Natural skincare is widely promoted as safe, healthy, even preservative free and therefore "better" for the skin. I believe most of us by now are conscious that natural doesn't necessarily mean what the word implies. But is natural therefore bad?
What about vegan skincare? Could it be natural? Is vegan a "safe" alternative?
Firstly i'd like to clarify something: there's no such thing as preservative free skincare available commercially. Firstly it could be against regulations and secondly it would be a health hazard if not really a death trap. Anybody selling skincare commercially needs to acquire a security certificate from the qualified chemist and he or she will not issue that certificate if vegan face products preserved. Unfortunately most preservatives carry the unjustified label of being "toxic" - I am unsure who put this rumour out into people domain and why it's caught on so readily.
Now, take food. Most of our commercially produced food items are preserved in one way or another and the fact something is organic doesn't mean it isn't preserved. Can you for instance feed you child anything that might be affected by mould or bacteria? No. Yet, could you be happy if upon opening a mashed organic apple mousse you'd find mould lingering onto it? No. Hence you accept that even baby food is preserved, albeit with food preservatives that have been shown to be safe and effective. Or you go and prepare your baby's and your own personal food yourself. When you yourself have the full time that is.
Where am I heading with this? Good question - I am heading right on into the main topic of vegan body and hair products. Personally I favor my skincare to be free from animal by products such as for example fetus cells, blood cells, brain cells, musk, liver enzymes, gall bladder extracts and so forth. I don't want any snake venom in my skincare (often used as a botox substitute) nor do I fancy crushed and milled animal bones.
All of the above are absolutely not necessary and from what I know they are not proven to possess any positive effects on the human skin.
What's been shown to have an impact are plants. Herbs for instance have now been used since time and memorial to cure illnesses and improve brain function for example. We have very sophisticated technology nowadays that can extract substances from plants and these have now been tested for their effectiveness and many have now been found to be very potent. Does which means that they are "natural"? This will depend in your point of view. Basically - and I believe you've heard this often before as well - no substance is "natural" or even utilized in moderation. Everything taken in excess can kill you. Coffee, alcohol, salt, sugar, tobacco, drinking a lot of water, using essential oils neat on your skin layer, herbal extracts taken in excess, red meat... really, anything can kill you.
Most plant based skincare products put the focus on vegan rather than on natural. With good reason - most vegan manufacturers know and admit that there surely is no such thing as 100% natural vegan or organic skincare because many base ingredients in skincare may be of plant origin or mineral matter, yet they could not be classified as "natural" in the initial sense. And many vegan manufacturers still use parabens as preservatives inside their skincare or silicone or synthetically created aromas as they are viewed as safe and - in case of the latter - classified as anti allergens (for people who react to essential oils for example). Cost can be always a factor when coming up with skincare and in today's climate all of us want to truly save money and choose the least expensive yet best option in regards to looking after our skin.
However - I think that if we want high quality, non toxic, animal by product free skincare then we ought to opt for the most honest yet safe labels. We should inform ourselves about what each ingredient represents and what it's purpose is but we ought to also accept that certain ingredients are essential for the sake of a product's safety. We should have the ability to speak with the maker and ask perfectly legitimate questions about ingredients which he or she must have the ability to answer in a timely fashion and without the need for jargon (unfortunately regulations requires that ingredients are listed on labels making use of their Latin names, the so called INCI). And we ought to forget about wanting all of it in one product - natural, organic, vegan, preservative free, bio dynamic, pure, effective... What we ought to ask for is really a product that's indeed what it says it is, does what it says it will without making hyped up claims and doesn't cost the planet earth - literally!
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