A Beginner’s Guide To Organic Skincare

Whether you suffer from immune deficiencies that have forced you to turn away from chemicals in your everyday life, or if you’ve turned away from major beauty distributors because of their continued cruelty to animals; or if you simply want to live a more environmentally-friendly existence, free of chemicals that run off and pollute our water supply, soil and air – organic skincare is a fantastic alternative. It’s also a booming business and for many more than just the few solid reasons listed above. Still, because this is an emerging field and the swindlers in some areas are a few steps ahead of the regulators, organic skincare products should be approached with at least a minimal amount of caution.

Since everything seems to tout itself as being “organic” or “all natural” these days, it’s important to educate yourself on what these terms really mean. Do they jive with your own personal values on how to live an organic lifestyle?

1. Read the label! One surefire way to raise your organic skincare IQ is by learning how to read the product labels. For starters, for any of you who have ever been on a diet, you’re probably already well aware of the rule of thirds. If not, here’s the scoop on how it works. Simply look at all of the ingredients listed on the label of whatever product it is you’re about to slather all over your skin. The top one-third of all of those ingredients listed make up about 90% of what’s inside that pretty little container. The middle third makes up about 7% and the rest is, well, the rest!

2. You say “natural” I say “no way”! In the age of advertising, it shouldn’t surprise you one bit to know that even when a container says its contents are “natural”, that claim doesn’t always mean quite what you think it means. On the other hand, it could mean exactly what you think it means. Are you confused yet? That’s the point. Basically, to say a product is natural, the only criteria in the cosmetic realm is that the ingredient be “derived from a natural substance.” What was done to that naturally derived ingredient is where the confusion lies. Plastic is carbon-based too (it’s made from natural gas!), but do you think of it as natural? There are also certain chemicals used to change chemical properties of natural ingredients, things like diethanolamine, that are used to exract Cocamide-DEA from the natural ingredient we know and love as canola oil. Diethanolamine is a known carcinogen. Oh, the tangled web.

3. “Organic” isn’t exactly a well-defined term either. Without getting into semantics again on this one, what you’ll want to do is look for an actual organic certification on the so-called organic skincare product’s label. This label should literally say, “certified organic”. What that means is that the product has no less than 95% organic ingredients beyond the water, salt and minerals. This label comes by way of the FDA and along with it, their rules and regulations. You can trust that an organic skincare product is telling the truth if it’s got a “certified organic” label slapped on it.