Thursday, October 18, 2012
Natural makeup
"Natural" in the cosmetics world is a big marketing scam.
People throw the word "natural" around as if it were magic, and we like the misty idea of something growing in a forest or meadow that somehow ends up on our skin... but when you cut a piece off of a plant, how long before it ROTS?
There are certainly chemicals that can be extracted from plants that are stable... and are still CHEMICALS, identical to those created in the lab, except more expensive, but they get to call it natural because it's plant-sourced. And you pay more for something chemically identical to a non-"natural" product and think you're getting more when you're not.
People think there are some sort of unspecified benefits to "natural" cosmetics, but when you ask them they can't list any. All the benefits we want, like it should not sink into our lines and pores, or that it should stay fresh-looking on our warm, oily skin for 18 hours, require cutting-edge science to get; if some "natural" product did those things, we'd have had those benefits many years ago instead of them just now figuring out how to do it.
And natural products are NOT more gentle; plants and their parts are not designed to be used on human skin as modern chemical compounds are, and people have all sorts of sensitivities and allergies to natural products. If you look at the ingredients list for most hypoallergenic products, which are the gentlest to skin, you'll see a long list of chemicals. Yes, some people are sensitive to some chemicals, but the great thing about chemicals is that there are so many of them to choose from, and they can alter them to make new ones, ones that do not react with skin.
Some people will ignore the science of it and buy natural cosmetics because it makes them feel good... and that's fine, they're not harming themselves in any way, and feeling good is a nice thing. I, on the other hand, want my skin to look as flawless as possible, and nothing extracted from a plant will accomplish that; I want every chemical in the lab if that's what it takes for me to look my best.
People throw the word "natural" around as if it were magic, and we like the misty idea of something growing in a forest or meadow that somehow ends up on our skin... but when you cut a piece off of a plant, how long before it ROTS?
There are certainly chemicals that can be extracted from plants that are stable... and are still CHEMICALS, identical to those created in the lab, except more expensive, but they get to call it natural because it's plant-sourced. And you pay more for something chemically identical to a non-"natural" product and think you're getting more when you're not.
People think there are some sort of unspecified benefits to "natural" cosmetics, but when you ask them they can't list any. All the benefits we want, like it should not sink into our lines and pores, or that it should stay fresh-looking on our warm, oily skin for 18 hours, require cutting-edge science to get; if some "natural" product did those things, we'd have had those benefits many years ago instead of them just now figuring out how to do it.
And natural products are NOT more gentle; plants and their parts are not designed to be used on human skin as modern chemical compounds are, and people have all sorts of sensitivities and allergies to natural products. If you look at the ingredients list for most hypoallergenic products, which are the gentlest to skin, you'll see a long list of chemicals. Yes, some people are sensitive to some chemicals, but the great thing about chemicals is that there are so many of them to choose from, and they can alter them to make new ones, ones that do not react with skin.
Some people will ignore the science of it and buy natural cosmetics because it makes them feel good... and that's fine, they're not harming themselves in any way, and feeling good is a nice thing. I, on the other hand, want my skin to look as flawless as possible, and nothing extracted from a plant will accomplish that; I want every chemical in the lab if that's what it takes for me to look my best.
