The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances (11 page)

Here’s a funny thing I stumbled across on the Internet one day. It described two variations of diethanolamine as two completely different substances. “DEA is a clear watery liquid, while lauramide DEA is a rock hard solid. In essence, these ingredients are as different from each other as are apples and automobiles,” says Dr. Dennis T. Sepp in the article “DEA, Setting the Record Straight” published on a website that sells “natural” skin care products. Yeah, right—and ice and snow are completely different from water, too. See, one is hard and the other one is fluffy, and they look nothing like water! This is just one example of how cosmetic companies and incompetent experts use to their advantage our lack of desire to question and criticize.

When properly written, the labels can provide you with a lot of useful information. In the United States and Canada, any chemical above 1 percent by weight in the formula is required to be listed in order of concentration. The general rule of thumb is, the higher amount of an ingredient the product contains, the higher position it will occupy in the ingredients list. So pay attention to which ingredient is listed first. Good cleansers and toners start with water, followed by mild detergent or soap at the beginning of the list; toners may begin with water, witch hazel, or alcohol right in the first line. For example, a mediocre toner would list a propylene glycol second in the list of ingredients; a good one will contain floral water, witch hazel, or glycerin. A heavy moisturizer will list mineral oil or petrolatum as its second ingredient, right after water. Such moisturizers will contain many pore-clogging ingredients and therefore will not be suitable for acne sufferers. However, a moisturizer that lists mineral oil somewhere in the middle of the fine print would be less likely to cause breakouts, but nevertheless is less suitable for oily skin than a moisturizer with no mineral oil at all, such as a lotion based on olive oil.

Good cleansers and toners start with water, followed by mild detergent or soap at the beginning of the list; toners may begin with water, witch hazel, or alcohol right in the first line.

Most often, preservatives, fragrances, and colors are listed at the end of the list. However, I have seen formulations that listed triethanolamine and paraben preservatives right in the first line, which means that this particular product contained a lot of very questionable substances. But even if there’s less than 1 percent of an ingredient contained in the bottle or jar, it doesn’t mean that it cannot get any job done. Peptides, enzymes, vitamins, and antioxidants acids are all used in smaller than 1 percent concentrations.

When you think about it, even 1 percent is quite a bit of a chemical. If you imagine 1 percent of a 100 ml bottle, that’s 1 ml of a substance, about the size of a tester fragrance vial. Imagine how a guy in a white lab coat takes an ampoule of something that causes cancer in rats and pours it into your body lotion, or worse yet, baby bath. The situation is cartoonish, but you get the idea. Does it look pretty or healthy? It certainly doesn’t look good to me.

So resist the urge to scan just the first few lines. Keep reading. Take your time and ignore those spiteful looks from the sales clerk at the counter. It’s your money and your health. The girl works on commission, so no wonder she hates you for delaying the decisive moment—you know, the one when she swipes your plastic. And watch her face freezing when you refuse to buy the proffered magic potion.

Sometimes, ingredients lists are not easy to locate—or they are not there at all. In that case, contact the company directly by phone or e-mail. Most companies respond to customer queries about their ingredients, so don’t be afraid to contact them if you are unsure about a chemical or it’s not listed in any online database.

There are thousands of safe synthetic ingredients that can be used in skin care products. In the next chapters, I will list many natural or syn-the sized active ingredients that you should look for when buying a new cosmetic product or purchasing online to enrich your existing products. If you want to learn more about each particular ingredient, you can check the safety of a suspicious chemical at the Environmental Working Group website (
www.ewg.org
) where they have a very comprehensive and searchable database of most existing chemicals used in personal care products.

When you learn the trick of scanning the ingredients list for toxic chemicals and ingredients that can damage your skin, you will never purchase a beauty product just because it looks pretty or elegant, thus falling prey to tricky advertisers and talented product designers. Once you’ve learned to read the ingredients label and identify marketing scams, you’ll be able to avoid wasting money and still take perfectly good care of your skin and hair.

Lesson 2: Understand What You Are Paying For

Before you ever reach for your hard-earned cash, keep this in mind: of every dollar paid for mass-market skin care, sixty cents goes to the manufacturer and forty cents goes to the retailer. No matter what you buy—a pair of jeans or a lawn mower—the proportion remains pretty much the same.

Manufacturers pay for production, packaging, storage, and transportation. For eighteen cents, they hire smart marketing advisers who tell them how to make women pay $50 for 1 ounce of petrochemicals, preservatives, and synthetic fragrances. These marketing geniuses hire teenage models or starlets to market the product to forty-year-olds. Eleven cents goes toward packaging: a team of artists is picked to design a stylish, expensive-looking bottle. Two cents pays for interest and other boring things, and eighteen cents pays salaries and covers administrative expenses. The retailer pays the rent, designs attractive window displays, and gives gift bags to the media to make them write about the new store event. Forty cents pays salaries to salespeople, bookkeepers, and security guys.

Of every buck you spend on a beauty product, only seven cents will pay the real cost of the ingredients. Another four cents will cover the production—the process of mixing, whipping, and pouring. That’s it. The remaining money feeds the army of professionals who do nothing to improve the quality of the beauty product.

I learned this formula from product-development textbooks when I started creating my own skin care line,
Petite Marie Organics
. Since I am a small business, I can avoid many organizational costs and invest the money where it must belong in skin care—in high-quality, organic ingredients.

