Brief Insight about Natural Care & Its Benefits
Summary: The guest post is intended to clarify some of the myths around natural skin care products and their ingredients. The current focus is on key aspects of natural ingredients to help identify those skin care products that are truly natural, from those that are labelled natural, but clearly are not.
Using natural skin care products and organic skin care products, is a growing desire for most people. You want skin care that is effective, safe to use and good for the environment. There are many natural products in the market place and an increasing amount being sold as organic.
Why choose natural and organic skin care products?
The natural vs. synthetic debate has become very intense and polarized. Which is better? Which is safer? What should you use? There is so much information – much of it inaccurate – on the internet. There are consumer groups hell-bent on scaring the consumer away from buying practically anything, natural or synthetic. Every ingredient seems to be hazardous in their opinion. It’s gotten a bit out of control.
Best Natural Cruelty Free Skincare Routine can be made quite simple. If your desire is to use a skin care product with an effect on the skin use products that actually have ingredients that will provide that effect. Most synthetic ingredients used in skin care products are in there to make the product look good in the bottle.
These are emulsifiers that keep the oil and the water from separating, surfactants that cleanse and preservatives. A majority of natural products will have mainly active ingredients in the product. This would be vegetable oils, herbals, essential oils and nutrients.
The choice in this direction is now between a majority of active ingredients or functional – just there to make the product look good – ingredients. Ingredients that are synthetically composed of petroleum are also viewed as more environmentally hazardous. As an environmental concern, natural ingredients should be sustainable, and not in danger of extinction.
There’s a lot more depth to this discussion.
Organic skin care products
It’s best if you play the role of the sceptic when it comes to labels and marketing. If a label says organic skin care it should have an official seal, like the certified organic seal. If an organic skin care line is coming from Europe it may have the label.
What is natural skin care?
The bigger challenge is in identifying what defines natural. Many ingredients labelled as natural are really synthetic. This doesn’t make them bad or dangerous, as many people are being led to believe. Several ingredients, such as vegetable emulsifying wax and centenary alcohol, are derived from plant sources and altered to become a new compound used in skin care. These start as natural so are often described as natural ingredients by the brands using them.
Natural soap is another chemically altered ingredient that is no longer natural. Coconut oil is used in a reaction with sodium or potassium hydroxide to create a cleanser. The resulting compound, or soap, is called sodium cocotte – if made with sodium hydroxide, potassium cocotte if made with potassium hydroxide.
This compound does not occur in nature so cannot be defined as a natural ingredient. These two examples are used to show the difficulty in defining a natural ingredient. The ingredients are fine for use in natural products as they are safe, effective at their function for the skin care product, and are not disruptive to the environment.
What is a synthetic ingredient?
Most synthetic ingredients are easier to identify and define as synthetic. These would include any ingredient that begins with parabens or any of the formaldehyde releasers are also synthetic. These synthetics are not manufactured using starting material from a plant source. Though it can be argued that it does come from a “natural” source, where some will say that starting from a collection of single electrons to fully manufacture something that does not exist in nature still has a natural starting material. Silly argument, but it has been said.
What are natural ingredients?
It easy to recognize most truly natural skin care ingredients. Coconut oil, olive oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, and herbal extracts are familiar and easily identified. Other ingredients may be mislabelled, such as essential oils which are not regulated and can be synthetic fragrances. There are some new plant based preservatives that are being used, though these have not all proven to be effective enough for commercial products – these may include rose or rosemary extracts. Ethanol, mainly defined as grain alcohol or grape alcohol, is a good natural and effective preservative. Alcohol can also be an organic ingredient.
The challenge of natural skin care
This article was not very conclusive as to what you can do to ensure you are buying safe skin care or how to buy natural skin care. It’s difficult to clearly, without a long discussion and debate, define or comment on product safety. When doing an internet information search for safe natural ingredients you may find this comment – “even natural can be dangerous.
Look at poison ivy.” The only real response one can make to that is – “who is the fool that puts poison ivy in skin care?” Make your decisions based on your desired results and do your research. This will help you define natural and synthetic ingredients and find suitable Best Natural Morning Routine Skincare Australia for your needs.
Flawless Skin
The bottom line for your general health and the look and health of your skin is dependent on a consistent flow of antioxidant rich foods and skin care products. Free radicals are constantly attacking your skin cells, the way to fight back and keep these free radicals under control and minimize their negative consequences is with lots of antioxidants. Using organic skin care products that are high in antioxidants can help to keep not only skin cancer away, but also to avoid many common skin diseases, like rosacia, dermatitis, hives, infections, psoriasis, eczema etc.
Antioxidants are one of our best aids in combating the negative effects of environmental toxicity. You are surrounded by toxins in the air, water and in the materials you are exposed to. The entry point into your body in through your skin. If you are adequately loaded up with antioxidants in both your skin and internally you can combat the effects of environmental toxins.
Organic
There are a vast amount of products called natural skin care. It is important to beware of the term “natural”. This term is used very loosely, it no longer means products labelled natural don’t have preservatives, synthetic or chemical ingredients.
Organic is a much stronger term for knowing that a product is pure and free of toxic ingredients. When choosing organic skin care, it is still important to read the label and see what the ingredients are. There are some organic products that contain ingredients that although they are organic and from a source in nature they are not ultimately great for your skin. Do your homework. Also not all organic products are antioxidant rich. Botanical skin care ingredients from plants, fruits, nuts and other sources know for high antioxidant content are what you want to look for. For instance there are many plants and fruits that grow in the rainforest that are being used in organic skin care products because they are so high in antioxidants. Skin care is critical for good health, our skin is our first line of defense as a filter for the toxicity in the air all around us. Beauty and vibrant clear skin adds to how we feel about ourselves and how happy we are in life.
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