Knowing your Ingredients: Chemicals vs Chemistry

There’s a lot of terms thrown around in the skincare industry today. “Clean Beauty” or "All Naturally Derived” might ring a bell. The fear of “chemicals” in skincare has become a huge thing. But there’s a ton of misunderstanding within the arsenal of ingredients that serve a necessary purpose. Not just for functionality of a product but for the safety as well. 

When you really take a closer look - every ingredient, including plant based botanical ingredients create “chemical” interactions within the body. 

But one industry standard is the use of a chelator - which binds certain molecules together to strengthen the preservatives within a product. It’s important to understand the difference between chemicals and chemistry. I’m just as equally a proponent of reading the back of the bottle and wanting to understand “what” exactly is going into your body. 

Today it’s becoming more common practice to read the ingredients on the back of any product. It's a good thing. And I had no idea what any of these ingredients even meant before entering the wonderful rabbit hole which is skincare formulation. 

Here’s an article that further goes into the importance of using a Chelator in skincare formulation:

https://www.mbcosmeticsacademy.com/chelate-cosmetic-formulation-guide/

In short - it’s good to practice mindfulness in knowing about the ingredients in your products. But before you turn away from an ingredient that sounds potentially made of toxic additives, I’d invite you to keep a curious mind. 

I say this while also wanting to emphasize that I value the use of exploring naturally derived ingredients. We’re discovering so many plants can do some pretty incredible things on their own. For me it’s the draw to plant medicine being used creatively.

In short – It’s important to know your ingredients. Try to avoid being led into thinking a “clean beauty” claim indicates a safer product. I like to integrate both worlds into one; where plant medicine meets science.