Don't Sweat Giving Up 'Natural' Products
by Claudia Marek

     I spend a fair amount of time listening to patients lamenting the loss of their cosmetics, and their chief complaint is that they must do without "natural" things now. As someone with extremely sensitive and allergic skin who has always had to avoid "natural" wonders such as balsam and borage, geranium and thyme oil, I have a different perspective on the whole issue.

     First of all, it occurs to me often, that "natural" is a funny word. Patients use it in reference to jojoba smeared on the face, though what is natural about that? They insist mineral oil is not natural, though it is found in nature. "Grapeseed oil" is natural to them, but "lanolin" from a lamb is not.

     Just because something comes from a plant does not make it "natural" to insert it rectally, bathe in it, or take massive doses of it. Natural poisons will kill just as effectively as synthetic ones. Tobacco comes from a plant, but smoking it has never seemed a "natural" act to me, and it is carcinogenic and a killer. Many herbs are toxic, can cause liver damage, and futher, are unregulated. Although prescription and over-the-counter drugs hold the same potential for damage, they are at least sold with warnings attached, and they are continually being watched and tested by government agencies.

     For many years I have struggled with finding products for my difficult skin. Then I found a series of books by the author Paula Begoun. Two of them are especially noteworthy and useful in the search for good beauty products.

     The first of these is Don't Go to the Cosmetic Counter Without Me. It was first published in 1991, but it has been updated yearly. It is paperback and in print, available in stores and from Amazon Books on the Web at www.amazon.com. In this book Ms. Begoun reviews all the beauty products she can get her hands on, from Avon and the Body Shop, to Charles of the Ritz, Dior, Coty, Revlon, Maybelline and Vaseline Intensive Care just to name a few. Although this book does not list ingredients for each product, there is a general overview of ingredients in the beginning of the book, as well as a great deal of interesting material about cosmetics in general. The appendix in the back provides 800 numbers for all the cosmetic companies which can be especially helpful to those of us who have specific questions about certain products.

     The second of her books I've found especially useful is her new one, The Beauty Bible, which is full of common sense approaches to make-up and skin care, and offers many constructive and simple solutions to some common and uncommon skin problems. Paula Begoun also has a newsletter and a Web site at http://www.cosmeticscop.com. I don't have oily skin like she does, but for those of you who do, her books are a great source on how to care for this difficult skin type.

     Ms. Begoun has kindly allowed me to quote from her books, and so I would like to share with you these passages which are especially interesting to those of us on guaifenesin.

"...There is no such thing as "all natural" "pure" cosmetics. They don't exist, and if they did, they would not be good for the skin. Natural is ... a term ... that is not regulated, so ....if a company wants to call its products natural, it can, and it doesn't matter what they contain. ...

     Even if "all natural" products did exist you wouldn't want to use it on your skin, anyway. Think about a bunch of fruits and plants or vegetables sitting in your bathroom. What would happen in a very short amount of time if they did not contain preservatives? They would become moldy and disgusting in just a few days. Skin-care products contain very "unnatural" sounding preservatives ...Just think of how many people have hay fever, and you will start to realize just how unfriendly natural ingredients can be.

     What makes this natural craze so annoying is ...it perpetuates myths which can actually hurt a woman's skin. All of the following natural ingredients can cause skin irritation, allergic reactions, skin sensitivity and/or sun sensitivity: allspice, almond, angelica, arnica, balm mint oil, balsam, basil, bergamot, cinnamon, citrus, clove, clover blossom, cocoa butter, coriander oil, corn oil, cornstarch, cottonseed oil, fennel, fir needle, geranium oil, grapefruit, horsetail, jojoba oil, lavender oil, lemon, lemon grass, lime, marjoram, Melissa, oak bark, papaya, peppermint, rose, sage, tea tree oil, thyme, witch hazel and wintergreen...

     Furthermore, while vegetable oils may sound better for the skin, dimeticone and cyclometicone (silicone oils) are actually far more beneficial and offer the most impressive benefits for the skin. They are in 80 percent of all skin care, makeup and hair care products you buy. Yet you rarely hear about them, because the cosmetic companies think consumers won't find them as sexy or alluring as plants or oxygen therapy or cellular repair or a thousand other marketing angles that have nothing to do with what really works for your skin...

