certified organic skin care products available so don’t settle for some supposedly natural junk when you can have the best available for your skin.
Natural & Organic Skin Care and the Deception by Manufacturers
June 10, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Unfortunately there aren’t many rules to break and that’s because there is no governments or authorizing bodies to ensure that ‘organic’ claims on skin care and personal care products are genuine.
The same goes for ‘natural’ It appears that cosmetic manufacturers can claim an ingredient is natural, even if the raw material has been synthesized with chemicals, heat and pressure. The resulting compound is far from the original pure substance that they started with.
And that Bunny emblem that professes the product ingredients are not tested on animals… well that only means that the cosmetic manufacturer or its’ agents have not tested the ingredients on animals for the past 5 years.
Big players in the cosmetic manufacturing industry can lobby against the introduction of legislation that would protect the consumer from unknowingly purchasing products that contain ingredients known to cause cancer in laboratory animals Not only that, they can also add a few herbal ingredients to their products and claim them to be ‘Organic’!
If you ask most consumers, many will agree that if they choose ‘natural’ and/or ‘organic’ products, they expect it to be as pure as possible. Meaning, little or no chemical action and no synthetic chemical ingredients.
The trouble is… the chemical industries definition of ‘organic’ is ‘anything that contains ‘carbon’.
That means that leaves that have rotted over thousands of years to produce crude oil and then synthesized to make skin care ingredients can be named as ‘organic’!
And so, this allows cosmetic manufacturers a loop hole.
The best way to ensure your organic purchase is genuine it to make sure there is a Certification label on the product…. That means a third party independent body has issued the proof that the products hold up to the scrutiny of an audit trail, from growth of the raw material, harvest, storage and transport and importantly the processing.
Please be aware of the bogus ‘certification’ that some companies use.
* Applying a mock up of a label created by their art department to fool unwary consumers.
* A chemical name followed by a natural ingredient in (brackets)…(coconut)
* Claiming to be ‘derived from’…there has been a chemical change to the raw ingredient by synthetic means.
* Unpronounceable chemical sounding names on products that claims to be ‘organic’
An example of the blatant cheat is the misuse of information for the chemical foaming agent Cocomidopropyl Betaine, used in many shampoos and body washes, including baby products.
Some manufactures will leave out the chemical sounding part of the name and you will see on the label ‘Coco Betaine’ and some times (coconut) following. It would be reasonable to assume that this is a ‘natural’ ingredient.
In reality, the coconut oil has been boiled with ammonia and a toxic herbicide… far from ‘natural’ and certainly no longer a pure ingredient!
There is also a problem with contamination of some ingredients during the manufacturing process. As this is unintentional, you won’t see it listed on the label.
It has been found that nearly 70% of products assessed can be contaminated with impurities during manufacture. 55% of products assessed contained ‘penetration enhancers’ they help the active ingredients penetrate deeper into the skin.
So here is an eye-opener!… 50% of all products assessed contain penetration enhancers as well as known and probable cancer causing ingredients!
To be certain a product is truly ‘Organic’ ensure the certifying label from governing bodies such as the USDA or ACO.
ALSO:-
* Don’t fall for ‘natural’ claims. * Don’t fall for ‘organic’ claims without a logo. * Read labels! * Vote out the cheats with your purchasing dollar!
