Organic, all natural, gentle, mild, paraben-free, no animal testing… are all things you might see on labels in the natural skin care section of your favorite store. But, are they true? How can you tell? How do you choose the best, safest and healthiest skin care products for yourself and your family?
Natural skin care product selection can be simple and straightforward! With just a little bit of knowledge, it can be very easy to choose the safest and healthiest natural skin care products for your household.
There are more so-called natural skin care products in the marketplace than ever before. The mainstream skin care industry has made their entrance into the natural skin care arena. Natural and organic skin care products come in every price range to fit every budget.
But take heed. Choosing the best all natural and organic skin care brands still takes a little bit of diligence. The industry is unregulated and there is a lot of misinformation about what’s healthy and what’s not.
Here are some things to look out for when you’re shopping for the best natural skin care lines…
Radio, TV and magazine advertisements
The industry spends billions of dollars every year trying to convince you to buy their products. What they say in their ads and their marketing is not always truthful. If you learn about an organic natural skin care product through the media, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy it. It just means you need to do your homework and check them out. Find out the truth about the natural skin care product line before you buy.
Endorsements by famous people
Celebrities make a lot of money endorsing products. Companies are willing to spend a lot on celebrity endorsements because they know it increases sales. So even if you love the celebrity, you can’t just believe them. Remember, they’re getting paid to say all those wonderful things, even about certified organic skin care products. Again, make sure you check the facts about the product before you buy.
The product label
This is where the manufacturer tells you what they want you to think about the product. They spend large amounts of money on designs to make their product look appealing so you’ll want to buy it. Companies use words like natural and organic to make you think their product truly is a natural and organic skin care product.
This might surprise you, but the words natural and organic on a product label do not guarantee that the product is really natural or organic. Why? For one, natural is not legally defined in the skin care industry. A skin care product labeled as natural may contain all natural ingredients, a few natural ingredients or none at all.
Certified organic skin care products.
The term organic has been abused and misused too. There have been no real organic standards for the skin care industry. The USDA National Organic Program (NOP) is the only true organic standard for skin care products. It is the original program for certifying food as organic. Because of the lack of an organic standard for skin care, cosmetics and personal care products, the NOP has been certifying these products for a number of years now as well.
The new OASIS Standard is really only a pseudo-organic standard as it allows synthetic ingredients not allowed by the NOP standards for food. The Ecocert standard is another less than organic standard and they even certify products as organic that don’t even meet their low standards. If you see a natural skin care product certified organic by OASIS or Ecocert, don’t assume it’s a good choice. It’s likely to contain synthetic preservatives, ingredients that have been sprayed with pesticides and herbicides, and petroleum derived ingredients. Check it out before you buy.
Here’s how you can check out all the natural and organic skin care product brands before you buy…
Read the ingredients list
When you’re shopping for natural skin care products, the first thing you must do is read the ingredients list on the back of the package. The truth about a product is in the ingredients list. It’s not in the packaging. You won’t find it in the ads. Neither is it in the celebrity endorsements. Everything else on the label is meaningless if the ingredients aren’t healthy. To find the best, healthiest and safest natural skin care brands, you need to check the ingredients first.
Reading the ingredients list to determine if the natural skin care product lines you’re interested in are safe and healthy choices can be quick and easy. You don’t have to be a cosmetic chemist to figure it out. There are books and online references to help you decipher the chemical gobbledeygook. The little extra time invested is worth the benefit to your health.
(c) 2008 christine h. farlow, d.c., “the ingredients investigator,” author of dying to look good, gives more information about ingredient safety at http://www.dyingtolookgood.com/dyingtolookgood.com and healthy skin care products at http://www.bestorganicandnaturalskincare.com/ bestorganicandnaturalskincare.com
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