So we all like the word organic when it comes to our foods, but when it comes to our skincare and beauty products we don’t seem to pay enough attention to it.
We would all like to think that the things we put onto our skin just sit there; having no inner effect on our bodies. We see our skin as an impassable barrier. While yes, the skin is great at keeping out certain things, the same cannot always be said for chemicals and toxins.
Picturing half of the goop that gets put into our bodies through our skin is enough to make even the ghostbusters run.
Now before you think you have to go back to the dark ages and use nothing on your skin, know that there is hope. There are plenty of products that contain good old H2O. Water can dilute your products making them a bit more surface-level than the active ingredients would be by themselves.
Knowing that some water in your products is a good thing, what about the other stuff? Skincare isn’t just what could be sinking into your skin, but what’s sitting on it. Our skin is our protective layer keeping out bad things we encounter throughout the day.
But even the skin needs things to protect it, like SPF. Putting products on our skin should be adding to our protective layer, not agitating it. So, the big question is: how do we keep that layer clean and helpful? Looking at organic products is one of the best ways to do just that.
Conventional Skin Care is a Thing of the Past
Conventional skincare tends to be made with artificial dyes. Thinking about most of your favorite beauty products, what makes them your favorite?
Is it their texture, their price, maybe their vibrant color? Well, unfortunately, those vibrant colors don’t usually come from the best of places. Artificial coloring is often created with lead, tar, and heavy metals (yuck).
One of the easiest ways to think about your skincare is to ask yourself, would I take a bath in these products? Now while we know that sounds a little extreme, think about it like this:
The reason that we are able to sit in the bath without soaking up water like Spongebob Squarepants is that your epidermis (skin) is completely water-resistant.
Thinking about that, we feel safe sitting in water. If water is safe, what about sitting in a bath with all of these toxic chemicals that are in our products? Our skin’s integrity plays a part in its ability to keep out toxins.
One way that can be affected is by the strength of our skin’s integrity (which is only made worse through the bad products we use). Let’s even say that our skin is safe from any type of toxin. What about those fragrances in products that we inhale?
We don’t think most people would want to put those things directly onto our skin, so why do we allow them in our products? Have no fear, alternatives are here!
Organic alternatives do not rely on synthetic substances. Companies who wish to be seen as natural formulators must choose their coloring from a set list of natural colorants. So, if we want to have naturally sourced colorants, shouldn’t we want the other ingredients to be natural as well?
Try, try, try again? No thanks.
No one loves trying new products and finding out it doesn’t work for you. The worst way to realize this is when your skin tells you loud and clear it is not a fan. Red blotches, inflammation, and flaky dry skin are all ways skin makes abundantly clear when it is not a big fan of something.
Organic products are able to reduce the chances of irritating skin because, simply put, they don’t have skin-irritating ingredients! We love when we find foods that don’t contain any pesticides, why? Because we know that our bodies aren’t meant to have them in us.
Knowing that organic products are created without chemicals, pesticides, synthetics and other additives gives our body a clear path for better skin. If companies are not putting in extra junk, that only leaves room for products that give benefits to your skin.
Nasty reactions to products are not a rare thing, but identifying what’s causing it is. If your products contain fewer, all-natural ingredients it’s easy to tell what your skin likes, and certainly what it does not.
Clear Ingredients = Clear Skin
You know that moment where you’re super bored and you start to read the ingredients on your shampoo bottle? (You know that moment we’re talking about).
Imagine the next time you pick up one of your skincare products: would you be able to tell what even half of those ingredients are? Not a chance.
One of the best parts about organic skincare is that they usually contain natural ingredients you can recognize.
What do these natural recognizable ingredients look like? These ingredients are grown without the use of GMOs or pesticides. You want your skin to be absorbing nature’s best, and nature’s best surely does not come from synthetic fertilizers.
Earlier, we talked about how our skin still protects us a good amount but what about what does get through? We think that when we see immediate results from our products that it’s a great thing, but what about better skin for the future?
Constantly looking to skincare that is synthetic leads to worse skin in the long run. The gentle nature of organic skincare is there to change the results of your skin. If each ingredient in a product is good for your skin, then you can expect to see real improvements.
Alright, so we’ve gotten into why organic is better for you, but we also need to get into why it’s better for the world too.
Feeling Better is Doing Better
We’re all into helping the environment when it comes to using our reusable straws, but what about changing something we use every single day?
The synthetic production of our skincare isn’t conventional skincare’s only damage. Conventional skincare also produces waste that ends up like the rest of our trash: in landfills.
Beauty products should not contain things that ruin our planet. Creating a skincare routine that doesn’t work makes us believe that we each have to use 16 different products on our face just to get one good result. If we simplify our beauty routine to just a few good products that actually work, we wouldn’t be attributing to so much waste.
More than just waste, we have to look at what our products do directly to the planet. While we all know that sunscreen is a must, some types of sunscreen have ingredients that cause bleaching in coral reefs.
Sunscreen is a perfect example of how all of our products end up back on our beautiful planet one way or another. Whether it is from a day of swimming down at the beach or just washing off the day in the shower, our products don’t just disappear off of our skin at the end of the day.
Just like how we don’t want to see pesticides in our food or skincare, we also don’t like to see them in the environment for the creation of our products.
The toxic chemicals that we hate to see in our ingredient list are just as bad for our soil and the ocean. The damage that these products can do to our ocean and land habitats is not worth following the widespread and predominant path.
Choosing mainstream products is also much more likely to result in the support of animal testing. Due to the fact that conventional skincare is riddled with chemicals and toxins, they must go through some type of testing to be FDA-approved.
Companies that do not care about their impact on the world like to look to the laziest and quickest solution: animal testing. Since organic products don’t have these toxins, then they likely aren’t looking for the quick way out. Animal testing is extremely unreliable, not to mention unethical, and shouldn’t be the standard way of seeing how something would affect human skin.
Knowing your product is worth its salt means your company shouldn’t be afraid of being tested the right way.
Conclusion
The more we learn about our bodies and the effect that we directly have on them, the more we learn that each decision we make matters. This is why rates of consumers purchasing organic skincare have gone up exponentially over the past few years.
With all of the information we now have at the click of a button, we ought to be paying attention to what we put our faith in.
Companies who don’t care about the environment, or their impact on the world, certainly do not care about their effect on your skin.
If a company has no interest in truly making your skin better, they are only in it for the quick cash. Is that the type of business we want to be supporting? Especially when there are plenty of great alternatives?
While alternatives may have been hard to seek out in the past, there are now plenty of great websites with planet and person-friendly ways to change the way we do skincare.
Like we said earlier, we don’t have to go back to a time when washing your face was just with water, but we do need to be thinking about what we put into our bodies and onto our planet. The good news is, what’s good for one is usually pretty good for the other.
That’s why (in just about every way possible) going organic is beneficial to our bodies, our skin, and our planet.
Resources:
- https://www.thecut.com/2020/01/what-happens-to-skin-care-after-you-apply-it.html
- https://kadeebotanicals.com/blogs/news/artificial-colours-in-skin-care-why-they-don-t-belong
- https://chemistscorner.com/natural-colorants-for-cosmetics/
- https://www.neemlinaturals.com/top-reasons-why-organic-skincare-products-are-better/
- https://www.ursamajorvt.com/blogs/the-blog-cabin/37974081-how-do-toxics-enter-our-bodies
