The "Big Three" Skincare Ingredients that I avoid
The compounding effect matters and even if we don’t understand the full impact of certain compounds yet, it is good to understand that there is always an effect of using...
Top ingredients to avoid, and what to look out for, in your skincare if you are making the switch to natural products.
We have known for decades that occupational risks associated with working with certain compounds (like lead paint and asbestos for example) exist, and we also know that it can take time (think, decades) for those risks to become known, and then even longer to be fully understood. While still trailing behind, it is becoming more commonly known that the products we use daily around our homes and on our bodies, can have an impact on our health too. Products we use to clean with, candles we light, and lotions we rub on our skin. The compounding effect matters and even if we don’t understand the full impact of certain compounds yet, it is good to understand that there is always an effect of using something and working to minimise our exposure to potentially harmful products is wise. This is important to me - and maybe to you too, since you are reading this. This article is going to discuss some of the most common ingredients in skincare that I choose to avoid, and why.
It is my mission to bring the world body and skincare that is natural, beautiful, indulgent and actually provides results - while also being safe for our bodies.
But before I get into that, let’s talk about greenwashing, because we don’t want that either and part of my mission is to hold the industry accountable with transparency around labelling and marketing natural products.
Greenwashing is the deceptive marketing practice of portraying a product, or company, as more environmentally friendly or in this case, natural, than it actually is. This is done by using vague, misleading or unsubstantiated claims such as ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘all natural’ to capitalise on consumer demand for these types of products.
Far too often, I am seeing skincare products that are still using synthetic preservatives and fragrances being self labelled as natural. Unfortunately the term natural is unregulated so many companies are misleading customers simply because they can get away with it.
The reality is that synthetic ingredients are cheaper and easier to use when producing cosmetics. There are some cases where the synthetic version is actually better than the natural version but in most cases it comes down to cost and many companies opt to use cheaper ingredients. The most common example of this is in preservatives.
A popular preservative you will see in a lot of skincare and bodycare products is phenoxyethanol. This is a paraben free preservative, which is great, however there is still reason to use some caution around this ingredient. Before I talk about why, a quick understanding of natural certification.
The gold standard for knowing if a product is actually natural or not, is certification from Eco Cert and for organic products, you would look for the COSMOS label (which is also through Eco Cert). Getting certified is a very expensive process to go through so for many smaller businesses, like myself, it is not yet possible to achieve. In this case you could look for transparency around the level of natural on the product or website before making a purchasing decision (like I have) - however please be aware that some products claim to be 99% natural while the other 1% is phenoxyethanol.
Why should you care about that?
While phenoxyethanol is found naturally occurring in green tea, it is synthetically re-created in a lab for cosmetic purposes. This makes it a natural-identical ingredient which is not inherently bad - I mentioned earlier that sometimes the synthetic version is better than the natural version, however in this case, it's a very hot debate.
Phenoxyethanol quickly entered the market when consumers started raising concerns with parabens which were previously widely used as preservatives and commonly linked to endocrine disrupting behaviour.
Phenoxyethanol actually used to be an allowable ingredient in natural products under Eco Cert standards (the gold standard) however well over a decade ago, it was banned by Eco Cert due to concerns over it being a potential irritant, allergen, and its reported toxic effects in higher concentrations.
This is where the science is still unclear. The big turning point for phenoxyethanol was when in 2008, the FDA issued a warning regarding a nipple cream. The warning highlighted that the product could cause central nervous system depression, vomiting, and diarrhea in nursing babies who ingested the cream during breastfeeding. The FDA's focus was on the ingestion of two ingredients used (phenoxyethanol and chlorphenesin), particularly noting that phenoxyethanol can depress the central nervous system in babies.
This was a pivotal moment in the public perception and regulatory scrutiny of phenoxyethanol and resulted in regulations being put in place to limit the use of phenoxyethanol to a maximum concentration of 1%.
It is argued that at that level, it is safe, even for children, and many experts argue that the risk is with ingestion, not when used topically; however we all know that products applied to the skin (or lips) are absorbed by the body to some extent.
