Did you know that the vast majority of skincare creams are made using just 3 key ingredients...
Water, oil and wax emulsifiers.
Together,
these three ingredients can make up to 95% of a skincare product. The
remaining 5% reserved for preservatives (1%), fragrance (1%) and the
final 3% for 'active ingredients' which are more often than not the
ingredient the product is either named after or marketed on.
1) Water
Water
(Aqua) This is the main ingredient for the majority of skincare
products such as creams, toners, cleansers,shampoos and conditioners,
it's a great solvent, its neutral and doesn't usually cause any allergic
responses. There is nothing wrong with water other than it's a very cheap, very weak solvent depending of course on what water soluble
nutrients may have been dissolved in it. Water makes up to 70 - 75% of a
conventional products ingredients.
Instead
of water, we use natural and organic flower and herb hydrosols such as
Rose, clove and eucalyptus which we enrich with food grade herbs and
antioxidants such as pine bark extract, organic Aloe vera and Vitamin C.
We then make a nourishing and moisturising gel which is a nutritious,
bio-active alternative to water.
Our moisturisers contain a maximum of 40% Aloe vera gel.
2) Sunflower Oil or other similar refined carrier oil.
Sunflower
oil (Helianthus annus) One of the most common oils used in skincare
products. It is highly refined using steam and solvents such as Hexane
which is difficult to completely remove leading to the risk of
contaminants in cosmetic grade ingredients.
Sunflower oil is
combined to dilute and thin the hard wax emulsifiers at 80 degrees
(that's hot!) Sunflower oil can make up to 20% of a products
ingredients. It's cheap, weak and has no nutrient value for the skin..And or...
Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (a highly
refined medium chain triglyceride from coconuts) Sometimes used as an
alternative to Sunflower oil in skincare products. It’s cheap, weak,
clear, odourless, tasteless and has an almost indefinite shelf life. It
makes a product feel nice and has a small molecular weight so it absorbs easily, this makes it very useful as a carrier for active ingredients. It doesn’t provide the
skin with any other nutritional benefits. Caprylic
Triglyceride can make up to 20% of a products ingredients.
Instead
of using refined & cheap, weak oils we use organic cold pressed
(raw) seed oils and super critical CO2 extracted seed oils.
3) Wax emulsifiers many of which are derived from pig fat.
Wax
emulsifiers (a very hard wax used to bind oil and water together.) Up to
6-10% of a products ingredients are emulsifiers...and that doesn’t
leave much room for ‘active’ ingredients.... that’s not to mention the
long list of ‘other ingredients...Dimethicone, Siloxane, Polysorbate 20
Polysorbate 60 pentylene glycol, Acrylates copolymer....the list goes on
and on of these processing ingredients that are used to improve the look, feel and shelf life of a product they do nothing for the health
of our skin and there is concern that many may actually be harmful, both to the environment when we wash them away and to our bodies in the form of accumulated toxins and hormone disruptors.
Natural Wisdom dares to be different. Instead
of using wax emulsifiers which can block your pores and dull your
complexion we use a certified organic 100% natural liquid (vegan) emulsifier to
cold blend our creams...so your skin can breath more easily.
The
vast majority of skincare is mass manufactured in large soulless
kitchen labs. By comparison, there are only a handful of skincare brands
that make their own skincare in house. Natural Wisdom is very proud to
be one of them.
♥ Our skincare is artisan crafted by us and no
body else. This allows us complete control over our recipes and so we
can design and make our skincare free of fillers and nonsense
ingredients.
♥ Our skincare recipes are completely cold blended to guarantee absolute bio-active potency and powerful, effective results.
♥ We
have meticulously blended every possible antioxidant, vitamin and
phyto-nutrient known to protect, renew and rejuvenate our skin to bring
you skincare products that are 100% bio-active.
There are those,
who see their skin as nothing more than an inert outer covering that's
cleaned, polished and treated with highly processed, synthetic products,
just as if it were an object, like a machine.
Here at Natural
Wisdom, we see our skin as something much more than this, we see our
skin as the outside of our inside, the reflection of how we live and how
we feel, from our emotions to our beliefs. Our skin cools us, it warms
us. It's reactive to emotions, responsive to lifestyle, and adaptive to
temperature. Our skin, literally holds us together, glowing brighter
when we're happy, lighting up when we smile, blushing when we're
embarrassed and giving us away when we're tired, stressed or unwell.
Our
wonderful, amazing skin responds and reacts to everything we do &
it both absorbs & digests the skin products we apply to it...This is
why the ingredients we choose are so very important.
If you have any questions about this article please email me, maeve@naturalwisdom.co.uk :-)
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