With all the hype and surge in demand surrounding the natural beauty industry, natural and organic beauty products are popping up everywhere. Companies are starting to move towards the use of more natural or organic ingredients, and many are also starting to set standards that address some worries consumers are starting to be aware of. But the natural beauty industry isn’t regulated and the term natural can often be deceiving, which is what is making it hard for consumers to make educational decisions regarding their beauty and cosmetic products.
Natural is a term that refers to any ingredient that is derived from a plant, but synthetic versions of these ingredients and the compounds that make them up are readily available, and can sometimes contain other compounds that could be harmful or dangerous to our bodies. This industry is also ridden with products that contain misleading labels that try to highlight the use of natural or organic ingredients, but in reality fall short of this feat due to the extremely low content of these types of ingredients included in the product. It is common to see products that only contain 1 – 2% of truly natural ingredients boast about the product being “natural”. This ploy has been used for a long time, and is now becoming more popular due to the demand in natural beauty products.
For the above reasons, I have gathered some helpful tips for you to use when starting out reading labels. First, you are going to want to educate yourself on some of the harmful ingredients that can be quite common in natural products. To do this you can easily find lists and reports online for the most commonly used ingredients. Companies like NaTrue and USDA Organics usually have most of this information on their websites, and doing a simple Google search will return hundreds of results regarding harmful bath, beauty and cosmetic ingredients, and why they are harmful when used.
Second, when reading labels it is a good idea to keep note of common groups of ingredients, like Parabens, Laurel Sulfates, Botanical Names, etc. so that you can easily identify each group of ingredients readily without having to reference a good book or website. When listed in the ingredients listings Parabens will typically have “paraben”, or “parahydroxybenzoic acid” in its name, so these should be easily identifiable. Another good group of ingredients to recognize are botanical names, and just reading a list of Botanical Names will give you a feel for what I mean by being identifiable. Lists of Botanical Names, and the properties of each can easily be found at sites like this Natural Beauty Site, that lists the most common botanicals and their benefits, cautions, and other various properties.
Lastly, another helpful resource for moving towards natural beauty is Cosmetic and Soapmaking Sites, and vendors websites. These companies usually list their products, which include some very common botanicals and beauty ingredients, along with information regarding each product and its uses. These sites can be very useful when learning about natural beauty products and ingredients, and they can also give you more ideas and tips on things you can do at home to treat and pamper yourself.
For more tips and resources you can visit this great site on Soapmaking and Natural Beauty. At that site you can find many resources for you skin and hair, as well as botanical information and profiles, as well as recipes, and much more for all your soapmaking and natural beauty needs.
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