These buzz words have been around for years now, but market research after market research shows many of us are not all that clear about their meaning. So here are some clues for the curious.

“Natural” seems to be the easiest to define, as most people would agree that it applies to a substance taken from nature i.e. not-man-made. We trust natural because the human species had plenty of time to figure out what is safe and what is not in the natural world, what is edible and what is poisonous, what is good for us and what harms us. Not the sort of thing somebody creates in a lab, puts on the market with great advertising fuss and then years later we may find out it has undesirable side effects. Plant extracts and naturally occurring minerals are substances most of use would consider natural.
But what do cosmetic manufacturers mean by “natural”? Well, the answer to that question is a lot less straightforward. “Natural“ being so popular a concept with consumers, cosmetic companies often take liberties with the word. In marketing jargon, natural can mean “natural-derived-processed”, “partly natural” or “almost natural”. Read the rest of this entry »

“Free from unnecessary chemicals” is what naturally minded skin care companies say in support of  their “natural” claims. Leaving aside the fact that this statement is not all that informative  – “How many synthetic chemicals are there in the product?“ we may rightly ask – I have to say I like its honesty. These companies are basically telling us “we have tried hard to bring down the amounts of synthetic additives in our products and this is as far as we could go. The artificial additives that are still there are necessary.”

Which brings us to this question: Necessary for what? For the health of our skin? Well, no. Not at all. These additives are used to produce the oil and water emulsions we got used to buying as moisturisers. But they are not all motherhood and apple pie. Far from it. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest issue of Women’s Health features an article with the title “Don’t be Scared of Oil Based Products”. Fifteen years ago this was unthinkable. But I’m not going to claim I’ve spotted a new  trend here – far too late for that since the story is already out for all to hear.

Instead I’m going to ask: How big is the oil based cosmetics market going to get? I for one will venture to place a bet on this answer: “really big” and this is why: The oil and water emulsion, which has been our typical moisturiser for many decades now, relies on emulsifiers (how else can you get the oils and water to mix?) and on preservatives to stop the emulsion becoming a paradise for all kinds of bacteria, moulds and fungi. To date, the cosmetic industry has not managed to find a functional natural emulsifiers or preservative – unless you count the “vegetal derived, processed”. More than that, there are some basic issues with these two groups of substances: Read the rest of this entry »