Natural Ingredients

If there is one cosmetics industry buzz word that gets almost immediate consumer attention, it's "natural." Whatever preconceived or media-induced fiction someone might believe about natural ingredients being better for the skin has no factual basis or scientific legitimacy. Not only is the definition of "natural" hazy, but the term isn't even regulated, so each cosmetics company can use it to mean whatever they want it to mean. "If a company wants to call their products natural, it can, and it doesn't matter what they contain. [The] FDA has tried to establish official definitions for the use of certain terms such as 'natural' but its regulations were overturned in court. So companies can use them on cosmetic labels to mean anything or nothing at all." (Source: FDA Consumer Magazine, August 2000).

In the world of skin care and makeup, the claims about all-natural products are either exaggerated because the products are laden with lots of unnatural ingredients, or the natural ingredients they do contain are problematic for the skin. Just because an ingredient grows out of the ground or is found in nature doesn't make it automatically good for skin, and the reverse is also true, just because it is synthetic doesn’t make it bad. Yet there are many beneficial natural ingredients for skin, which makes the whole issue more confusing because consumers are often at a loss (or simply don’t have the time) to determine which natural ingredients are helpful and which are harmful (and more products than I care to count contain a frustrating combination of both).

Fruits, vegetables, or any pure food ingredients are not necessarily the best for skin. When it comes to skin care, more often than not, it is some small element of the plant that has benefit for skin. Extracting this component from the plant almost always requires a process that is synthetically derived. Further, these extracts are far more stable than the whole food. Think about it this way: a plant in its pure form isn't stable in the least, especially in skin-care products. Just think of how long a head of lettuce lasts in your refrigerator. It would be far worse sitting on the counter in your bathroom! Regrettably, natural or plant-based preservatives have extremely poor antimicrobial or antifungal properties. Complications for skin due to a product being contaminated are a serious consideration when it comes to how a product is preserved.

Many companies claiming to be all-natural are anything but. They achieve the appearance of being all natural by listing a natural ingredient description in parentheses next to the more technical-sounding ingredient on their label. Although this appears to be helpful information, it still leads consumers in the wrong direction. For example, ammonium lauryl sulfate, a standard detergent cleansing agent, is listed on an Aveda ingredient label as being derived from coconut oil. While that makes the ingredient sound natural, what the label doesn't explain is what the coconut oil has to go through to become ammonium lauryl sulfate. Ammonium lauryl sulfate is the salt of a sulfuric acid compound, neutralized with an ingredient like triethanolamine. None of that makes this ingredient bad for skin, and I wouldn't tell anyone to avoid ammonium lauryl sulfate, but that is the more accurate description of that ingredient and it just isn't "natural." Along with this deception, products from companies that want you to believe they are all natural often, if not always, contain a vast array of synthetic ingredients.

It is important to point out that many natural ingredients can cause allergies, irritation, and skin sensitivities. Just think of how many people have a hay fever response to a wide variety of plants, and observe how many of these plants show up in cosmetics. Citrus often shows up in skin-care products, but most of us have gotten lemon or lime juice on a slight cut while cooking and know it burns like crazy because it's irritating to skin. Camphor (which is distilled from certain trees), peppermint, menthol, and eucalyptus can all cause an irritant or sensitizing response. All of the following natural ingredients can cause skin irritation, allergic reactions, skin sensitivity, and/or sun sensitivity:

The label might say natural, but you could be buying a purely irritating product that might cause an allergic reaction. Simply saying a product is "natural" doesn't tell you anything about the efficacy of the ingredients in a product. Remember, poison ivy is natural too, and I can't imagine a fan of all-natural products applying that to their skin instead of a benign synthetic ingredient.

The notion that natural ingredients are better than synthetic ingredients is even more distressing, because it just isn't true. While vegetable or plant oils may sound better for the skin, varying forms of silicones (i.e., siloxanes, dimethicones, cyclomethicones) are just as beneficial and offer impressive benefits for the skin. But it's hard to glamorize and advertise a "synthetic," unnatural-sounding ingredient. Silicones show up in over 80% of all skin-care, makeup, and hair-care products you buy. Yet you rarely hear about them because the cosmetics companies think consumers won't find them as sexy or alluring as plants, or oxygen therapy, or cellular repair, or a thousand other marketing angles that have nothing to do with what really works for your skin.

I'm not saying there aren't a large range of natural ingredients that are exceptional for the skin, because there are—lots and lots of them—but the idea that they are the "best" (or only) option for skin is just not reality. If you want to use products that contain helpful, non-irritating natural ingredients, what should you look for? The following natural ingredients (though keep in mind the natural form and, at times, the function of these ingredients may be altered after they're treated and prepared for use in a cosmetic product) each have beneficial properties for skin, mostly by making dry skin look and feel better or functioning as antioxidants: