What Your Natural Beauty Products Won’t Do
London correspondent Katherine McKenney writes:
Making the switch to natural beauty products is an exciting proposition. Well done you for deciding to put your health ahead of empty marketing promises!
I can see it now: you buy your first natural product. You take it home. You unwrap the minimalist, eco-friendly packaging. You apply said product. And then you think, “Ahhhhhh, wait a minute! This isn’t what I was expecting!”
Perhaps you are unfairly comparing the natural product to your usual synthetic chemical-laden equivalent. Natural beauty products are wonderful but they won’t behave in the same way as synthetic products. In order to prepare you for what to expect, here is a guide for what your natural beauty products won’t do.
– Natural beauty products will not smell the same because their scents are derived from plants, flowers, and lovely things found in nature. Therefore they will not smell like the man-made chemicals you are used to. At first whiff, you may be reminded of your granny who loved florals: lavender, rose, and geranium (not necessarily scents you would associate with your hip, happening self). The first time I took a whiff of cedarwood, I thought it smelled like dirt. Now I love it. The essential oils tend to grow on you after your nose becomes accustomed. I find synthetic fragrances really icky and overpowering but my Italian boyfriend persists on buying them for me since he comes from the land of overpowering scent. When I jokingly asked him which “cancer spray” he was going to give me for Christmas this year, he retorted that with my bad attitude I wasn’t going to get anything. Ba humbug! He didn’t think it was very funny but I don’t think using toxic products on my body is very funny either. To each his own.
– Natural beauty products will not foam the same because they do not contain harsh detergents like sodium laurel sulfate (SLS) or sodium olefin sulfonates. Early last year, I embarked on a mission to find the perfect organic shampoo for my hair, meaning a shampoo without SLS. It was a difficult, at times traumatic, experience, but I did learn that there are some good natural shampoos out there. You just have to be prepared for how your hair will behave while it sings the swan song to SLS. For a few months after you make the switch, your hair will go through a rebalancing act. While your scalp starts to realize that it can produce less sebum since it’s no longer being over stripped by the SLS, your hair will seem more greasy than you are used to. Ways around this are using a degreasing wash once a week (I like rinsing my hair with green tea and an egg before shampooing.) You can also use a hair powder/dry shampoo in between washes to keep your hair looking clean (equal parts arrowroot and orrisroot powder plus a few drops of rosemary essential oil work well). Finally in order to maximize your natural shampoo, apply it separately in small parts on the top, bottom, and sides of your head rather than wacking a big glob on the top and then trying to spread it around. It won’t spread as well without the foam, but another trick is to apply a little water here and there as you need it to help work it through your hair.
– Natural beauty products will not last for years because they contain few to no preservatives. One of the most controversial families of preservatives getting a lot of press these days are the dreaded parabens. The analysis of the research done on parabens range wildly from “they are evil” to “they have been around for decades and humans have gotten used to them so they are fine.” Personally I prefer my products sans parabens. It is important to read the labels on your beauty products carefully. Just because a product is labeled paraben-free doesn’t mean it’s automatically safe. You can check the level of toxicity in your products at Skin Deep, the Environmental Working Group’s database of cosmetics.
– Natural beauty products will not clog your pores because the atomic structure of the oils and ingredients are simple and small enough to pass straight through pores and into the various layers of the epidermis and dermis. Chemicals such as paraffin and petrol-based chemicals are notorious for just sitting on top of your skin and not doing anything except blocking the air from getting to your skin, which can cause your pores to get blocked. It may be useful sometimes to have a barrier between your skin if you are, say, climbing Mount Everest and your face and lips are chapped. (In situations like those clogged pores are the least of your problems!) For more information on skin and how beauty products work, I recommend Liz Earle’s book Skin Care Secrets or The Beauty Brains blog.
