Natural Skincare

When you look at toiletry products and on the label it says it is 'natural' or is made with 'natural ingredients', what do you think this means? Most people would assume that the product is made from wholly natural ingredients. Well, you would be wrong. To shed some light, the term 'natural' has absolutely no meaning at all. The word can be applied to ingredients made from both plants and petrol.

Also, were you aware that to call a product natural it only need contain less than 1% of ingredients that are derived from a natural source? Therefore, that product can be 99% synthetic, most commonly derived from crude oil.

There are other terms that the skincare industry uses which are ambiguous. For instance, 'hypoallergenic' is often used on the labels of lotions, moisturisers and toners. The actual meaning is that the product may or may not cause an allergic reaction. The manufacturer does not have to substantiate the implied claim that it will not.

What about the labels on skincare products themselves? Who can honestly decipher chemical names in Latin? It was the major players in the cosmetics industry who lobbied European Parliament in order to have a list of ingredients on the box, or back of the product. But, of course, these lists favoured the companies, meaning that ingredients only had to be listed in Greek or Latin.

Therefore the ingredients listed did not have to be in plain speaking English, why? So that people cannot decipher the meaning of certain ingredients. All commercial toiletries contain 'perfum' even if it states the product is unscented. In this instance, fragrance may be added in order to mask the odour of other ingredients. Perfume has hundreds of hidden chemicals, mostly petroleum based, but the manufacturer does not need to list the compound ingredients and their raw materials; they can simply use the generic term 'parfum'.

Indeed, ingredients such as propylene glycol, sodium lauryl and laureth sulphates can be found in industrial based products. For instance, propylene glycol, a wetting-agent used in make-up, haircare, shower gels and deodorants is also the main ingredient in antifreeze and brake fluid. Sodium lauryl sulphate, used as a foaming agent in soaps, shampoos, toothpastes and just about every other personal hygiene product, is a harsh detergent used as an ingredient in oven degreaser and garage floor cleaners. With chemicals such as those mentioned above why does the manufacturing industry use them in personal skincare products? Well, the answer is fairly simple: they are cheap and so maximise shareholders' and
companies' profits.

The long shelf life of these toiletries can increase the risk of creating a carcinogenic chemical reaction. Skincare manufacturers also add synthetic preservatives to prolong shelf life. These are known as parabens. Parabens are commonly found in most personal care products such as deodorants. A recent report by scientists in the UK found high doses of this chemical in the cancerous breast tumours of many women.

Methyl, butyl, propyl and ethyl parabens inhibit microbial growth in products but can cause nasty rashes and other allergic reactions in humans. They are present in toiletry products, even those that are labelled 'hypoallergenic'. Help is at hand from companies such as Simply Soaps www.simplysoaps.com, Yaoh www.yaoh.co.uk and Natural Leigh www.naturalleigh.co.uk, which offer 100% natural and vegan skincare products. So next time you put a commercial brand skincare onto your skin, have a look at the ingredients and decide whether it is right for you - or why not try a completely chemical free alternative?

Author: Jim Jones Simply Soaps www.simplysoaps.com