Are you a NZ Natural Skin Care User??

I was honoured to give a talk recently to the Manawatu Branch of the NZ Association of Registered Beauty Therapists- almost 100 people were present. The topic of my talk was the Natural Skin Care Consumer in NZ- and the brief was not to self promote. However it was possible to really educate the audience about some of the influences which drive people to use natural skin care- what drives you??? I would love to hear your stories! The full script of my presentation is here.

Top tip for winter skin- moisturise, moisturise, moisturise. If you would like to squeeze a little more life out of your moisturiser apply to your skin when it is very slightly damp (e.g. after a shower or straight after toner). If you don't use toner apply a warm flannel to the skin to open up pores and you will need up to 1/3 less moisturiser!

Green Surfactants - Articles - SpecialChem 4 Cosmetics

Green Surfactants - Articles - SpecialChem 4 Cosmetics
This has some excellent detail about over stating green claims but also some solutions from a formulators perspective.

Is honey a plant derived ingredient???

This issue seems to crop up with some regularity in the world of 'natural' cosmetics. Indeed it has even been claimed that as bees work on plants, then honey must be plant derived. This was a stance I raised with the Advertising Standards Authority and whilst I was unsuccessful in my complaint, it has certainly highlighted the green washing which can occur by companies claiming to be natural. This particular company was claiming to be 99% plant based- but felt it did not need to count the water as an ingredient, even though it would be at least 70% of the formula. The full advertising standard complaint is available here (11/703)

The respondents to my complaint stated "On the website www.gmo-compass.org which was set up with the financial support of the European Union, it is stated that the basic components of honey are 'purely plant-derived'. The website also states that if the commercial labelling of honey indicates a specific plant (e.g. manuka honey or pohutakawa honey in a New Zealand context) it must be provable that a minimum of 50% of the source nectar stems from this plant. We are therefore of the opinion that it is not misleading to describe honey as plant based as it does originate as nectar. In any event, the honey in our formulation is at a level well under 1%." 

However, if this line of reasoning was taken further then it can be said that milk and indeed meat is plant derived as the animal makes it from grass! The UK Vegan Society, who certify all our products, have a very clear stance on the use of honey, beeswax etc. The full details are available here.

Honey, and other bee products such as beeswax, propolis and royal jelly, are animal products and therefore vegans do not consume or use them.  In common with other animals kept to produce food products bees are farmed and manipulated, and the honey they produce for themselves is taken from them.  Vegans do not eat products taken from any animal, including bees, because it is neither desirable nor necessary to exploit animals in order to obtain food for humans.
^...
To produce honey, worker bees drink nectar from flowers and store it in their honey stomach, where the nectar is mixed with secretions from two glands (including the salivary gland) which will transform the nectar into honey.  On returning to the hive the worker bee transfers the nectar to a ‘house’ bee who drinks the nectar, and may regurgitate and re-drink it several times to mix more secretions with the nectar and may pass it on to another bee to do the same, and then places it in the honeycomb. Each worker bee will produce 1/12^th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
The queen bee is usually killed every year and a new queen introduced to the colony.  The queen may have her wings clipped to prevent her from flying; this is to stop the bees carrying out their natural instinct to swarm (the old queen and a large proportion of the bees leaving the nest once the colony has provided a new queen to replace her).

The purpose of this comment is to not take a dig at the honey industry per se, however for various reasons we choose to avoid it in all our  products and follow strict standards to ensure we comply with the Vegan and Cruelty Free standards. The best thing for discerning consumers is to read labels not marketing claims, check for independent certifications such as the Vegan Society.


Food for thought???
By the way on a personal note any product I have ever used with honey has caused me to come out in a rash-even at the low % used in most skin care of <1%
Wendy

Ingredient update Dr. Wendy's 100% Botanical Skin Care

http://doctorwendy.net/blog/item/38-january-news.html

New and improved formualtions now available.

Argan Oil

Argan Oil

This is a fantastic cosmetic oil and it is wonderful to see how it's production is bringing independence to the locals. We use pure organic argan oil in several products.

Wendy

love natural skincare: how can water be a plant?

love natural skincare: how can water be a plant?: Something cropped up recently on a skin care label which made me prick up my antennae. As a conscientious business owner I like to keep...

how can water be a plant?

Something cropped up recently on a skin care label which made me prick up my antennae.

As a conscientious business owner I like to keep abreast of what my competition are doing and I came across a skin care company in New Zealand claiming to be  be a ‘natural, organic, skincare’.  As I produce a range of skin care which is totally (100%) made from plant based ingredients I checked them out and was surprised to find that they state they contain 99% of plant derived ingredients. Sounds good so far...

They offer a range of products-some gel and some cream. The following is the ingredient list from a cleansing product and it contains:

“aqua (water), aloe barbadensis leaf juice, sodium cocoyl glutamate, sodium lauroylamphoacetate, glycerin, hoheria populnea (lacebark) extract, cucumis sativus (cucumber) extract, guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride, citrus limon (lemon) fruit extract, zizyphus jujuba fruit extract, carica papaya (paw paw) extract, mel (honey), rubus idaeus (raspberry) seed oil, hibiscus sabdariffa (hibiscus) flower extract, phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin, backhousia citriodora (lemon myrtle) oil, geranial*, citral*, citric acid”.

How can this list be derived 99% from plants when the first ingredient is WATER- in any  formulations this will be at least 50 and probably nearer 80% of the formula. Cosmetic labeling in NZ follows international conventions whereby the ingredients must be listed in descending order and anything at less than 1% can be in any order at the end. If this label conforms to the convention then water is the first and most voluminous ingredient.

The second ingredient is aloe juice (this is different to the gel) so probably makes up some of water percentage. however this still doesn’t add up to 99%. 

The preservative ‘phenoxyethanol’ is typically used at 1% so anything below that is definitely at less than 1% per item.  Thus this formula contains the following non plant derived ingredients:

Aqua (water) estimate at 50%

sodium lauroylamphoaceta (a conditioning agent) probably up to 5%

glycerin- may be animal origin as plant not stated usually up to 2%

mel (honey)- produced by bees so not a plant ingredient- usually no more than 1-2% of a formula

Ethylhexylglycerin-”Ethylhexylglycerin is a relatively new chemical on the market.  Many companies use it as an alternative to parabens and claim that it's from natural sources.  Yes, it may have started out as a vegetable oil, but it's gone through several chemical processes to become what it is.  This isn't the worst ingredient in the world, but it's also not truly natural, and safety data is highly lacking for this ingredient. “ (Chemical of the Day Website). This could be up to 1%

So...based on the above list this product is at least 54% derived from non plant ingredients- talk about false advertising! 

I am following up this company and their claims with the Advertising Standards Authority in NZ.... why not be honest.