“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 »