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Volume XXV - Nr.1 - November 2010

Natural beauty products or natural cosmetics

Once assimilated the daze caused by the advertising campaign built by some organizations on the presumed need to treat the skin with "natural” products, stated that in the law that regulates production and marketing of cosmetics, there is no definition of “natural product”, checked that the convenient rules used up today to force a definition with this meaning are at least questionable and ascertained that Cosmetics is intended as «the art and the technique having the aim to preserve body freshness and beauty», Natural Cosmetics certainly is not to be intended as that one forcing limited use, in finished products, of ingredients from the vegetable kingdom, but that one having -as ultimate aim- to keep skin system in its anatomical, physiological and biochemical normality.

To restore and maintain the important functions of this fascinating system, the main of which is the barrier function intended in bidirectional meaning (protection against outside agents and control of water loss), above all it is useful to consider that the skin is the first defense of our organism towards the surrounding environment. Therefore, it’s evident that balances that regulate skin functionality are fundamental and that decisive is that these balances not only are to be left unaltered, but sustained by focused and appropriate treatments.

Beauty treatment certainly can give an important support, provided that there are some conditions for action possibility. It should be emphasized that the basic principle to maintain the balance of all the functions of the skin is to avoid mismanagements that, if consolidated, also would make moderate -or even useless- the effectiveness of most specific beauty preparations (incorrect feeding, change of the sleep-waking rhythm, intake of toxic substances as alcohol, nicotine, drugs, application of improper substances, contact with irritant agents, excessive exposure to sun and to suntan lamps, lasting permanence at improper temperature and moisture, sedentariness, etc.).

The skin system is programmed to carryon its "natural" functions and to do so, it needs to be respected according its structure never forgetting that the aim is to guarantee skin functionality according to nature. Restoring and maintenance of these conditions are not surely guaranteed by the use of socalled “natural” ingredients. With special reference to some of these ingredients, the less an ingredient is defined, the less useful elements for its selection will be, as well as the less the selectivity of its action will be in the use context.

Therefore, while applying the concept of Natural Cosmetics, the origin of ingredients should be deemed as secondary. The demand should be addressed towards a selection of ingredients, excipients included, that offer wide guarantees of harmlessness, stability in preparation and application conditions, as well of effectiveness, according to fixed and expected canons.Hence, the priority of the formulator to know

and study specific and effective action of each ingredient to use, as well as the effects resulting from the association of all components constituting the preparation. Here is also the ethical duty of the marketing responsible to propose the product with due recommendations to limit the above mentioned errors and not only to accompany it with the related application modes, a charming packaging and a targeted claim, often lacking in substance.

It’s desiderable that a change will be towards renewed culture of communication that promotes spreading of serious messages grounded on reliable structural elements, to support with increasing reliability that small container of science and of hopes which is a cosmetic product.

 

 

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