The health and beauty industry is constantly changing and evolving. Every day there are new products on the market so how can you choose products that are safe for you? With so many ingredients that mean nothing to us as consumers it can be difficult to know what’s actually in your products and what it does to your skin and body.

Buzz words like hypoallergenic, organic, fragrance free/unscented and dermatologically tested often give us false assurances that products are safe and only have good ingredients.

Hypoallergenic essentially means the product has a decreased tendency to provoke an allergic reaction – it does not mean you will not react to it nor that it is safe for all sensitive skins.

Organic products mean that the product contains an amount of organic ingredients, however not all ingredients in an organic product need to be organic. Similarly just because a product is organic does not mean it is natural, it can still have many synthetic chemicals present.

Frangrance free/unscented denotes that fragrances have not been added to make the product smell, manufacturers can however still add fragrances/perfumes to mask the smell of other chemicals in the product.

Dermatologically tested products broadly means products have been tested and approved for use on the skin. It does not mean all the ingredients are kind to the skin nor that the product is safe for sensitive skin.

When choosing your products the best thing to do is read the label and recogise certain ingredients that are no-nos and should generally be avoided as they are not beneficial and can be harmful for your skin. Similary you should opt for products rich in natural ingredients, plant extracts and essential oils as they benefit your skin and body.

We will continue to update ingredients/chemicals to avoid so please reread to keep up to date and esnure your products are humankind.

Ingredients To Avoid

Petroleum, petroleum jelly, mineral oil, paraffin and petroleum liquidium are all by-products of crude oil and are commonly found in baby care products, face and body lotions and cosmetics. These petro-chemicals are comedomic (block pores and cause blackheads) and studies have found products containing the above ingredients can be carcinogenic (cancer causing).