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Friday, April 17, 2009
Skincare products aren't always as "natural" as they claim
Posted by Heidi Lux on Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 6:30 AM
“Ugh, my cuticles are dry!” my Canadian pipefitter boyfriend said over the phone, 3,000 miles away. “I think I need to moisturize.” He has the most rugged job out of anyone I know, and yet he moisturizes daily. Aveeno, he swears by it.
“Now that you’re moisturizing, it makes me want to moisturize,” I said, not wanting to be out girled by someone who pounds steel together in the Canadian cold all day, as I reached for my Burt’s Bees Baby Bee Buttermilk Lotion. “Mine’s all natural.”
I don’t like having anything full of chemicals that close to my skin. And while I'm told one should moisturize daily as part of proper skin care, I’m skeptical of body lotions- I don’t want to have radiant and soft skin when I’m 23, and cancer when I’m 43, courtesy of the chemicals found in most moisturizers. It’s not a fair trade off. In fact, doesn't it ultimately defeat the purpose of moisturizing if what you’re slathering onto your skin, in order to nurish, nurture and protect it, is actually harmful to the epidermis in the long-run? For instance, glycerin, included in many beauty products to promote moisture retention, actually pulls moisture out of the skin, drying the skin from the inside out (from The Harmful Ingredients Report published by New Publications). That's why I went for the Burt’s Bees.
“You know the label ‘all natural’ doesn’t mean anything?”
But it was printed on the label, so it must be true, right? Apparently, manufacturers can claim almost anything to be natural and usually get away with it. That Jessica Simpson edible body lotion crap, American cheese, Cher’s face- all derived from nature in some way, so therefore “natural.”
No longer trusting the front labels, we looked at the backs of our body lotions together, from 3,000 miles away. On the front, his Aveeno was described as “active naturals” and mine was “98.81% natural”. But the back labels told a different story.
Despite both products’ claims of being “natural”, his was loaded with chemicals, and mine wasn’t. Both of our moisturizers contain glycerin, which ultimately defeats the purpose of moisturizing since in the long run, it dries out your skin. Good for Aveeno, because dry skin creates a need for moisturizer which they conveniently sell. At least the glycerin in my lotion wasn’t included in the same list as “benzyl alcohol, cetyl alcohol, disterylidimonium chloride” and “petrolatum.” I don’t know what those words mean, but I don’t like the sound of them.
“Eww!” he said in his deep baritone. “Nasty!” Lesson learned. When choosing a health and beauty product, don’t trust the flashy labels and marketing catch-phrases; always look at the back label, and make an informed choice.
Comments (2)
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I moisturize daily, too, so I thought I'd look up the scary sounding chemicals you listed. I used wikipedia with a dash of google, so take the info at your own caution. Benzyl alcohol is produced by many plants and is commonly found in fruits and teas. *whew* Cetyl alcohol was derived from whale oil and now coconut or palm oil. Unfortunately "derived from" is that ambiguous phrase that makes it sound "natural." On the flip side, it's a fatty alcohol, which in larger molecules, has shown anticancer, antiviral, antifungal, anti-HIV properties. I suppose that's some good news. Petrolatum is just petroleum jelly, and while it's a form of refined oil, it is not absorbed by the skin. It will just sit on top of the skin and actually prevent the moisture from getting out, but will leave you feeling a little greasy. But the scary one is Distearyldimonium Chloride. There doesn't seem to be anything "natural" about it, and there is very little info on it. It sounds like they threw a bunch of molecules together and *poof.* http://www.cosmeticdatabase.com/ingredient.php?ingred06=702183¬hanks=1 I think the tough part is how they define "natural." To the consumer it sounds like it should be something you find on its own in nature and just toss it in the mix. To the manufacturer it is more like "something found in nature, isolated, refined, and dyed to make it appealing to consumers."
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You should really do your research before posting stuff like this. It is an FDA regulation that companies are required to state the ingredients in their chemical forms - so all those chemicals that you read on the label, and freak out about, are not all that harmless. Please do your research before writing.
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