Skin care products is derived from medicinal practices that began over 5,000 years ago for health as well as cosmetic purposes.
These methods and practices that include natural ingredients are based on ancient philosophical, psychological, conventional, and medicinal understandings, some based on scientific research and some based on historical results.
Almost all skin care products contain at least some of the following herbs—aloe vera, almond, avocado, carrot, castor, clay, cocoa, coconut oil, cornmeal, cucumber, cutch tree, emu oil, ginkgo biloba, ginseng, grape seed oil, ground almond and walnut shell, horse chestnut, witch hazel and honey. Most producers are very much intent on producing their products based on the most natural and organically produced ingredients and often infused with natural spring water or clean filtered water.
For instance, Indian gooseberry has been used in Ayurvedic skin care products by using its extracts for long-lasting and broad-spectrum antioxidant skin care. This may be suitable for use in anti-aging, sunscreen and general purpose skin care products.
Natural organic ingredients and Ayurvedic inspired skin care has been extensively researched by dermatologists in the last few decades and these studies suggest that the bioactive ingredients used in organic skin care products have benefits beyond the traditional moisturizer and that biocompatible and environmentally friendly natural compounds have the potential to provide materials with photoresistant and thermoresistant properties.
Additionally, it was discovered that dehydroabietic acid (DAA), a naturally occurring diterpene resin acid, has lifespan extension effects in Caenorhabditis elegans, prevents lipofuscin accumulation, and prevents collagen secretion in human dermal fibroblasts. Countless number of studies have found that these anti-aging effects are primarily mediated by enzymatic activity, which may have a preventive effect against the aging process.
But this is not the kind of information you can get from fashion magazines that want to sell you expensive cosmetics products that often have pretty horrible ingredients.
Almost all, if not every single one, of fashion magazines are severely crippled by their owners and managers that put advertisers and ad revenues ahead of readership and therefore they cannot provide valuable, accurate, and concise information regarding skin care in an objective way.
They simply can’t disagree with their advertisers without committing financial suicide. The reporters, producers, and editors all know this and accept it and tolerate it. They all talk about it and then shrug their shoulders and say, well, it’s normal and they are running a business and hence must answer to the shareholder and therefore relinquishing their responsibility to provide accurate and beneficial information about ingredients and producing processes in the skin care industry.
The question that we are asked most often is: what makes natural (be it organic, Ayurvedic, healthy, etc.) skin care products different than those products offered by large cosmetic companies (cosmeceuticals) pushed through their advertising in fashion magazines or the media?
Well, the answer is two parts. First, it is the ”preservatives” in the skin products that needs to be looked at carefully, and the second part, is that what ”standards” are we looking at to establish the accuracy of what is being described with regards to one product vs. another.
Without a doubt, skin-care and cosmetics products need preservatives. Both ‘healthy’ and cosmeceutically produced products contain at least some plant extracts. These plant extracts need preservatives to protect them from being overtaken by bacteria. For instance, imagine an avocado sitting on a plate for more than 20 minutes – it goes black almost and looks terrible. This is no different than plant extracts used in skin care products. So preservatives need to be used to protect the ingredients. This is true for all skin care products, including gels, creams, cleansers, lotion, toner, foundation, even mascara. Without preservatives, the fungus running wild would make these products non-hygienic and filled with bacteria.
But preservatives are not all equal. Not long ago an extensive research study came out that proved formaldehyde to be a nasty carcinogen. Formaldehyde combined with amines, called nitrosamine are seriously carcinogenic and can cause cancer.
Another popular preservative used for a few decades, until recently, are called parabens. These parabens may come in the form of butylparaben, ethylparaben, isobutylparaben, methylparaben, or propylparaben, and they have been linked to breast cancer, as well as to low sperm-count rates in men.
Unfortunately most skin care products by cosmeceuticals have at least some ingredients that are seriously unhealthy and carcinogenic.
Organic skin care tend to use non-carcinogenic preservatives or they use preservative-free formulation which is rare but still can be found, although it may be expensive and occasionally not as effective as other products. Non-carcinogenic preservatives include antimicrobial preservatives such as silver, antioxidants, Vitamin E oil, rosemary oil extract, grapefruit seed extract, among others.
Second part of the answer above referred to ”standards”. Well, this is actually the hardest part of choosing healthy products for ourselves and our loved ones. For instance the word ”natural” is used so much and is the favorite of most marketing people even though it actually does not mean anything and there are no standards that define what constitutes and/or defines what product can claim to be ”natural”. So this is used all the time by just about any skin care products now, even if they contain synthetic colors, fragrance, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), aluminum, pthalates, dioxins, and petroleum based ingredients.
So ”natural” does not mean the same thing from one product to another and there are no standards that can be applied. So buyer must be aware. Always read the ingredients and try to avoid harmful ingredients, chemicals, and carcinogenic additives and preservatives. Ignore the marketing works like ”natural” or ”healthy”, as these don’t really have a standard uniform definition and hence can be vastly exaggerated.