Well, not always. I read an article by Bloom Organics about natural ingredients wherein the author posed the following:
“If a flower is grown in a field next to a nuclear plant, it’s still natural, but is it full of beneficial compounds that my body can use or full of harmful ones?”
We find that a very interesting question and it certainly does make you stop and think.
Also products which are 100% natural but which also contain water (aqua) or other aqueous liquids as an ingredient are not necessarily 100% safe.
When water is used in a skincare product, that product must contain a preservative. Water provides a medium for harmful bacteria, mould, yeast and fungi to grow over time. If used, a contaminated product could cause severe health problems, blindness and even death. So your product must be adequately preserved to prevent contamination and bacterial growth. Most natural preservatives are not active against the most threatening microbes found in water known as pseudomonads.
Preservatives also act to preserve the vital nutrients in each ingredient. For example, assume you buy some fresh, juicy raspberries. How long would you be willing to wait until you eat your raspberries? Not long, right? Maybe a week, max. Before too long the raspberries will begin to grow fungi and become inedible.
The same applies to skincare products. If they do not contain a preservative then their nutritional value will soon begin to decline. And what’s worse, where the rapsberries will begin to grow visible fungi on them as a warning: “Don’t eat me”, the bacteria in your skincare product will, most likely, be invisible to the naked eye. Scary, right?
It is becoming more and more common that manufacturers are turning to essential oils as their preservative in order to maintain a 100% natural status. However for essential oils to be effective preservatives, they need to be used in very high concentrations, which can make them dangerous and toxic. And as mentioned above, most natural preservatives are not active against pseudomonads.
So as you can see skincare products which contain natural ingredients can be good for our skin provided you know that the natural ingredients come from a reliable source. However, 100% natural does not necessarily mean 100% safe. Which would you prefer: natural before safety or safety before natural?
]]>When you buy a product that contains organic ingredients you can be sure that the farmer has been required to follow strict requirements and has been regulated to ensure he delivers only the highest quality plants that have grown in rich soil and not been treated with pesticides, herbicides, petrochemicals, or been genetically modified.
You can also be sure that the plants used to make the skincare ingredients have not been polluted by air particles from pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified plants or other pollutants from neighbouring farms or factories, as organic farms have to be located within a safe distance from any air or soil pollutants that could contaminate them.
Additionally organic ingredients do not undergo any animal testing (unless it is required by law such as in countries like China) and are only subjected to a minimal amount of processing thus retaining as many natural benefits as possible. In contrast natural ingredients which have been subject to pesticides etc will need to undergo much more rigorous processing to make them safe for your skin; such processing will reduce the natural-occurring benefits of each ingredient.
But organic ingredients are much more than good for your skin. Most of the farmers and companies that grow organic ingredients tend to have a greater respect for nature and this respect for nature and the environment tends to be part of their company's broader philosophy e.g. they may be more conscious of their carbon footprint or may choose to use more environmentally-friendly packaging.
Quite often the price of organic skincare products puts us off and with the buzz around 100% natural products being so prevalent, many people question if they really should pay 2 or 3 times more for organic products. Our emphatic answer would be ‘yes’.
You see there is so much more to growing organic ingredients than meets the eye. Already we have mentioned the stringent requirements with regards quality of soil and non-use of cheap pesticides. That alone makes it much more expensive for a farmer to grow an organic crop. But there are many more factors which make organic farming expensive.
]]>Do any of the ingredients have significant capacity to stimulate any aspects of skin regeneration, remodeling or renewal (e.g. collagen synthesis or cell turnover). In other words, are any of the ingredients active?Are active ingredients present in sufficient amounts and are they stable in the chemical environment of that particular formula? In other words, do active ingredients stay active during the typical shelf-life or do they degrade by reacting with air or other ingredients?Does the product's formula allow active ingredients to penetrate the skin well enough to be effective?Do any of the inactive ingredients interfere with the effect of the active ones? Do they have the potential to harm the skin, e. g. by causing allergic reactions, irritating or dehydrating the skin, clogging pores, etc.
An optimal skin care product should contain one or more active ingredients in an effective concentration. Its inactive ingredients should not interfere with the active ones and, whenever required, should provide safe and adequate preservation, stabilization and delivery into the skin. Also, all ingredients should lack significant potential to cause skin damage.
Unfortunately, it is not a trivial task to fulfill all these conditions cost-effectively, in an easy-to-use formula with a long shelf-life. As a result, many (if not most) skin care products on the market come short of these requirements. To find a product that fits or at least comes close to this standard, it helps to have some understanding of the ingredient list.
To learn the basics of understanding the ingredient list, read the articles in our Ingredient Guide. For further, in-depth information, we recommend an excellent reference Milady's Skin Care and Cosmetic Ingredients Dictionary.
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