Remember the following:

1. Food type ingredients increase the need for additional preservatives to decrease mold and bacteria contamination.
2. Plant oils decompose faster than mineral oils and require higher concentrations of preservatives and fragrances.
3. Plant oils often contain fatty (saturated) acids that can clog pores and cause acne.
4. Food can feed the bacteria in skin increasing the risk of breakouts.
5. Plant extracts are no longer plants, and the process used to do the extraction is not "natural"
6. Yeast or bacteria cultures in cosmetics can exacerbate rosaceae and psoriasis.
7. Natural ingredients are almost always synthetically treated so they can be blended into a cosmetic.

     There are a lot of natural ingredients, but they are no more effective than the so-called synthetic ingredients. In fact, because natural ingredients have a larger range of limitations, synthetic ingredients are often safer and more reliable for the skin. As Dr. Blumberg from Tufts University has pointed out most eloquently, "Just because they are in nature doesn't mean it's good for the skin." While plants sound great, pure and natural and all that, and while sesame oil and licorice extract sound far better than capric/caprylic triglyceride and glycrrhetinic acid, they aren't better or worse. Each has its pros and cons and it would be a delusion to assume otherwise.

     Many ingredients such as mineral oil get a bad rap because they are derived from coal tar which sounds unnatural, but is actually as natural as any plant. Mineral oil is actually one of the better, least irritating, least problem-causing ingredients for the skin. Remember the question isn't whether something sounds good or appears to be good, but whether it is genuinely good.

Mineral Oils
     There are two basic kinds of mineral oil--those derived from petrolatum (better known as Vaseline) and those derived from a group of ingredients called silicones such as dimethicone and cyclomethicone.

     Mineral oil and petrolatum are very common moisturizing ingredients and for two good reasons. First they are inexpensive, and second, they work. Petrolatum and mineral oil do not absorb into the skin, because the molecules are too large to penetrate the skin. Therefore they stay on the surface and provide a barrier between the skin and they air. This is a good reason to look for mineral oil and petrolatum listed in a moisturizer. The same is true for the silicones which also do an impressive job of keeping water in the skin....

     I should mention that some beauty experts feel that mineral oils are a skin care no-no and should be avoided at all costs. They feel they can cause blemishes ... I am not sure why these experts pick on mineral oil more than say, lanolin or vegetable oil, which are also known to clog pores and cause allergic reactions. I have not found enough supporting evidence to warrant avoiding any kind of mineral oil if you're not allergic to it. Besides, you are more likely to be allergic to a lot of other cosmetic ingredients than you are to mineral oil.

     Salicylic acid is an effective exfoliant, but it doesn't have a drop-off rate (meaning it doesn't stop exfoliating the skin as AHA (alpha hydroxys) do. Salicylic acid just keeps exfoliating which can be too irritating for the skin on a regular basis. Also, salicylic acid does not have the additional benefit of water-binding properties the way AHAs do. For these reasons I strongly recommend using products that contain AHAs instead of BHAs.

Glycerin
     It turns out that plain old glycerin, long known as a humectant, may be a best friend for someone with dry skin. What appears to be true is that glycerin shores up the skin's natural protection by filling up the area known as the intercellular layer and by attracting just the right amount of water to maintain the skin's homeostasis.

Animal oils
     Lanolin and fish oils are the typical animal fats you find in moisturizers. Research indicates that good old-fashioned lanolin is still the best ingredient for keeping water in the skin. The reason for this is that lanolin closely resembles the oil produced by human oil glands. For very dry skin lanolin is an excellent moisturizing ingredient....cholesterol, glycolipids and phospholipids ...can be absorbed into the skin and work well as moisturizing ingredients.

     These are just a few examples of the clear and informative style of these books, and if you're having trouble finding products you like, Don't Go to the Cosmetic Counter can be a real help. For example, if I need a foundation, I look at the "Best Foundations" section, and jot down some that look good to me. Then I look on our product list, and if they are there, I start with those. Or, I have a few specific names to look for when I get to the store.

Good hunting!