Substances we don’t use
There are big quality differences among the various organic skincare brands and you need to read the FULL ingredient list, also called INCI list, carefully. It has to be printed on the label and/or packaging of cosmetic products.
Very often companies don’t want to publish the full ingredient list on their website and only feature the active ingredients, hiding the undesirable ones. There are many ingredients that are tolerated by the organic certificates, but we don’t use them as we don’t consider them beneficial for the skin.
How to analyse the label
Our products only contain bioavailable substances, which can be absorbed instantly and have a beneficial effect on the skin. To help you through this ingredient jungle, you can apply this general rule: if the ingredient has been modified very little (first or second transformation), it will keep its Latin name on the INCI list. If the ingredient has been through various transformations with synthetic substances and/or mechanical processes, it has an English sounding name. Here is a comparison of our WAY TO RADIANCE cream with another “certified organic” cream.
Synthetic & modified ingredients we don’t use
- Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides
- Cetearyl Alcohol
- Cetearyl Glucoside
- Cetearyl Olivate
- Cetyl Palmitate
- Glycerin
- Glyceryl Caprylate
- Glyceryl Stearate Citrate
- Polyglyceryl-3 Polyricinoleate
- Sorbitan Olivate
- Sucrose Polystearate
- Stearate
- etc.
Natural ingredients we don’t use
Although ingredients such as bees wax, wool wax and gum are natural ingredients, they also create a layer on the skin and can therefor interfere with its natural functions. Some natural ingredients that are commonly used are:
- Cera Alba (bees wax)
- Lanolin (wool wax – it is secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals)
NO green chemistry
Today there are many substances called “Green Chemistry”, which are tolerated in organic skincare. Just like the modified fats, they are substances that used to be natural, but have been processed to obtained a different product.
The result is a derivative with less beneficial properties compared to the raw material. We can compare it to nutrition – the less processed our food is, the more nutrients it contains for our organism.
These type of substances can be identified on the label by its English (as opposed to Latin) name: for example Cetearyl Alcohol, Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides, Glyceryl Caprylate, etc.
NO modified fats
We do not use modified fats, even if they are tolerated by the organic skincare certificates. By treating a natural vegetable oil with chemical processes, we obtain a derivative or subproduct of the original raw material. During the processing the structure of the natural fat is changed and it loses beneficial properties.
The composition of these subproducts are not compatible with the needs of skin anymore.
We exclusively use fats that come from the first cold pressing of the highest quality of raw materials. Thanks to this natural process, the oil maintains all of its properties and proves to be highly effective to protect and regenerate the skin.