I know that many people reading this will be interested in and perhaps already using natural and organic skincare products in order to keep the load of synthetic chemicals in their personal environment down. As a skincare adviser who has been in the industry for a number of years and cares about results as well as health and ethics I am going to share some of my thoughts and experiences with you on the issues.
First of all, I will be upfront and admit that I do not use natural and organic products exclusively. I will use whatever works best for me at the time. Health is important to me but then so is beauty. I will use whatever works best. I do not try to be perfect with my diet and I am just the same when it comes to cosmetics. I follow an 80/20 rule and that works for me just fine. At home I stock my cupboards with organic, low GI, hypoallergenic produce and wholefoods, which means that I can afford to be a little bit more flexible when I am eating out at a restaurant or travelling between cities. So it is with skincare- pretty much everything at home is organic and natural but if I am on the go and I need to buy something on the high street, no problem, I know which brands have the best ingredients and if I fancy something new, I don't hesitate to try it. If I am in a hotel, I know it won't kill me to use the free shower gel if I run out of John Masters sachets!
However, with cosmetics as with my diet, there is line- certain things that I will rarely if ever cheat on. As far as cosmetics go there are many chemical to be aware of but my biggest personal concern is that the parabens in conventional moisturising creams are oestrogenic, that is, they mimic oestrogens in the body. Since I have suffered with nasty period pains in the past and have had a lot of cancer in my family, parabens are something that I do not want to be exposed to unnecessarily. It has been estimated that your skin absorbs up to 60% of whatever we put onto it and that the average woman consumes several pounds of toxic chemicals each year by applying cosmetics to her body. Since body lotion covers, well, the whole body, and skin on the body doesn't age too quickly, I will skip moisturising it if I don't have anything pure and natural to hand. I don't want to absorb a whole handful of paraben laden cream just to have softer legs for a day and since my body skin isn't as fussy or problematic as my facial skin, I can always use a bit of coconut oil or olive oil which I always have in the kitchen anyway, if I run out of organic body cream. To cut a long story short, I will do anything to avoid slathering parabens all over my body.
When it comes to facial skin, however, I will be a little bit more flexible. I will use a Superdrug clay mask or Caudalie mist at a pinch or when travelling, although I definitely prefer to use 100% natural, organic or biodynamic products if possible. They simply feel better, perform better (at least the good ones do) , smell better and sink in better and I don't like the thought of having unnecessary parabens anywhere near my body. However, parabens are not the only ingredients that cause a problem. One of the most problematic ingredients for many people is synthetic perfume. This is incredibly sensitising for the skin and frankly just makes me sneeze like crazy. I know that synthetic perfumes are the big one to avoid for many of my customers as the effects of a reaction are so instant; redness, respiratory reactions and inflammation. Inflammation of the skin leads to premature ageing so you have to ask yourself whether it is really worth paying the price with your skin before you use heavily perfumed products, especially on the face.
In fact, so many of the best ingredients for skin nowadays are natural and hypoallergenic, that when I see an ingredient in a product that doesn't benefit my skin I have to ask myself what it is doing in there. The answer is usually simple- to cut costs of manufacture thus increasing profit for the skincare company. This doesn't help your skin. I have been so impressed by the way in which natural and organic products have caught on in the last several years, with supermarket's own brands (notably Waitrose, probably the most progressive major supermarket) offering fabulous cheap, natural products, especially in their 'for baby' ranges, and brands such as UNE at Superdrug making natural cosmetics available to all. It almost seems archaic that we are still using mineral oil and parabens in anything at all now. And when the oil starts to run out, well, almond oil just might start to look like a cheap alternative to petroleum! For more on synthetic chemicals in our cosmetics, check out the great links below.
http://www.inspiredliving.com/miessence-natural-make-up-products/is-your-makeup-killing-you.htm
http://www.wen.org.uk/your-wen/careful-beauty/
Hello, I have just discovered your blog. Nice !
ReplyDeleteA couple of things I am not too convinced about is " 60 % of what ...." I came accross it many times but still looking for the exact study :-)
Another thing is the term "hypoallergenic" employed by skincare companies in general. What does it really mean?
Looking foward to your next post :-)
Mademoiselle Nature
www.mademoisellenature.blogspot.com
Bonjour Mademoiselle,
ReplyDeleteGlad you like the blog! You are quite right about the 60% figure, it has been doing the rounds now for many years, and to be honest my own research hasn't stretched to an extensive search for the original study citing this figure. Perhaps I will take this one up and see if I can find it!
From the research that I have done, it is clear that absorption rates vary quite wildly between products, and are closely connected to molecular size of the ingredients and the presence or not of absorption or penetration enhancers. The idea that certain chemicals can penetrate the skin into the bloodstream has never seemed controversial to me, given that hormone creams and nicotine patches work in this way. In fact, I would not be surprised the percentage of product absorbed could even be higher than 60% for certain very fluid products such as toners. It would be interesting to know for sure.
As for the term hypoallergenic, it is obviously an extremely abused term in the skincare industry. I try to use it accurately when advising a customer. Hypo simply means less, so if you are saying that product is hypoallergenic, you have to be comparing it to something in my opinion as you are saying that it is less likely to cause a reaction than something else. Generally when used by conventional manufacturers the products referred to simply have less synthetic perfume than some other more heavily perfumed products on the market, although there is generally still some synthetic fragrance present in the product. The phrase 'fragrance free' is frequently also present on such products, but all this means is that there is only enough fragrance to mask the smell of the ingredients which I think is completely misleading.
Although I don't think that the term 'hypoallergenic' is misleading as such, I do think that it is quite confusing and I do think that product manufacturers are keen to encourage the common misconception that the presence of the term hypoallergenic gives assurance that a reaction will not occur. This can never be guaranteed! There are some people who will react to such apparently benign ingredients as Aloe Vera, Rose Water and even just plain water.
When I say that a product is hypoallergenic, I mean that it is completely free from synthetic fragrance and harsh preservatives, detergents, alcohols, strong essential oils or anything else that frequently causes skin reactions. I am comfortable with this because I feel that the vast majority of products on the market do not fulfill this criteria, so anything that does will be much less likely to cause a reaction than the vast majority of products that your average person may be familiar with. I feel that my use of the term is honest and accurate however I do not feel that the way it is used by the mainstream companies is honest or accurate. The lack of legal guidelines leaves this subjective term very open to marketing abuse.
Thanks for your questions! I hope this answers them and I look forward to reading your blog.
All the Best
Gojilips
Hello miss,
ReplyDeleteI am missing your post...when is the next one :-))
Have a great day x