– Natural beauty products will not irritate your skin because they do not contain harsh chemicals which break down your own natural barrier properties. Besides the detergent SLS, other chemicals which you should be wary of, particularly if you suffer from dermatitis, eczema, or other skin conditions include: mineral oil (often labeled paraffinum liquidum), retinoids, alphahydroxy acids (AHAs or fruit acids), glycolic acids, and ingredients used in hair-removal products.
– Natural beauty products will not disrupt hormones and interfere with normal endocrine system function (adrenal glands, pancreas, thyroid gland, pituitary gland, ovaries, and testicles), cause infertility or birth defects, cause allergic reactions or immunotoxicity, cause neurotoxocity (harmful to brain and nervous system), cause organ system toxicity (cardiovascular, respiratory, stomach and digestive organs), irritate mucous membranes like eyes and lungs, or cause cancer. Whew! I knew there was a reason I switched to natural products.
Tags: Katherine McKenney, natural beauty products, organic shampoo, parabens, SLS
9 Responses to “What Your Natural Beauty Products Won’t Do”
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January 20th, 2010 at 12:46 am
Natural beauty products can irritate your skin, although not withmost people. I can get horrible reactions to some essential oils. Poison ivy is natural, also.
January 20th, 2010 at 2:13 am
RIGHT ON! I love what you have to say here.I have been using natural beauty products for several years now… ever since the light bulb went off in my head ” what I put on my body is as important as what I put in it.” It is true some people may indeed be sensitive to various natural/organic products as it is with synthetic ones. For me it’s quite frustrating to pick up a so called “natural” product only to find a toxic ingredient among those listed in the “ingredients”. I find the fewer the ingredients the better off one is. My skin responds best to more simple clean/organic products.
I really like the SUKI line as well as MyChelle(especially their SPF 30 sunscreen.) I look forward to reviewing your recommended products.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:56 am
What a great article and so informative. Thank for all this great info and the links for toxicity levels.
January 27th, 2010 at 9:19 am
Ann makes a good point, the word natural can be misleading, but I am all for trying to find products that work well without chemicals. I haven’t had much luck yet. I’m going to poke around your site to see what you recommend.
January 29th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Great article – but I do have to disagree with one point. Natural beauty products will make your skin breakout if you’re prone to acne and you use a product with heavy oils. It’s all relative according to everyone’s unique chemistry, but I can atest firsthand to horrible breakouts after trying a natural moisturizer or foundation – especially Dr. Hauschka and Zuzu. These are pretty natural products but many people still do have problems with the types of oils used.
January 30th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Great article. I have been obsessed with finding natural beauty products, after haveing skin irritation and developing eczema. So I just started making my own without chemicals and now my skin is happy. Shampoo is still a problem I have yet to find a good way to avoid sulfates.
April 24th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
I enjoyed this post immensely. Natural doesn’t always mean good! Like Ann said, people can be allergic and sensitive to natural ingredients as well. You just simply have to know your body and what you can and can’t tolerate. I will still choose products made from nature as opposed to those created in a lab any day.
April 25th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
I really enjoyed reading your post. This is why I have switched to natural skin care products. My friends and I are trying to make our own skin care products since we both have sensitive skin. What we have found is that natural products seem to work better than regular skin care products you can buy in the store when you combine the right ingredients.
April 26th, 2010 at 5:31 am
Katherine,
So great that you help to adjust people’s expectations and thinking when it comes to their personal care product choices. Natural, pure products can deliver a different experience (natural deodorant vs. chemical deodorant/antiperspirant is an example of this trade-off). BUT, they don’t always have to. I’ve been working really hard on a line of personal care products that look, feel, smell and work similar to the big name brands but don’t have any of the potentially harmful chemicals. We’ve used the Skin Deep database as our guidepost when formulating. The products – - anti-aging skin care and baby care – - are terrific. I can’t wait to get some samples to you to try. So, yes, we may have had to adjust our expectations in the past, but I hope that we won’t have to compromise our health or our product expectations in the future. Keep the good info coming. Also, my blog (“Pure Talk”) is on our website (www.scerene.com). Hope you’ll check it out and let me know what you think.
M’lou Arnett