Aside from this incident, phenoxyethanol is also known to cause contact dermatitis or eczema in some people, particularly when applied repeatedly over prolonged periods. Some studies also show reproductive toxicity and neurotoxicity however this is often a result of using large quantities in isolation and is something that the scientific community has been unable to agree on for quite some time, hence studies have been inconclusive.
At the end of the day, it comes down to personal choice and what you are comfortable with. For myself, the lack of studies that consider repeated exposure from multiple products daily that all use it at a concentration of 1% is a concern and therefore I look for products that don't use phenoxyethanol wherever possible. It's difficult to avoid it in everything so I take the ‘minimise as much as sanely possible’ approach.
In the products I have created for Olympia & Órla, I choose to use preservatives that are approved by Eco Cert as the leading body in natural products, even if it costs more and makes it harder to formulate - which is why most companies don't. It is important to note that the preservative system I use is still synthetic, however it is a gentle, low-allergen preservative which has been thoroughly assessed by Eco Cert as suitable to use in natural and organic certified products.
A side note on preservatives. They are good and almost all cosmetic formulations need to have preservatives in them (there are some exceptions) otherwise they can get contaminated, you risk irritating your skin with unhealthy bacteria and it can reduce the effectiveness of the product. For these reasons, it is important to be careful with natural products that are not formulated professionally because natural products can be more prone to bacterial growth and while the product might look okay, it may end up wrecking havoc on your skin barrier over time if it's not.
Olympia & Órla products are formulated professionally, stability tested before manufacture and made in a factory that does microbial testing on every single batch. Home made products, such as those found at craft markets, may not be tested to this level so just be careful and do pay attention to the date after opening which is often a little jar symbol with a number and an M which equates to the number of months you can use the product for once you open it. Most natural products will be 6M or 12M. If it's more than 12M, that can be a sign that perhaps the product isn't as natural as it's claiming to be and it may be worth having a closer look.
The other key ingredient to look out for in your cosmetics is fragrance.
Synthetic fragrance is exceptionally popular because developing natural fragrance is a very fine art and it's very difficult to get the level of fragrance and variety of aromas that you can with synthetic compounds.
If the ingredient list says fragrance or parfum and is not clearly described as being natural, then it is most likely synthetic.
It is also a very sneaky one because fragrance formulations are deemed to be intellectual property and the components do not have to be disclosed. Although recent law changes do mean this is changing for New Zealand, and anyone who volunteers to follow the EU guidelines.
From July this year, any fragrance containing any of the 80+ listed allergens over certain concentrations, must be called out separately on the ingredients label.
Previously the list was only 26 and the expanded list includes many substances naturally present in essential oils and botanical extracts, such as linalool, limonene, and various plant oils.
This sounds like a good thing, and I absolutely agree that potential allergens should be listed, however there is concern that it will deter companies away from using natural fragrance because it makes the ingredient list look longer, and opt for synthetic fragrances that can instead remain hidden by the singular term ‘fragrance’.
Transparency is great, but when it penalises companies for using natural fragrance, then I am not so sure. You can take a look at my Pink Clay Facial Scrub for an example of how extended the ingredient list is because I choose to use natural fragrance.
Why don't I like synthetic fragrance? Well I don't know about you, but I haven’t been able to tolerate it for many, many years. The smell of peoples perfumes makes my head spin and gives me a headache, and overly fragranced bodywashes often leave me with a rash. Headaches are one of the most common reactions but synthetic fragrance can also cause irritability, joint aches, fatigue, sore throats and has even been linked to kidney, liver and nervous system damage - which is pretty crazy.
There are lower tox fragrances available now as well as more products using natural fragrance but it is important to remember that natural fragrance isn’t automatically regarded as safe either - which is why the EU has made the law change discussed earlier. Although quite rare, natural fragrance can still cause irritation for some people so it's always best to patch test when you can - especially if your skin is particularly sensitive - like mine.
