Debunking Skincare Myths: What Natural, Pure, and Clean Actually Mean

Some things were a-ha moments, and some were mind blowing! At least, as how much your mind gets blown by skin facts, of course.

Thought I’d talk about some of them. 

NATURAL VS. PURE VS. CLEAN – OK, tough one. Neither of these has any official definition, whether for your food or skincare. For me and these products, “natural” means natural or nature-derived or naturally identical. There are a couple of organizations that certify products as natural, and these are generally the qualifications. A natural ingredient might come off a tree, get crushed and filtered and boom! – shea butter or sunflower oil. Now that’s without a doubt, pure and natural. There are oils and glycerin products that might have some plant matter soaked in them for a while to extract its benefits. Some ingredients might go through a process like a distilled essential oil or hydrosol. Still pretty pure. Some might have to go through a lot more in a lab setting to exist as they are to be useful, like most emulsifiers and certain active ingredients. Things get extracted, dried, fermented, heated or cooled to get an ideal product. Sometimes this is necessary because nothing existing as is in nature will do the trick (lecithin is the only purely natural emulsifier). Then there are “nature-identical” which are lab synthesized but chemically identical to its natural counterpart. This process exists because a plant product may be rare and extremely expensive, endangered or unsustainably sourced, therefore they’ve come to be accepted in natural skincare. Many natural products fit into this category like Vit. C, niacinamide or B3, and all hyaluronic acid.
I feel “pure” is great! But it’s too limiting for most of what we want to do. It’s really up to your own personal values and opinion on what is “natural.” Hopefully someday there will be a legal definition, but for now, I will use the guidelines of COSMOS & EcoCert.

What I’m trying to do with my skincare is to HYDRATE, NOURISH & PROTECT. In order to do this, I chose ingredients that 1) penetrate deeply or seal the surface to hold on to moisture or trap moisture in skin 2) promote and protect collagen and elastin, and/or 2) repair and protect the skin’s outer barrier so that these deeper actives can do their thing. This is the High Tea strategy to protect our skin and minimize the signs of aging. I will do this with spectacular, naturally-derived ingredients and in full transparency.

HYDROSOLS – when you distill a plant/plant parts for essential oil extraction, what’s left is the water that steams out – this is hydrosol! It’s not like soaking rose petals in water and getting rose water, it’s literally the “essential water,” and contains precious water-soluble plant gifts that are amazing for us! And what’s super cool is you can use them instead of essential oils, which can be sensitizing, to add a gentler scent that’s non-allergenic. Things like witch hazel – which is a plant! Who knew – can be a botanical water instead of an alcohol-based astringent. Most hydrosols are mildly astringent, but also contain the benefits of the plant they came from. They’re so safe, and I love them. Hydrosols are a luxurious ingredient.

CARRIER OILS are oils that you can usually use up to 100% on skin, as opposed to essential oils, that are generally used up to 1% or 2% or even less, depending on the oil. I might use essential oils that can only be used up to 0.1%, but the thing about carrier oils is they are basically the base of all formulas! Olive, camellia, coconut, blueberry seed, prickly pear, borage, jojoba and sweet almond oil are just a few. They all have different fatty acid profiles and degrees of antioxidant power (and I’ve bought sooooo many…).

BONUS: I also learned that they smell like old crayons when they go rancid. You’re welcome.

TROPICAL OILS & BUTTERS naturally protect the proteins that form skin’s structure against damage from UV rays. All of them. Makes sense, right? Because they’re often from deep jungle plants, they also tend to have seriously amazing abilities to heal and protect. Shea butter, Kpangan butter, Tamanu oil, Coconut anything. So cool.

ALCOHOLS in skincare aren’t all drying! Some have that astringent, germ-killing, drying effect. Usually this is what we’re thinking when we want to avoid alcohols on our skin. Ethanol, Isopropyl, and Methyl alcohols are drying. BUT…there are fatty alcohols – they come in waxy little pellets! They’re actually moisturizing and can add texture and viscosity to formulas. They basically act like waxes, also in that they help emulsify oil + water like some waxes do. Some of these are stearyl, behenyl, cetyl and cetearyl alcohols, and they are serious emollients!

ALLERGIC REACTIONS are most often to “parfum” or “fragrance” or certain compounds in essential oils. There are safety limits on essential oils that must be adhered to, and there are so many fake essential oil products out there – definitely a cause of allegic reactions. The problem with the term “fragrance” is that you legally can hide things in that phrase like preservatives or proprietary things and you don’t have to list it if it’s under a certain %. Since any number of things can be in there and undisclosed, I don’t love it for transparency’s sake. Oh, and “fragrance” is almost always synthetic. Company’s argue that they hide proprietary ingredients or fragrance blends, but they can also hide a “multitude of sins.” It’s hard, but we need brands we can put our trust in.

“ANHYDROUS” PRODUCTS DON’T NEED PRESERVATIVES – maybe! Products that don’t contain any water or water-based products (AKA anhydrous) don’t require any preservative. Just a little Vit. E to protect the oils from rancidity and they’re good for a couple years, no problem. That includes many body butters, facial oils, balms, waxes – anything that’s just comprised of waxes, butters and/or oils. It’s just really important that water is not introduced into the product, and it’s best not to jam your fingers in there. So cut that out.

PRESERVATIVES AREN’T BAD. Products without preservatives can be very, very bad – even deadly. Also, there are antimicrobials not listed as “preservatives” that brands will use and claim to be preservative-free. This is sneaky. None of that lame BS here.

The phrase “60% OF WHAT YOU PUT ON YOUR SKIN ABSORBS INTO YOUR BODY” is stupid. So, so unscientific it’s infuriating. Don’t listen to people that say unquantifiable, irresponsible things. 0-100% of what you put on your skin goes into your body, depending on so many things – what it is, for starters (molecule size, solubility, how it interacts at each level with skin and other actives, immune response…I could go on and on).

CHEMICAL-FREE IS A LIE. Everything is made of chemicals (except atoms…). The chemical formula for water is H2O. See?

NATURAL > SYNTHETIC? This is solely a matter of opinion and personal ethos. I think so, but that’s just my vibe in general. This isn’t always the case, but I run into very few problems that can’t be handled naturally. Many natural chemicals are harmful, so it’s just about educating yourself. Or not! Up to you, but let the buyer beware. Don’t worry, I’ve done the hard work here for you.   ; )

There are several certifying bodies that evaluate ingredients and products for status as “natural” and therefore acceptable for natural skincare formulation. Two of the most reputable are COSMOS and EcoCert – and they are internationally recognized. I use their standards to qualify High Tea Skincare ingredients as acceptable, and we are 100% natural in line with those qualifications.



TL; DR

HYDRATE – NOURISH – PROTECT
What I’m trying to do with my skincare is 1) hydrate to restore radiance and plumper skin 2) to promote and protect collagen and elastin, and 3) to repair and protect the skin’s outer barrier so that these deeper actives can do their thing and promote a healthy glow to your skin. This is my strategy to protect our skin from aging.

I learned some really neat things like:

• Rancid oils smell like old crayons. Yup.

• There are drying alcohols and fatty, moisturizing alcohols used in cosmetics.

• Claims like “preservatives are dangerous,” “60% of what you put on your skin absorbs into your body,” “chemical free” and natural > synthetic are unscientific, are not necessarily true and depend on many factors.

My definition of natural may not jibe with your definition of natural, because naturally derived and “nature-identical” synthetics are acceptable in natural skincare by certifying agencies. I’ve decided this is OK with me. Maybe someday that will be legally defined. Until then, we are on our own in navigating the claims brands make *sigh* 

No worries! I got you!

~ MARIKA