- 7
Certified Organic Skin Care Tips
- by David Hompes
Organic skin care is becoming
big business. When you are choosing skin care, personal care
and cosmetic products, you should become a label detective. This
is the only way to ensure you purchase honest and truly natural
and organic skin care products.
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# 1: Learn To Read Product
Labels
Be aware of the Rule of Thirds:
The top third of the ingredients
label generally lists the ingredients that comprise around 90-98%
of the product. Most of this is usually water. Read on to find
out why this matters!
The middle third generally represents
approximately 5-8% of the product.
The bottom third represents around
1-3%.
# 2: ‘Natural’ skin
care is not always natural.
There are two definitions of
the world natural.
The dictionary definition: “Existing in or, formed by, nature”.
The cosmetic industry definition: “Any ingredient derived
from a natural substance”. |
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Manufacturers commonly use the
world ‘natural’ on labels to deceive consumers. For
example, “Cocamide-DEA derived from coconut oil”.
Cocamide-DEA may well be from
coconut oil, but a synthetic chemical called diethanolamine is
used in the extraction process. It is known to cause cancer.
An ingredient is not really natural if it has been processed
in this way.
# 3: Organic doesn’t
mean what you think.
An organic certification on a
product label is the only way to guarantee the integrity of a
product. The definition of certified organic is as follows:
“An independent third party
guarantee of an organic claim”.
Always look for a logo that guarantees
the product’s integrity.
Certified organic products must
contain a minimum of 95% organic ingredients excluding water
and salt/minerals, with a small allowance for natural, non-organic
ingredients that must comply with very stringent processing criteria.
There are two definitions of
organic:
Organic chemistry is concerned
with substances that contain carbon. Carbon is present in all
living things. Legally, the cosmetics industry is allowed to
label any product that contains carbon as ‘organic’.
So if it contains petrol, it is organic.
Methylparaben is derived from
petrochemicals, which are derived from crude oil, which is derived
from living matter. It is a widely used preservative in organic
skin care products such as body creams, body wash and deodorants:
So effectively methylparaben
can legally be labelled as organic. Now, it is worth noting that
a recent study reported traces of methylparaben in human breast
cancer tumours.
The second definition of organic
is, “The sustainable system of agriculture that uses natural
substances & methods to create healthy nutrient rich and
fertile soils”
# 4: How much water is in
the product?
In personal communication with
a leading industry expert, I was told what can actually be meant
when companies put ‘73% Organic’ on their labels. Basically
manufacturers can place a few organic teabags in a vat of water
and let them infuse into the water.
Because the water constitutes
70+ percent of the overall product, the manufacturer is allowed
to claim that the product is 73% organic at the top of the label
(remember # 1 in this article?).
If you removed the water, the
actual organic content of those fancy herbal infusions would
probably be less than 0.05% of the total product.
# 5: Be aware of inconsistent
labelling standards
In some countries, ingredients
that are not allowed in certified organic foods ARE allowed in
certified organic personal care and cosmetic products. This represents
a lack of continuity or consistency in labelling standards.
How can food and cosmetics products
have the same certified organic logo when ingredients that are
allowed personal care and cosmetics are not allowed in food?
Remember that if it’s on your skin, you’re drinking
it!
# 6: Miracle ingredients don’t
exist
Vitamin C, vitamin E, coenzyme
Q10, active copper and other ingredients may be touted as miracle
ingredients. The fact is that there is no miracle ingredient
for the skin or hair, just as there is no magic pill for curing
illness and disease.
The quality of the skin is a
function of feeding the body and skin high quality nutrients
over time and keeping the toxin levels of the body as low as
possible.
When you use high quality, certified
organic products, ALL the ingredients are active. They are ALL
beneficial and they all feed the skin.
# 7: If it harms lab animals
it will harm you!
If you read books by Dr Sherry
Rogers, M.D, you will discover that in order to give a rat cancer
or Parkinson’s Disease, it is injected with some of the
very same chemicals that you will find in your cleverly labelled
organic skin care, personal care and cosmetic products.
Certified Organic personal care
products and cosmetics 100% free of ALL synthetic chemicals are
available from an Australian Certified Organic company which
has passed the stringent USDA Certified Organic standards for
food. What this means to you, the consumer, is that the products
are guaranteed synthetic chemical free. |
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