What “Natural” Means in “Natural Skin Care”

At a press conference not so long ago, the Vice President of a large natural skin care company famously dipped his finger into one of their body lotion products and proceeded to eat it. His purpose was to demonstrate the purity of their products, and presumably their safety.

This undoubtedly made for memorable theatre because ever since this skin care smorgasbord, the press asks us if our products are “food grade” and edible.

I always answer by saying our products are skin care not salad dressing; and while I suppose you could eat them, I’m not so sure you would want to.

More often than not, “natural” doesn’t mean “all natural.” In fact, even the best-known brand of natural skin care makes very few products that are 100% natural.

But more often than not, even a product that is 100% natural would more accurately be described as being made from “100% natural and naturally-derived ingredients.” There is a difference.

In any skin care product the ingredients can be grouped by function. For example, a cleanser will have base ingredients, surfactant ingredients, emulsifying ingredients, moisturizing ingredients (humectants), thickening ingredients, scent ingredients and preservative ingredients.

Some groups of ingredients, like the moisturizers, may be food grade and may be no different than the oils or butters you cook with; so they would be considered “food grade.”

Certain scent ingredients, assuming they are derived from plants, could be comfortably used in aromatherapy or other home applications (soy-based candles, room deodorizers), but you wouldn’t cook with them, nor should you eat them.

Still others, like surfactant and emulsifying ingredients, may be derived from natural sources such as coconuts, but you definitely wouldn’t consume them as food.

Cocamide Betaine, for example, is a gentle and effective surfactant (or cleansing agent) that is preferred over a synthetic surfactant like sodium laurel sulfate, and is distilled from coconuts. It is 100% naturally derived, but the viscous liquid is certainly not recommended for oral consumption.

Tocopherol Acetate, or Vitamin E, is another great example. Widely used as an antioxidant in skin care, according to A Consumer’s Dictionary of Cosmetic Ingredients, it is “obtained by the vacuum distillation of edible vegetable oils.” It is naturally derived and has wonderful therapeutic benefits when incorporated into skin care products, but definitely not “food grade.”

This isn’t a bad thing.

Skin care, at its best, has the ability to not only make you feel better about how you look; it can actually make your skin healthier. And healthy skin is good looking skin, because it maintains elasticity, has good color, and shows fewer lines and wrinkles.

So choose skin care products not for their ability to satisfy your palette; rather for their ability to satisfy nutrient needs of your skin.

And as always, the best way to evaluate what you’re buying is to educate yourself on skincare ingredients, and then read the label to know what you’re buying.

A great resource for information on skincare ingredients is the Cosmetics Database, at www.cosmeticsdatabase.com.