Thursday 22 November 2012

Be naturally flawless


I am a firm believer in having flawless, natural and healthy looking skin! Now to achieve flawless skin, I am sure we all have tried numerous products, the latest most 'revolutionary' products that we all keep on seeing advertised on television. But sometimes consciously or subconsciously we ignore the harsh and harmful effects of these highly saturated chemical based products on our skin . When I picked up this generic Dove body lotion, I didn't think of it much and thought it's cheap and cheerful and it would do the job! From the front of the packaging it had everything I wanted from a moisturiser so I carried on using it. One day out of curiosity I decided to look at the back of the bottle and realised that I was having a hard time making sense out of one single word in the ingredients list, let alone the whole list.


Now, this is a Dove body lotion... how much of this actually makes any sense to you?
To me it looks like something out of my calculus book (for those who don't know me, I am absolutely terrible at maths and have the hardest time grasping any mathematical concept). I despise maths and reading this ingredient list evoked similar emotions in me. However, with the help of my handy handyman, Scott (my boyfriend) who is also a doctor of Chemistry, we started making more sense out this situation. He informed me that every chemical has a material safety data sheet MSDS here is the link to the website with every possible chemicals listed !
http://www.msds.com/

Here are few of the ingredients listed in the ingredients section of the Dove body lotion and here are the potential health hazards it can cause. 


Steric Acid - slightly hazardous incase of skin contact, to read more about this chemical check out : https://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927609

Phenoxy-Ethenol - This is extremely hazardous in case of eye contact and very hazardous in case of skin contact. To read more about this chemical check out: http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9926486

ETDA Disodium - Hazardous incase of eye and skin contact (irritant).To read more about this chemical check out: 



I do understand that these chemicals are only used in very small doses, however using these products over a long period of time surely contributes to illnesses that we may have in the future. We must remember that these chemicals are 'legal' chemicals, but just because it is legal it doesn't mean that they are beneficial to our skin, or any good for our overall health. Sodium nitrite legally has to be stored in a locked toxic cupboard yet it is used in the UK as a preservative for just about every pork product! Salt would do, but would be less economical for the company selling the pork products.

Anyway going back to my main point. I think we should be more careful about what we are putting on our precious skin. We don't want to riddle our skin with nasty chemicals! It might be a short term fix, however long term it may very well damage your skin, causing further skin irritation. Which will probably lead you to buy stronger chemically potent products. So after using the current bottle of body lotion you are using (if it has a lot of harmful chemicals check your chemicals @http://www.msds.com/) I would advice you to buy a product which makes your skin and body happy! My favorite natural moisturiser has to be coconut oil. I personally think that coconut oil has to be the best multi purpose product I have ever used. I use it for

Moisturising my skin

Deep conditioning my hair

Cooking and Baking 

Massage oil (it's great for a hot massage) 

Lip balm

cuticle cream (just dip your finger in the pot for a minute and get flawless cuticles!)


















A 500g jar of coconut oil lasts me approximately two months (because I use it for everything) it would probably last you longer if you just use it for moisturising. And it only costs round about £10. Make sure the coconut oil you do buy is pure (extra virgin), and has no added preservatives to it. A good place to find coconut oil is at http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/ 

Happy moisturising !! 















1 comment:

  1. This makes very interesting reading. I am off to Holland and Barrett's this afternoon so I will give it a try.

    ReplyDelete