Natural Ingredients and Allergies - Patch Test Your Products!
Many people are allergic to fruits, nuts, milk and other natural ingredients. Virtually nobody is allergic to Cola. This does not mean that Cola is good for our health and fruit is bad. The reason is that our bodies have not had the time to develop the wrong immune response (develop an allergy) to synthetic ingredients.
If you are prone to allergies, patch test all natural products on a small area of skin first. Once this is done, natural products are generally much better for health in our opinion.
Researching Your Ingredients - Websites claiming the ocean is toxic to our skin?!
A beach full of the chemical "Sodium Chloride".
According to some websites, Sodium Chloride is a dangerous chemical in skin care. This website has statements such as “Sodium Chloride - Positive mutation assay: Mutation in Mammalian Somatic Cells (mouse oth).” (Link)
It may seem after reading this "Cosmetic Database" and others that are similiar, that manufacturers are out to harm us with their products by using Sodium Chloride. But Sodium Chloride is just sea salt. We happily swim in the ocean which is full of Sodium Chloride and even EAT it. Many websites claim that almost anything else with a chemical name is toxic without providing the full references. Presumably the aim is to shock people. This example shows how difficult it can be to research cosmetic ingredients accurately.
Scientists only give credit to articles with full references, and it should be the same for those researching ingredients. We suggest that the best way to check on ingredients you may be concerned about is to write to the company and ask why they use it. Usually they will have more information to help you make an informed decision. "Google Scholar" (www.scholar.google.com) is another way to search for science articles. Websites that do not provide references to studies are of little use as the example above shows.
