Chemicals In Cosmetics
Traditional and modern skincare is often based on synthetic lab re-produced ingredients, many with little or no health benefit and in many cases these ingredient have been connected to concerning health conditions, chronic illness, neurological defects, and cancers. Many of these ingredients and cheep, added for texture, scent and to prolong the shelf life for up to 3 years, which has no benefit to your skin as you would hopefully be using your product daily to get the best results.
Plants and herbs are where our medicinal history began, but mass production and the demand for higher profit margins have reduced something originally so pure into somewhat of a monster. For the past 40 years we have be covering ourselves in hundreds of chemicals not recognizable to the human body, with increasing rates of cancer and disease in the western world are we really surprised?
It may not be the use of one product alone but the accumulation of many synthetics when combined together will have chemical reaction which have not been stability tested for carcinogens and concerns to human health.
The food industry is strictly regulated by a number of professional bodies, but the skincare and cosmetics industry is different. The organic sector has a number of certifying bodies across the world with varying standards of what is acceptable. COSMOS is a larger global body has been established to help unify this, but there are no rules or demands for any one company to follow these guidelines. But the vast majority of skin care companies self regulate.
Although a product may be certified, it is good to remember there are varying levels of certification and some carefully selected chemicals are allowed, and sometimes necessary for the stability of a product.
A growing number of organic and natural skincare companies who are choosing to opt-out of certification because they feel quite strongly that their products are more pure than the standards laid out by the governing bodies. Also to get the desired affect from a product they are using nature but can’t currently find the active ingredients from a certified organic source.