Hey #VerdantFam! Today we’ll be diving deeper into the question - are all-natural products better/safer than synthetic products?
According to a 2017 survey from the NPD Group, up to 50% of women in the United States seek out all natural or organic ingredients in facial skincare products. It is obvious that clean beauty is on the rise. You see it on social media, where influencers claim that going all-natural helped their skin look better than ever. You also see it in stores, where many products market themselves as being “100% natural” or “Non-Toxic”.
However, the problem is that “natural” is not an official term. There is no formal system that regulates ‘natural’ or a legal definition of what this term means. The ASEAN Cosmetic Directive (ACD) also does not provide or regulate the use of the word ‘natural’ on products. As a result, companies can claim that a product is natural while still containing ingredients that don’t constitute as natural.
Usually, the term ‘natural’ suggests that the product is free from synthetic chemicals and certain preservatives like parabens. By not using such ingredients, the product is perceived to be healthier, safer, and better for your skin. But that’s just it - a consumer perception, not a promise. In actual fact, if you have a sensitive complexion, natural products will not automatically fix your issues. After all, plant-based ingredients cause irritation all the time. A lot of natural things can be bad for you - poison ivy, cyanide in apple seeds etc. There is also a misconception that chemicals = danger when in reality, the water that you and I both drink daily, is also a chemical! Also, just because something was made in a lab, doesn’t mean that it is toxic. There are many safe synthetic ingredients!
At The Verdant Lab, we do not market our products as all-natural. Although we do strive to use as many natural ingredients as possible, we also understand that synthetic ingredients are not all bad, and we incorporate them into our products to make them better. For example, we use synthetic preservatives like phenoxyethanol and disodium EDTA. These preservatives are not harmful and help to prevent microbes like bacteria, mould, and yeast from growing. If such preservatives are not used, the growth of microbes in our products could potentially be harmful to the user, even if the product still smells and looks ok! Using such contaminated products can cause infections and skin reactions, which makes the synthetic preservatives that we use paramount to the safety of our products.
Natural products are not better or safer than products that use synthetic ingredients. At the end of the day, it boils down to the specific ingredients that are used and how your skin reacts to them. The Verdant Lab chooses to use both natural and synthetic ingredients to maximise their effectiveness and make our products the best that it can be.
That concludes our blog post for today! We hope that it has given you an insight into all-natural products and how they stack up against products that use synthetic ingredients too. Please feel free to let us know what topic you would like to see us cover next in future blogs!