As of today, I'm going to be contributing weekly items on beauty to Miss Mary Rambin's new site,
More Than Mary. I'm a big fan of Mary's straight-talking, dry humor, and overall spirit, and very pleased to be contributing to her new project.
Mary did a great job of editing a somewhat lengthy piece I wrote; she pulled out the meat and made a much more concise post out of what I submitted. But I thought I'd post the full item here for you guys; consider this the director's cut or something.
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After almost half a decade of beauty blogging, I've become pretty
jaded about the cosmetics industry. More to the point, being on the
receiving end of so many products over the years - we're talking
hundreds - has made me realize that there really are not that many
stand-out performers in the crowd of overpriced, artfully packaged
merchandise.
One of the recent trends that many brands have recently glommed onto
in an attempt to sell in a way over-populated market is that of being
"ethical". Let's just start with the "organic," and "all natural"
labels usually lumped under this umbrella (which is probably made of
organic, un-dyed hemp).
If the uncritical way that many women spend hundreds and even
thousands of dollars on anti-aging products taught beauty marketers
anything, it's that there are a lot of suckers out there.
Just as many
women want to believe that a cream from Bloomie's can turn back the
clock, there are plenty who ask no questions when told that the
product they're buying is going to help save the planet and stick it
to The Man and his evil chemicals.
Of course, much of this - as with most marketing - is pure bunk.
Let's start with the all-natural and organic claims. As a Times
(London) piece pointed out four years ago, "herbal products can become
toxic when they degrade," and "organic cosmetics are under-researched
on efficacy as well as safety". Not to mention that many formulas
marketed as "organic" may only include a single organic element. The
drawbacks to organic products were summed up thusly: "Less evidence
that they work; less rigorously tested; expensive; don’t last long."
Not that those natural elements are necessarily good for you to begin
with, organic or not. Plenty of plant extracts and oils - such as
peppermint oil, lemon oil, orange peel, eucalyptus oil, orange oil,
cinnamon oil, clove oil, pine tar, alcohol, lime oil, papaya, thyme,
witch hazel, and balsam peru - can cause an extremely negative
reaction even in those who don't have sensitive skin. (Paula Begoun
provides a very long list here.)
Compare that to an often-maligned
"chemical" ingredient like propylene glycol, which is known in its undiluted form as anti-freeze. But used in the scant quantities present in skin care
products, almost no one in the human population will suffer any
negative to reaction to it.
As a friend of mine likes to point out, poisonous mushrooms are
all-natural, and widely available in the organic variety. But you
wouldn't necessarily rush to consume those.
More to the point, just
because a product is genuinely all-natural (there are no existing
guidelines for what constitutes an all-natural formula) or organic
does not mean it will work for you.
One "all natural" line that has become hugely popular is Burt's Bees.
It used to be a more obscure brand, but now you can pick it up in your
local drugstore. (In fact, Burt's Bees was recently purchased by the
Clorox Company, which makes sure you can buy it from Wal-Mart and any
other big box store you frequent. Not that shopping in big box stores
makes you a heathen, but that's another post.) Burt's Bees regularly
uses ingredients such as those listed above in its products, which
often cause severe adverse reactions.
Another company making questionable claims about its products is Kiss
My Face, which claims that its Citrus Cleanser - which contains
ingredients like methylparaben, propylparaben, sodium borate, stearic
acid, and the aforementioned propylene glycol - is "100% natural". (It
also contains lemon oil and lime oil, which are frequently the cause
of skin irritation.)
That's not to say that many all natural elements do not provide
benefits for skin. But for every aloe and beeswax, there's an allspice
and bergamot.
For example, I'm really loving some products recently given to me by
Kiehl's which contain organic argan oil. Now, Kiehl's marketing for
their "superbly restorative preparations" employs a lot of the
folklore about argan oil's origins in Morocco and how it has been used
for centuries to restore hair, skin, and nails. The truth is that it's
no miracle product, and is as effective as plenty of other
ingredients, natural and otherwise. I can ignore the marketing,
because the products - my favorites are the Argan Body Cleansing Oil,
Argan Skin Salve, and Argan Dry Oil - work well. They're very
emollient without being greasy, don't have an overpowering,
incense-esque smell, and leave my skin extremely soft. (A big bonus
point from my perspective: The products are minimally packaged with
all directions and ingredients printed on the labels - you just get
the bottle, not a big box that will need to be recycled or thrown
away.)
The bottom line: Learn about which all natural ingredients are likely
to harm your skin, and read labels to find out if they're in your
favorite cleverly marketed brand of products. Just as you would with
other products making extravagant claims, question the marketing hype
presented to you. And if you're more interested in buying all natural
products that probably won't work as well as the more scientifically
engineered ones, just be aware that that's what you're doing.
