“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.

This beaker pictured here bears the brunt of one encounter with one these “necessary” additives. Back in the times I used to experiment with fluffy emulsions myself, well before The Herbjar was born, I made the mistake of picking this plastic container instead of a glass one. This is what happened to the beaker when the preservative went in. The plastic wall is corroded – these white stains appeared because the preservative melted it. I’m keeping the beaker to remind myself why none of the of The Herbjar products contain any water (and any synthetic preservatives).

You may be forgiven for thinking it’s an old-fashion preservative I’m speaking of, something  discontinued many ears ago. It is not. It is well in use today, touted as a modern, gentle preservative and you can see it on the labels of thousands of cosmetic products out there (listed as “Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin”).

And now for the good news: At least some consumers are noticing the additive-ridden moisturisers are performing poorly compared to natural ones. These consumers are choosing to ditch the emulsions and accept – happily – that natural creams will have thicker consistencies, which may well vary with the ambient temperature.

The fact is, our skin will be on display a lot more than our cosmetic jars. And if our creams are not perfectly white, fluffy emulsions  that stay the same consistency at minus ten as well as plus thirty Celsius, who cares?