3 Top Green Beauty Myths
Green Beauty Myth 1:
Natural skincare is chemical free.
“Chemical free” is a marketing term used to communicate to consumers that a product is safe or ‘green’. In reality, nothing is chemical free. Everything is a chemical- air, water, the vegetables growing in your garden are all made up of chemicals. Some face and body care formulators use this term to imply ‘free from synthetic ingredients’ but even safe natural face and body care often contains synthetic ingredients that most of us would consider to be natural -take baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) for example.
We strive to create products that are well-researched, effective, and as close to nature as possible. We always choose whole botanical ingredients over synthetics because nature is intelligent and your skin recognizes and benefits from nourishment more than a superficial quick fix.
As the green body care industry grows, learning how to decipher marketing claims will help you invest in products that not only help you feel and look great but enhance your health and well-being in the process.
Green Beauty Myth 2:
60% of what you put on your skin ends up in your bloodstream.
This is a common myth perpetuated by a multitude of natural wellness and green skincare blogs online. While the intention is cautionary and reminds us to use pure products, this statistic isn’t actually true.
The truth is that anywhere between 0% and 100% of what you apply to your skin can penetrate through the skin’s layers and end up in the blood stream- it all depends what the substance is.
Skin penetration also depends on the overall health of your skin and your environment (temperature and humidity).
Rich carrier oils will penetrate the very top layer of the epidermis (the stratum corneum) and generally stop there, while essential oils can penetrate into your bloodstream. Each ingredient in a product will penetrate the skin differently.
Green Beauty Myth 3:
“If you avoid parabens in skincare then you’ll avoid them all together”.
Many preservatives and other synthetic ingredients that are used in the skincare industry have been used in food for decades. You may try to avoid skincare products that contain parabens (methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, etc.) but you may actually be unknowingly eating them. Parabens can be used as food preservatives, common examples being: methylparaben labelled as additive E218 and ethylparaben labelled as E214 found in beer, packaged desserts oft drinks, pickles and other foods. As you know, just because it’s in food doesn’t mean it’s safe or healthy to consume long term.
Our philosophy is always to choose ingredients and foods that are as close to nature as possible. Although there are naturally occurring parabens found in nature like those found in blueberries and mangos, we avoid any synthetically derived parabens. As you can see, the issue is more complex than we are led to believe by the green beauty industry and popular green skincare blogs.
