It feels like coming full-circle, since I was involved as a consultant for a skin care line in one of my "past lives."
Beauty is a constant obsession for me. Most people are enamored with celebrity beauty or the kind of unattainable virtual perfection promised by digitally-manipulated ads and media gimmicks.
The kind of beauty that fascinates me is the beauty of natural potential. Standards of physical beauty do exist, but that is not necessarily what women should choose to strive for. And that is why I looked for an alternative to the "smoother, fairer, younger, firmer" philosophy to beauty.
I explored the conventional manufacturing of body and skin care products under the tutelage of local industry experts. I learned the various chemical compositions and proportions of the formula used across the board by most commercial brands -- SLS, CDEA, phenoxyethanol, betaine. A mouthful of compound chemicals that have become part of everyday life.
It sounded promising. The chemicals were easy to find and affordable. Anybody could learn to make these products if they had the patience and inclination. Industry rates would allow one to charge ten times over the proper price. It seemed like a win-win situation.
Except that these products didn't work the way they should.
The detergent did clean your skin and hair and the betaine softened, but only temporarily and at the cost of skin irritation. The enticing extracts and vitamins incorporated into the products are rendered useless by the heavy water dilution required of the formula. The back acne I had and the skin asthma along my upper arms never seemed to go away even with treatment from the dermatologist (who used the same synthetic chemical-based products). I used to blame it on poor genetics, diet and skin predisposition.
Until, out of curiosity, I attended a short, informal course on making organic products. It was so simple -- suspiciously so. There were no complicated measurements and percentages and almost no dilution. Everything was straightforward and the ingredients were all-natural and safe, you could eat them without poisoning yourself.
This was a big difference from the chemicals I used in making basic body care products like hand wash or shampoo. Using sodium lauryl sulfate, for example, I had to be careful not to touch the stuff with my bare skin or else there would be dryness and irritation to no end. Inhaling the chemical preservatives used in making shampoo and shower gels would also cause me to tear up and cough. Also, I was required to dilute the whole mixture in gallons of distilled water to lessen the irritating effects of the formula.
And the difference between the quality of these purely organic ingredients and synthetic chemicals was huge. Almost immediately, my skin asthma lessened, I had no more back acne and my hair didn't fall off and clog the shower drain anymore. I was amazed that people -- even people who can afford the best luxuries in life -- still put up with products that contain skin-damaging ingredients.
At this point, let me say that many scientific studies on common chemicals used in cosmetics and skin care products these days (TEA, DEA, lanolin, parabens) are not yet conclusive. However, they have been indirectly associated with unhealthy symptoms such as rising estrogen levels, increased aluminum in the blood, among others.
I would also like to point out that not all synthetic chemicals in products should be avoided. Special cases call for special measures, and sometimes only synthetically produced chemicals are the solution. Synthetic preservatives are not all detrimental to health, either. Some safe, food-grade preservatives are sometimes needed in pure organic mixtures when there is no compatible natural ingredient that can fend off bacteria or slow the perishing process.
Armed with this knowledge, I used the workshop I attended as a springboard to explore making my own brand of pure, organic skin care products.
"Organic" has become such a buzz word in the beauty industry, it's hard to separate fact from fiction. But basically, this is the general definition:
Organic produce has been grown without the use of artificial fertilisers and pesticides. Regulations governing organically grown products also prohibit the use of genetically modified ingredients. If a product claims it's organic, it must contain at least 95 per cent of organically grown produce. For a product to claim that it has been 'made with organic ingredients', it must contain over 70 per cent of organically grown produce.
This definition allows major companies such as this one and this one to jump in on the organic marketing bandwagon.
It saddens me to think that these companies can go on using the same irritating formula and stamping it with inaccurate labels like "all-natural" or "organic." Even sadder is that consumers really buy into it.
I don't blame the consumers. I was one of the body and skin care "junkies," too, who trusted what the salesperson and ads said, but didn't know how to properly read the label and ingredients list.
This was even more incentive for me to make my own brand of truly organic products and share them with as many quality-starved consumers as I can.
It's the least I can do.
From the very first moment I slathered on body butter made from high-grade shea butter and fresh beeswax, it was clear that in the past I had plunked down my money for very inferior commercial products. And it was a crime if I didn't make this product experience available for others who, like me, have been wasting time and money in constant search of products that simply and truly works.
The most amazing part about making these organic products was that it was so simple! Developing my own product line was as simple as the ingredients were pure. The simplicity of it all is, I think, the key. Each ingredient -- given the quality and the right, undiluted quantity -- would do for the skin exactly what Mother Nature had intended.
I knew something as simple and as true as these products would bring me far in my dream of financial success.
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