Question of the month September 2009: Natural ingredients

Dear Paula,

I was very surprised to see that you disapprove of natural scents like lavender. What is your opinion on natural raw materials in cosmetics? At the moment thousands of synthetic ingredients are used in cosmetics. These ingredients can harm both humans and the environment. Have you heard about the European Union's REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of Chemicals) organization? They have a program detailing the use of chemical raw material/ingredients that helps identify harmful substances and places this information into a database that is accessible to the public.

Kindly give me your advice on good natural cosmetics and your opinion on all those chemical material/ingredients. Or is commerce more important to you than health?

Dear Mrs. T.,

I appreciate your concerns, but I do include many "natural" ingredients in my products, and, yes, I do care a great deal about my business. But as a cosmetics company that recommends many other companies' products in addition to my own, I always put the needs of the consumer first. (No other cosmetics company recommends products from lines they don't sell, not even companies that own other lines. You would never hear someone at the Clinique counter recommending a product from Origins or Prescriptives, despite the fact all are owned by Estee Lauder Corporation.)

What I always disapprove of are any ingredients, natural or otherwise, that are harmful or problematic for skin. Your belief that only synthetic ingredients can be harmful is incorrect. Poison ivy is natural and you wouldn't want that in your skin-care products. Lemon smells great, but get a bit of that on a tiny area of open skin and it can become inflamed and infected (inflammation hurts the skin's healing process). Even water can be dangerous, and not just because you can drown in it; more simply, too much water can break down the skin's protective layer. Basic table salt (NaCl) is fine, but when it's broken down into its components of sodium and chloride you have two natural, but dangerous, substances. I could go on and on. The same holds true for synthetic ingredients, some are assuredly problematic for skin, but many provide incredible benefit and we couldn't function without them.

In terms of lavender, as a scent I think it is wonderful, and you can atomize or light aromatic candles to your heart's content. But on the skin, research indicates it can cause problems. On my Web site's Ingredient Dictionary section I provide the following information explaining my concern about lavender extract:

Lavender extract and oil. Primarily a fragrance ingredient, though it may have antibacterial properties. There is no research showing it to have any benefit for skin (Sources: Phytotherapy Research, June 2002, pages 301–308, and Healthnotes Review of Complementary and Integrative Medicine). It can be a skin irritant (Source: Contact Dermatitis, August 1999, page 111). It can also be a photosensitizer (Source: Family Practice Notebook). Current research indicates that components of lavender, specifically linalool, can be cytotoxic, meaning topical application causes skin cell death (Source: Cell Proliferation, June 2004, pages 1365–2184).
One more point: The Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) group doesn't refer only to "synthetic" ingredients; it covers natural ingredients as well. That is, even REACH does not automatically assume that natural is equal to being safe.

Paula  Begoun