Perhaps you embrace the natural and organic trend in beauty products (we are on the same page) or perhaps you scoff at the use of the word “natural” (we applaud your critical thinking because, yes, uranium occurs naturally too); regardless, we thought we would clarify what we mean by “all natural” and “natural” when we talk about our products.
To us, natural ingredients are ingredients obtained from renewable sources, typically plants, but in some cases such as beeswax, from animals. They should be minimally processed. By this definition, petroleum products, while they are obtained from Mother Earth, are not considered natural. Minerals, such as titanium dioxide and mica, may be mined from the ground rather than synthesized in the lab (synthetic examples would be FD&C colors) but have to be processed to become suitable for cosmetic use. The processing is for a good reason: to control consistency, heavy metal content and impurities. We believe minerals are better alternatives to FD&C colors and artificial dyes, but we do not consider minerals and mineral makeup to be completely natural but nature-identical.
So if we say a product is “all natural” or “natural” what do we mean?
- If we are bold enough to call something all natural, we mean that 100% of the ingredients are from plant or animal sources, right down to the scent/flavor. The only animal ingredients we use are beeswax, honey, and milk.
- If a product is described as natural, it is primarily created with natural ingredients but may be complemented with nature-identical ingredients such as vitamin B3, vitamin C, lactic acid, and hyaluronic acid that could be harvested from natural sources but are more safely and feasibly obtained from manufactured sources. (Side note: you could naturally source hyaluronic acid and collagen from marine life, cows and other animals, but we would much rather get it from the fermentation products of cells in a bioreactor, which is similar to how insulin is made.)
- If a product is not labeled as all natural or natural, please know that it is still created primarily of natural and nature-identical ingredients, but may contain synthetics such as:
- emulsifiers – to bind the oil and water phases together in a lotion or cream product
- actives – such as sunscreens, anti-acne and anti-wrinkle agents
- preservatives – to keep your product safe from the growth of microorganisms; we keep to paraben-free preservatives
- fragrances – we go to great lengths to find natural, exotic scents but some intriguing ones are simply impossible to harvest from nature so we have chosen to use phthalate-free versions
Coming from a science background, we are particularly conscious of when an ingredient is considered a synthetic versus a natural one. We are dismayed sometimes to come across products touted as “natural” when they use a conventional formulation with the same old petroleum-based ingredients but add a few interesting plant extracts. We do not use a cut-off of 70% or 80% natural ingredients to equal natural. And while we use a number of organic ingredients in our products, we have not applied for organic certification and cannot market our products as organic.
We welcome your questions and thoughts. We realize you give us your trust when you use our products and we are earnest about being truthful with what we do.
Comments