Botanicals or All Natural?

[beingchinmay]

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Is it worthwhile to look for natural ingredients in skin-care products? Leaving aside the fact that the process of removing a plant from the ground, cleaning off the dirt and insects,getting the key parts of the plant extracted, and then stabilizing and preserving it in a cosmetic renders it fairly unnatural, the answer is yes and no. There are bountiful numbers of wonderful plants and plant extracts that have beneficial effects on skin—and there are plenty of plant extracts that present problems for skin, too. Even so, let’s say a natural or botanical ingredient is effective as a disinfectant; if so, that doesn’t make it better than a synthetically derived disinfectant, it just makes it an alternative. One shortcoming of natural ingredients in skin-care products that the cosmetics industry hasn’t addressed is that each natural ingredient has a large range of limitations. These include what happens as a result of the purification process it goes through to get into a product, which part of the plant is effective, bad crops, possible contamination with pesticides, and maintaining consistent concentrations. In many ways synthetic ingredients are often more reliable for the skin; chief among them is that developers have control over the outcome and functionality.

[LaBelleza]

There are a lot of products out there that claim to be natural but nowadays there are plenty of genuine, brilliantly made ones. So going natural can be tricky. My choosing to switch to greener products goes beyond the ingredients as some of us may know that "natural" doesn't necessarily mean "safer". While I do check for certifications showing that the ingredients have been untouched by synthetic substances, it's the environmentally sustainable work practices in the eco beauty/skin care industry that is important to me. The brands I chose to support not only guarantees to be cruelty-free but actually benefit my skin/body.