Shopping for skin care products can be like navigating through an endless maze with all the various choices before us. If you’re trying to steer away from chemicals and help better the planet, you’re probably interested in natural skin care options. However, this is where real confusion can begin because of the vast freedom in wording that the beauty manufacturers and advertising industry have for the labels of those “natural” beauty products. Therefore, here is the real truth behind natural skin care that you need to know to be better informed when shopping.
Since the United States Food and Drug Administration has not set a standard to recognize natural skin care like the United States Department of Agriculture for the regulations necessary for distinguishing organic skin care, we are at the mercy of beauty companies. The reason is because as long as the manufacturers have an ingredient or a few of them in the formula, it can be labeled natural skin care.
Just because you read the label and see all the advertising hype that product has a beneficial natural ingredient or quite a few of them plastered over the front of the package like green tea, silk, vitamin E, etc. does not mean what you’re buying is all that natural. You could be also buying artificial ingredients such as preservatives, thickeners, dyes, and fragrances to name just a few. The only way that a consumer can be certain of natural skin care is checking that product label for a Natural Product Association (NPA) seal. This vouches that 95 percent of the ingredients are natural or naturally derived along with some additives that won’t risk your health. Otherwise, we are on our own to make that call before going to the counter.
As undoable as understanding the real truth behind natural skin care may appear, there is a way to sort through the confusion to get a more realistic idea of what in that natural skin care formula. Ingredients are listed in order of the amounts included in the product. With that said, you can judge for yourself how much of those natural ingredients are actually in the product by where that ingredient or ingredients rank in the ingredient list. If you notice the natural ingredient toward the end, then you may want to rethink that particular natural skin care product purchase in favor of another.
Many of us opt for natural skin care over organic skin care because it less expensive that the restrictions placed on those products labeled “organic” that assure us of no pesticides or synthetic chemicals. Yet, we also need to be our own health advocates that must be careful of what we put on our faces and bodies. Reading product labels is the start of becoming an informed consumer because companies are in the business to make money. This is why it is to our advantage to know the real truth behind natural skin care.
