Why choose natural?

As our community becomes so much more educated and environmentally aware, we have seen an explosion in the use of words such as "natural", "organic" and "pure" in the health and beauty industry. So many companies are now using these words as supposedly true claims about their products.

They use this new consumer awareness to their advantage and many have reinvented their existing skincare and cosmetic ranges to include a natural and/or organic element.

What you find in a high percentage of these new ‘natural’ ranges is maybe one or two additional natural ingredients. Aloe Vera, Shea butter or Lavender, for example, are added at an extremely low percentage (in most cases less than 5%) and then companies are calling their new product ‘Natural body lotion with Aloe Vera and Lavender’.

The existing ingredients, which make up 95% of the product, are usually the same old petrochemicals, sulphates and parabens found in the original range. The hard part for consumers is being able to tell the difference between a genuine natural product and a fake.

Some of the claims made by supporters of natural ingredients and products about using these synthetic ingredients on your skin can be quite frightening and sometimes severe. You might be wondering what the real issue is because you have been using them for years and have had no adverse reactions yourself? It has only been in recent research that experts have found a link between regularly using these types of ingredients on your skin and society's increased rate of allergies, asthma and skin conditions like dermatitis and eczema.

There are always going to be much cheaper options when using synthetic ingredients and when companies are mass producing products for sale in supermarkets, they need to add even more of these synthetic ingredients to ensure longer shelf life. There is absolutely no way those companies could justify the cost of using the natural ingredients and preservatives that we use in their mass production – they would never reclaim their costs.

Seeing as though you are still reading this, we can assume you are someone who really cares about finding and using an authentic natural product.

Basically our advice to you is this - look into the company selling the natural range and the people behind it. Look into their philosophies and reasons for making/selling natural products and, most importantly, make sure you can tell that they are passionate about what they do.

Putting in the hours of research, planning, recipe writing, ingredient selection and location, practice cooking with sometimes disastrous results, more recipe writing….(phew!)…that goes into making an authentic natural product takes REAL passion. For those of us who do it – we absolutely love it and wouldn’t want it any other way.

If you would like some more information on the real natural alternative, here are some informative websites:

• www.cosmeticdatabase.com
• www.cleanlife.com.au
• www.greenorganics.com.au

We have also included a list of some of the above mentioned synthetic ingredients that are well known and documented to have an adverse reaction on skin so you know which ones to try and avoid:

For information on the ingredients we do use, please go to the "Our Ingredients" page to see the ingredients we choose to use and why.

We hope this helps you understand a little more about the difference between a natural and synthetic product and if you have any other questions or queries – please don’t hesitate to contact us.