Water, Water Everywhere

Part 1.

Let's start with some basics, because understanding how to best care for your skin starts with understanding-- not surprisingly-- your skin.  

Your skin is the largest and heaviest organ of your entire body.

It is designed to act as a crucial part of your immune system, to naturally protect your entire internal structure from exposure to external germs, toxic substance contamination and dehydration.

Its outermost layer- the top of which you see in the mirror- contains the oldest skin cells.  Underneath, fat new skin cells are constantly generating, flattening out as they rise to the surface and push off 30,000-40,000 old skin cells every day.  The cycle takes approximately 4 weeks, meaning the skin you see in the mirror today will have been completely shed and replaced with new skin in about a month.

Aside from medical issues, the most common complaint about skin is dryness, fine lines and wrinkles.  CNN reports that in the 6 years between 2012 and 2018, the percentage of young women 18-24 who believed anti-aging/anti-wrinkle skin care to be important increased from 20% to over 50%.  We all know the healthy buzzwords we’re chasing—rosy, dewy, moist, youthful, vibrant, strong, resilient; we’re just not sure how- or with which products or ingredients- we get there.

By law, each ingredient inside your skin care bottle must be listed in descending order of its volume: most plentiful ingredient first descending down to the last, least plentiful ingredient.

The “Rule of 5” states that the first 5 ingredients on the label are what truly determine whether the product will do what it claims.  Water is frequently the first; it is the majority ingredient in most commercial skin care, and comprises up to 95% of what’s inside the bottle.  “Eau”, “Aqua”, “Acqua”, “Agua” and “Aqua Vitae” are literally “Water” in foreign languages, and mean exactly the same thing.  Aloe may also be listed, which is 98-99% water.  “Hydrosol” may be listed, which is the water left oversteaming plant material.  It is not uncommon to see all three versions of water listed.  

If a product contains any water, preservatives must be added to prevent spoilage from bacteria, fungi and yeasts from growing in it.  Even in cases where a product contains no water, preservatives are still required if it is likely to be contaminated through normal use (mascara that goes from the wand to your eye and back into the tube, jars without dispensers that come into contact with your hands or fingertips, applicators that touch your skin and are returned to the container, etc.).  Many products, if not most, contain multiple preservatives.

Most “natural” products also contain oil(s).  With the addition of oils, emulsifiers are required to mix the two and keep them from separating.

Adding more inexpensive fillers is also common.  Some do nothing but drive profit margins up, some claim to make your skin “smooth and silky” when it is only the ingredient itself (typically a silicone, listed as cetearyl methicone, cyclohexasiloxane, cylomethicone, cyclopentasiloxane or dimethicone) that has a slippery quality which not only does nothing for your skin except temporarily changing the surface feel of it (it’s the product your feeling, not your skin) but disappears down the drain with the first washing. 

And then there are fragrances and colorings.

You may have heard or read the phrase “active ingredients”.  These are ingredients that have supposedly been scientifically proven to do what the product claims, to actually address the skin concern targeted.  This evidence, however, is not required to be listed or disclosed and most of us have no idea how or where to look for it or find out if it exists.

Neither water, nor preservatives, nor emulsifiers, nor texturizers, nor fragrances, nor colorants are “active ingredients”.  High-quality ingredients that have been scientifically investigated with results published in respected peer-reviewed academic, institutional and scientific journals do not come cheap; both the ingredients and the funding of reliable longitudinal studies on their effectiveness are serious investments.

In sum, your product may be:

·       up to 95% water

·       chemical preservatives

·       inactive emulsifiers

·       synthetic fillers

·       inorganic fragrance(s)

·       irritating dye(s) and

·       any of the other 12,500 chemicals approved for use in your personal care products.

Are you paying to subject your face to a substance coming dangerously close to provably being 100% ineffective, or “not proven to address any skin concern or do what the product claims”?

Harvard University has found 38 of the “inactives” to cause life-threatening allergic reactions, which does not include the infinite number of potential interactions between and among them.

 Are we tired of trying one product after another, fruitlessly tracking and buying the “latest”, “newest”, “breakthroughs” and “miracles”…

 And still not seeing the face we deserve to see looking back at us in the mirror?

 SloWild Organics thinks we are.