Organic beauty? It’s complicated...

I don't imagine Ms Kerr ever runs out of clean pants, or has to rifle through the washing basket for a half-wearable bra.

I don't imagine Ms Kerr ever runs out of clean pants, or has to rifle through the washing basket for a half-wearable bra.

Published May 27, 2014

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London - Given that celebrities tend to be as evangelical about making sure the gloop that goes on their faces is as green as the gunk that goes in their juices, it’s little wonder that the number of skincare products labelled “organic” seems to be growing faster than an outbreak of Japanese knotweed.

After all, who could fail to be seduced by the idea that eschewing chemical nasties for something “all-natural” could give you even a fraction of Gwyneth Paltrow’s glow? Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr has even launched an organic beauty line.

But at a lunch last week, I was asked whether I thought there was any real merit to organic beauty.

The answer is complicated. Firstly, the issues surrounding organic skincare are not the same as those around organic food.

Because we ingest food, and our bodies therefore absorb all the ingredients via the gut, the case for organic farming is strong. Animals that are intensively reared and pumped full of hormones and antibiotics will inevitably retain some in their flesh.

But because skincare and cosmetics in general are applied topically, the risk posed by non-organic skincare is much lower.

As a wise dermatologist once told me, the human skin is renowned for its impermeability, and for its ability to keep our internal organs in and various passing nasties out.

Of course, some stuff will get through. But most will remain on the surface.

This has long been a big problem for cosmetics manufacturers, especially in the skin rejuvenation sector. They have no trouble identifying the ingredients to improve the appearance of the top layers of skin, but getting them deep enough to have any visible effect is tricky.

That’s why new-ish products such as Boots’ Protect & Perfect range have such a loyal following: they contain Matrixyl, a relatively new active ingredient that has a unique ability to penetrate the skin.

The other way that a molecule can get past the skin barrier is simply by being small enough. Many fragrances, for example, have this ability (try rubbing garlic on your skin and after a while you will taste it in your mouth). But not all these teeny tiny molecules are as benign. In particular, there is evidence that parabens (a type of artificial preservative commonly used in non-organic cosmetics) are small enough to sneak past the skin’s defences and into the bloodstream.

The problem with this is that parabens mimic the hormone oestrogen, which can allegedly cause all sorts of havoc in the body, not just in terms of oestrogen-sensitive cancers, but also by interfering with normal hormone function.

The question is: does it matter? Blueberries, for example, contain a natural paraben, and we’re always being told they’re a superfood. And it’s this which divides most experts, and why (for now, at least) there are no official warnings about parabens or other controversial substances, such as aluminium and formaldehyde, in mass-market skincare.

So that’s the case for going organic. The case against is more straightforward, albeit rather defeatist.

Our environment is so crammed with toxins that buying organic skincare is a waste of money. In other words, what’s the point in putting loveliness on your skin when the second you step outside your body is bombarded with evil pollutants?

The beauty industry, sensing a bandwagon, has taken to bandying around the term “organic”. And because there is no hard and fast regulation in the UK about what can and cannot be labelled as such, the consumer is easily hoodwinked.

“Organic” on a label can mean anything from 100 percent organic (vanishingly rare in my experience) to two percent (surprisingly common).

A recent survey found naughtiness all over the High Street in this respect. Boots Botanics’s facial oil (£9.99) was labelled as 100 percent organic but was found to contain at least four non-organic ingredients. And a Nivea handcream purporting to be “all natural” contained methylisothiazolinone, a preservative found in window cleaners and air fresheners.

My view? If you can afford it, by all means buy organic. If you can’t, don’t panic. Instead, look for natural ingredients. Both will have shorter shelf lives than products that contain chemicals, but you can get around this by keeping them in the fridge. - Daily Mail

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