When you see the phrase Natural skin care products, what do you think is being promoted? Products containing natural ingredients perhaps? Skin care that is based on natural rather than synthetic ingredients? Of course - natural skin care products are products that are made exclusively from natural ingredients and nothing else. Or are they?
Are Your Natural Skin Care Products Natural? Or Something Else?
You are concerned with the amount of toxins your body is subjected to, right? Of course, that’s why you look for and purchase products that do not contain artificial colours, synthetic fragrances or substances that are not intrinsically natural.
So when you see a product or a range of products being promoted as Natural, you rightly believe that if you purchase one of these products you are getting a product which does not contain anything that is either non-natural or is potentially harmful to your health. Right?
You’re even willing to pay more for such products because you are under the impression that paying a little more will ensure you don’t subject your body to anything that may harm it...
Unfortunately you could be seriously mistaken. The fact is that while many manufacturers of skin care products have been marketing their range of goods as being Natural, the truth is that only a very small percentage of the ingredients contained in these products are in fact natural. But...
It doesn’t stop there.
Even worse, most of these so called natural skin care products contain several potentially toxic ingredients such as EDTA, Formaldehyde, and many, many more, which scientists tell us, could result in serious health issues.
Fancy that, and you are not told, but expected to know what all the names and numbers on the label mean - sure...
You need a University degree in Chemistry!
Unless you’re a cosmetic chemist, chances are you have no idea and just belief that because the product is called natural those numbers and almost impossible to read names, are just codes for natural substances... Well, why wouldn’t you? After all surely a product can’t be called natural if it’s not? Can it?
Yes, it can.
There are currently no registrations that stop a manufacturer from calling a skin care product natural or even organic as long as the product contains at least one natural, active ingredient and considering that organic actually refers to carbon, as long as one of the ingredients contains carbon atoms (eg: crud oil) they can even call it an organic skin care product. (They cannot call it certified organic however. That’s entirely different and we’ll get into the nitty-gritty of that in a later article.)
So what are you going to do?
To get back to natural skin care products and their level of ‘naturalness’; imagine you are standing at the counter of a department store looking at the offers of different creams, lotions and are wondering how on earth you are going to choose your next moisturiser.
You ask the 18 year old sales assistant behind the counter about the ingredients in the moisturiser you're considering, but she doesn’t know and also does not have a degree in chemistry - so you look at the label, you try to read the names, think of whether you have heard or read something, anything, good or bad about any of these ingredients, and finally you give up, open the sample jar, have a smell, rub some onto your skin and after considering whether or not this feels and smells good you buy it.
Is that not how it usually goes?
You come home and that night there’s a current affair program on TV and guess what? The topic is toxic ingredients used in skin care products.
You prick up your ears and pay close attention to what these ingredients are - you get you’re new moisturiser out and with a magnifying glass you look to see if any of those ingredients are in your ‘natural’ skin care product ...
Yep, they’re all there, the EDTA, the parabens, the formaldehyde, and all the others that where listed - you feel ripped off.
How are you going to prevent this from happening again? How can you avoid those ingredients?
Well, you can become a cosmetic chemist... No, maybe not; You can make your own truly natural skin care products - no, too messy, don’t have the knowledge or the time; or you can think outside the box...
What do I mean by that?
Well, since most of the products at the beautician's or the department store obviously contain ingredients you don’t want to put any where near your skin, you need to look for different types of outlets.
What type of outlet will have what you want?
Natural therapy clinics, herbalists, people who practice alternative medicine and hold the belief that natural ingredients are superior and safer to use than synthetic or modified ones. Look for companies that are run by Herbalists, Naturopaths, Medical Aromatherapists, because chances are good that they would produce natural products that hold true to their philosophy and training.
Who are these companies?
Good questions, most are almost invisible, and the reasons for this are quite simple - firstly, these 'companies' are primarily run by only a hand full of people who are not high-powered business executives with degrees in business. Secondly, they usually do not make the products for the mass market but for their patients, friends and relatives - word of mouth is usually their best and only form of marketing.
Take Wildcrafted Herbal Products for example, up until recently Wildcrafted did not do any advertising, actually, we still don't, and we have no formal marketing campaign. All we do to promote our business is send out Newsletters to those of you who have requested them, and keep upgrading and expanding our web site.
But I digress...
The key part to all this is that there are a few companies, usually small, not well-known companies that do make great 100% natural skin care products. You need to go looking for them, because like Wildcrafted Herbal Products™, most do not have the big advertising and marketing budgets of the department store brands. But thinking outside the box and looking around is well worth your time and effort if you really want to keep toxic substances in your life to a minimum and are looking to use pure 100% natural skin care products.