Let’s examine the ingredients list of a popular moisturizer marketed for sensitive skin. The formula is loaded with humectants and film-forming agents that do not penetrate skin. Even though the lotion is called fragrance-free, there are some synthetic fragrances to mask the real (most likely, filthy) scent of the ingredients, and there is a “food-grade” preservative added to extend the shelf life. In my opinion, this is a better formulation, since it contains no synthetic dyes, paraben preservatives, or strong penetration enhancers. It is moderately priced around $9 per generous 16-ounce bottle (almost a half-liter).

So how much would the ingredients cost if you and I tried to recreate the lotion at home? Let’s just take a look at the first few ingredients that make up the bulk of the lotion. Water is nearly free, glycerin costs $1.70 per 8 ounces, emulsifier ceteareth-20 costs $2.20 per 4 ounces, another emulsifier and thickener, cetyl alcohol, costs $1.27 per 4 ounces, and macadamia oil—a strong allergen, especially for those with nut allergies— costs $6 per 8 ounces. We will use only a few teaspoons of each ingredient, so the whole formulation ends up costing $1.50, even if you replace some chemicals with more expensive plant oils. Remember, these aren’t wholesale prices. We’ll be paying this much only if we order 4 or 8 ounces of each component. Cosmetic manufacturers buy ingredients by the tons, and they pay dramatically less.

Any cosmetic product containing beneficial amounts of active ingredients is not going to be cheap. In this lotion, the most expensive ingredient is provitamin B5, or panthenol, and it sells for $2.50 per ounce. Obviously, there isn’t a whole ounce of panthenol in 16 ounces of a lotion; this would make the moisturizer extremely potent and most likely very irritating to many people. To keep it safe, cosmetic chemists make a 0.5–3 percent concentration of panthenol. Let’s say this particular lotion contains 1 percent, or 0.16 ounce of panthenol. This way, the price of the most expensive ingredient would climb to 40 cents—only if the lotion maker bought panthenol online by ounce, like I do, not by the ton! A little label reading can tell you just how many expensive ingredients are in the skin care product you purchase.

Decent natural cosmetic products may be expensive. You always get what you pay for, and cutting corners isn’t the way of ensuring quality. If a product is too cheap, then it very likely contains synthetic, “natural” ingredients such as cocamide DEA or synthetic jojoba oil. You can buy an inexpensive, locally made soap or candle, but when it comes to well-performing facial skin care, ingredients should always come first, and quality ingredients do not come cheap.

When you take a look at the ingredients label of an organic moisturizer for sensitive skin, you’ll notice that the natural ingredients, such as
Aloe
barbadensis
leaf juice, jojoba esters, calendula extract, or squalene from olive, not shark liver, remain at the beginning of the list. Some ingredients are quite affordable even for an amateur cosmetic chemist: $1.60 for 2 ounces of dried aloe vera extract to $4.50 for 1 ounce of calendula extract, more for certified organic versions and pure juices. Some ingredients, like finely powdered or liquid extracts of Panax ginseng, licorice, white tea, or echinacea, can cost significantly more. But these ingredients contain much higher concentrations because good organic brands aren’t mass-produced and do not need to rely heavily on stabilizers, emulsifiers, and preservatives to keep formulations stable, safe, and pleasant to use. Plus, most organic brands do not advertise themselves with massive spreads in glossy magazines. Their fame is due to word of mouth and voluntary celebrity endorsements rather than millions paid to lucky teenagers. That leads us to the next lesson: do not let celebrities judge what’s better for your skin.

Lesson 3: Learn from Celebrities; Don’t Copy Them

The celebrity factor is strongest when it comes to beauty. I am no exception. I tried Dr. Hauschka’s toner when I first saw it in the movie
Zoolander
; I started buying Jurlique when Madonna said she was using it; I go gaga over Creed perfumes, not just because of their heavenly compositions and staying power, but also because of the royal fleur that oozes from their crystal bottles. And if I, a seasoned beauty reviewer, am not immune to the celebrity factor, let’s admit it: people who are not in the business are far more vulnerable. Many women buy lipsticks because they look good on an actress they love, or shampoos because they love her hair. If you are size eight, would you buy a pair of jeans in size two only because your favorite actress wears them? Following celebrities’ leads in cosmetics is just as stupid.

Very rarely do celebrities use products they advertise. More often than not, the boatfuls of free products they receive end up in a stylist’s bag or are given away as gifts. Not a single celebrity who receives free products—cosmetics, bags, dresses, shoes—will admit that she/he is giving the stuff away. If this information leaks to the company that sends the product, they will stop doing it. The makers of the hottest bag don’t want to see their precious creation worn by the actress’s nanny or her sister.

Very rarely do celebrities use products they advertise. More often than not, the boatfuls of free products they receive end up in a stylist’s bag or are given away as gifts.

Having a famous face advertise or ultimately design the beauty product is the epitome of marketing efforts for any cosmetic manufacturer. And they spend extravagant amounts of money to achieve this goal. Hiring stars like Jane Fonda, Eva Longoria, Scarlett Johansson, and Penelope Cruz to face its hair care and makeup campaigns eats a significant share of the $250 million advertising budget of L’Oreal.