Many people are jumping on the natural skin care bandwagon these days. There is so much research coming out of science labs about the effects of chemicals on the skin and the carcinogens found in cosmetics that using lotions and potions that are derived fully from nature just makes good sense. Then there is natural versus organic. Natural refers to products that contain only natural ingredients and no man-made synthetics whereas organic means that the product has to be certified that all the ingredients in it were produced under the strict confines of the law as it pertains to organics. That means no pesticides, no insecticides, only what is found in nature.
Natural skin care affords us the opportunity to avoid using toxic substances on our skin. Just because a lotion comes packaged in a beautiful pink bottle with an elite brand name on it, doesn’t mean it’s good for you. You need to look at the ingredients. Non-natural products come laced with preservatives, artificial colors and scents, chemicals and goodness only knows what other concoctions, all of which can’t be doing you any favors when it comes to looking good and feeling good.
With natural skin care products, you can feel more confident that you are not doing any harm to yourself. How do you really know that with those mass-produced, who-knows-what’s-in-them creams, masks and cleansers?
You probably already knew that your skin is your body’s largest organ but did you know that it very efficiently absorbs around 60% of whatever you slather onto it? From there, the product travels directly into your bloodstream and whether they’re merely irritants or highly toxic, you probably wouldn’t know unless you developed some kind of side effect. A rash, blistering or itching can be definite signs that something you’ve applied to your skin is a cocktail of chemicals. Just when you thought you were cleaning and moisturizing, you were actually causing damage and vulnerability. It’s best to use natural skin care products nurture your skin.
People have been using natural skin care since time began. Honey, eggs, herbs and beeswax were all used millennia ago for their various functions, either as astringents, cleansers, exfoliators, moisturizers and protectors. We could learn valuable lessons from ancient Egyptian women who bathed in milk, and from the people of the Hunza in the Himalayas, who have used the oil of apricot kernels for many generations and whose skin shows remarkable youth, even in old age.
Today, cosmetic and skin care companies try to learn from history and from old civilizations when devising new ‘natural skin care’ products. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, it’s still necessary to add preservatives to increase shelf life, synthetic fragrances to make the products palatable to modern women and stabilizers to keep the consistency in good condition for the life of the item.
It’s a shame that we feel the need to turn to big business for our skin care needs and hugely expensive marketing campaigns are mostly to blame. Learning more about nature and about what different ingredients can do for our skin can be interesting and educational. There’s no reason why you can’t whip up your own creations in your home kitchen and reap the rewards for your skin’s sake. Not only is it fun but you will avoid toxicity, save money and really focus some time on looking after yourself. Be your own natural skin care specialist, for all the right reasons.
