We are all becoming aware of the availability of natural non-chemical skincare products appearing in the shops. People wanting to buy products, may be more aware of them through the larger companies, as the smaller companies are relatively unknown. To solve this problem it is necessary to look at how the modern skincare industry operates nowadays.
The skincare industry was one of the first to use mass marketing as a successful tool to sell enormous amounts of products. Even now science can be a powerful tool in helping us achieve good care of our skin but only when the science is about benefits to our skin not a new way of marketing dodgy products.
This has lead to the situation we now have to deal with where every major skincare company is constantly bringing out new 'improved' products. This begs the question; if their products are now so much better; how bad were the products they were telling us were so fantastic a year or so ago? These 'improved' products always contain new miracle ingredients guaranteed to make you look and feel better. Across the whole spectrum only a few ingredients have actually been shown to produce beneficial results but the industry continues to tell us how wonderful everything they do is.
The above would not be a problem if there were no consequences but there are and some of them are pretty bad. Some other companies make natural soaps with nothing but natural ingredients.
If you go and look on the ingredients list on most moisturisers and other products you may not see the use of petroleum based ingredients in their products. They maybe using such names as; Petrolatum, Parafinum Liquidum etc. Although it is said Petroleum based products should only be used on very damaged skin not as a routine care product.
Think of how people use lip balms. Every half an hour or so, on goes the lip balm because their lips feel dry. This happens because some of the ingredients included maintain an artificially high humidity at the skin's surface so as soon as it starts to wear off your lips feels very dry and fragile.
Another very strange aspect of the soap industry is the glycerine and where it ends up.
Natural, cold process soap, retains all the naturally produced glycerine within the soap so as you wash this glycerine creates a layer on your skin which protects it as the natural acid mantle rebuilds itself. This means the skin hardly realises it has been washed. Normal soaps have the glycerine removed so as we wash our skin it is left dry and unprotected, hence that dry, drum effect. Because your skin feels dry and irritated you need to use a moisturiser. Guess where the glycerine reappears. Yes, you're right, there it is in the moisturiser along with another load of unnecessary petroleum products, chemical colours, preservatives etc. The other problem with this is that your skin has been left exposed until you moisturise. Surely it is better to leave the glycerine in the soap in the first place so there is no danger of exposing your face or skin to any damaging effects.
This process has been going on for many decades to such an extent it is now impossible to know whether a product is good for you without being a skincare scientist. Some advertising companies usually use a combination of pseudo-science. They will use attractive models to purvey their 'anti-wrinkle creams', only to know that 'she' won't need them at all. This will alarm the watching audience and daunt them into buying the product in question.
The conclusion is that we are adding more and more unknown chemicals into our lives. Very few of these might not have been properly tested for their effects on humans and almost none for their long-term effects.
By Lamorna
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