Natural Care Products

Have you ever thought about what is in the products that you use everyday and how they can be affecting not only you but the environment?

1. Safety  

Whether it’s soap, body wash or moisturiser, our skin can absorb what’s in our personal care products. While a lot of the chemical ingredients have a valid purpose (such as preserving a product or acting as a foaming agent), a lot of them have been proven to be harmful to our wellbeing. If we consider that most off-the-shelf products have at least 3 chemicals in and that the average person uses 9 personal care products a day (or some people as many as 15).

That’s a lot of chemicals for our body to take in! Unfortunately, due to the lack of legislation on cosmetic and personal care products, it means that cosmetics companies aren’t breaking the law by using these chemicals.

Therefore, not only are customers not warned about the chemicals in products but we’re often not even aware. By using products which are independently certified natural and organic, you can ensure that what you’re using on your skin is safe for your body to consume.

2.  Better for the environment 

Until the recent microbead ban, many cosmetics and personal care brands used microbeads as the exfoliator in their products and didn’t think twice about the harm this could cause to the environment – even though many natural exfoliators are just as effective.

Many brands still use chemicals in products which can pollute our ecosystems and upset their natural balance, and unfortunately, because there isn’t a law against this yet, this practice continues. Natural and organic cosmetic don’t disrupt our ecosystems and can put poured down the drain or put on the compost heap without any issue.

Many independently certified cosmetics companies also have very ethical plastics policies, such as Ecologic Cosmetics, from Mallorca who use 100% recycled plastic. I often find that cosmetics companies that are ethical enough to be chemical free are also very ethical when it comes to plastics, and cruelty to animals.

3. To Avoid Irritation 

Our skin is always trying to find it’s natural balance, which is sometimes difficult because there are so many external and internal variables such as age, changes in weather, stress levels etc. When we put chemicals on our skin they can disrupt our endocrine system, which can show up as skin irritations. I’ve had a lot of clients who have found that irritations and sensitivity disappear within weeks of going natural in their lifestyle, including diet as well as cosmetics.

4. More cost effective

When you go natural and become more in tune with your skin, you may even find that you don’t need to use as many products which in turn means buying less on personal skin care products.

This is great for your skin and the environment because it means less packaging and less carbon footprint as you’re consuming less- an all-around win! Personally, my best advice is to use less and buy high quality independently certified products which have good ethical principles. Or if you want to go the extra mile, you can even learn how to make your own products at one of the Natural Beauty Workshops.

If you’d like to know how to check that your cosmetics products are independently organically certified sign up to Abanico Spa’s mailing list and download the free natural cosmetics fact sheet.

 

Written by Shereen Soliman

About the author Shereen has an MSc in Environmental and Energy Studies (specialising in natural materials), a BA (Hons) in Business Studies, is a qualified Beauty Therapist and a has a passion for all things spa and wellbeing related. At 14 she witnessed her Auntie fight breast cancer using only natural remedies, something which was unheard of at the time and directly challenged her family’s beliefs; her parents being a Doctor and Nurse who specialised in cancer. The question of what we put in to our bodies & how this affects us & our environment is something which continued to crop up in Shereen’s life, especially when she found herself working in marketing around companies that regularly mislead customers about what was actually in their products. Having a Masters of Science & the experience of working in marketing, Shereen know’s how to tell the green wash from the reality and is on a mission to share this knowledge with the world while providing accessible natural alternatives. In 2017 she published her first book: The Backpackers Natural Beauty Book, and started running Natural Beauty Workshops. She now runs a variety of educational and pampering workshops under the brand Abanico Spa.