When it comes to skincare, sometimes fragrance is used to counteract the natural smell of some ingredients which can be, not “bad” but perhaps not pleasant either. Some products rely on fragrance for the experience of the product, such as body washes or body lotions and I am okay with using natural fragrance in my body care for this reason but for the more sensitive skin on my face, I generally I opt for leave on products that don't contain fragrance - like facial moisturisers and if they do contain fragrance, I make sure its natural to avoid headaches and rashes. It’s always a fine balance between experience/enjoyment and health right!
Finally, there is one more trick when it comes to fragrance.
Unscented vs fragrance free.
They sound the same but they are not. Unscented means that while it may have no noticeable scent, it still has a masking fragrance to hide the smell of other ingredients in the product and can still result in side effects for those sensitive to fragrance.
Look for fragrance-free if you are wanting to avoid fragrance completely.
The last thing I just wanted to touch on very quickly, is plastic in your skincare. While microbeads have been banned in NZ for many years now, a lot of skincare still contains liquid plastic materials such as polyethylene, polypropylene and crosspolymers. These are synthetic polymers and are often labeled as PEG and PPGs.
Choosing natural will generally mean avoiding these but be careful for the same reasons we discussed earlier around preservatives, where products are labelled as 99% natural or 95% natural - it's worth checking what that remaining percentage is.
All this information can be overwhelming and the ingredient names are complex and half of them sound the same, so a really quick and easy way to check your products is to paste the ingredients list into something like INCI decoder or Ecogolik, which will tell you what each ingredient is and raise any that could be a concern. You do need to take these with a grain of salt though, and sometimes they get the origin of ingredients wrong, but they are a good starting point. If you plug in a product in and it's all red, you may wish to reconsider but the odd orange ingredient is probably fine (unless it's one mentioned in this article and with the exception of fragrance because this will always get flagged so just make sure you know whether it's natural or not).
All my products are developed to be natural, contain organic ingredients where viable and only use natural fragrance and eco cert approved preservatives. I also use beautiful New Zealand native active ingredients, like mamaku black fern, combined with other well proven skincare ingredients like hyaluronic acid and glycerin for best results.
I have a small range right now but I am working on getting a complete range of body and skincare out so you can be confident in choosing safe products for your body, as well as ones that actually deliver results and feel indulgent which I think is an important part of femininity - there is nothing like rubbing a good body oil over your body and even better when you know its nourishing your skin and not contributing to deeper issues.
I have my Hydrating Facial Mist which is great if you don't want a huge skincare routine, you can literally just cleanse and spritz and you are good to go, and it is going to hydrate, plumpen, brighten your skin as well as help reduce redness, fade acne and minimise fine lines. If you have oily skin, this is also great because that is often a result of skin that is actually dry and this will hydrate and help control oil too.
I also have a delicious strawberry and cream Pink Clay Facial Scrub which smells divine (& of course that is natural fragrance) but it's really lovely because it doesn't dry your skin out like a lot of clay masks do, instead it draws out impurities while also nourishing your skin with mango butter and raspberry seed oil so your skin will feel incredible soft and smooth after using and it also brightens and helps improve skin texture as well as balances oil.
As a final note, I will say that while these things I have discussed are obviously not good for us, neither is stress and trying to replace all your products with natural ones at once can be stressful so I always recommend just replacing each item for a better option as you run out.
I hope you enjoyed this article and if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to email me at hello@olympiaandorla.com
Additional reading & references:
https://terrellhogan.com/fda-warns-consumers-against-using-mommys-bliss-nipple-cream/
https://health.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2021-08/sccs_o_195_0.pdf
https://ireadlabelsforyou.com/is-phenoxyethanol-safe/
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-7-2013-012462_EN.html?redirect
https://coslaw.eu/more-allergens-to-be-individually-labelled-cosmetics/
https://beautymatter.com/articles/fragrance-watch-80-allergens-now-need-declaring-in-eu
https://www.ecocert.com/en/home
https://www.cosmos-standard.org
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/secondary-legislation/pco-drafted/2017/291/en/latest/#DLM7490715