Complexity doesn’t do your skin any favours.
If your skin isn't nourished, it certainly won't be radiant and you won't feel your finest.
Clean label refers to products that have fewer, simple and understandable ingredients. It alludes to more than just being honest about what’s in your product; it means moving away from highly processed ingredients and toward ingredients from natural sources with retention of inherent benefits.
We consider our food choices, and reading food labels has become instinctive. We want to know and understand what is in our food, where it has come from and how it was manufactured/processed or produced. We do this for many reasons, health, nutrition, environmental, social conscience, country of origin, beliefs, medical, allergens avoidance of synthetic fortification, ethical standards etc.
Why then do we accept skincare with exhaustive ingredient list of words and compounds we don’t understand?
If you are wanting to be more mindful of what you are applying onto your skin, or what is in the personal care products you are using, PLEASE make it a habit to refer to the ingredients list before purchase as you do with food labels.
Skincare like food is legally required to be labelled in decreasing percentage until 1%. Ingredient 1% or less can be in any order except for colour this must be the final ingredient/s regardless if more than 1%. This means that if the first ingredient is aqua/water the product contains water as the highest percentage ingredient calculated by either weight or volume.
Our skin is designed to repel water and water can actually be an irritant to skin. It binds to skins natural moisturising factors (a group of compounds responsible for plasticity of the skin) Reduction of the natural moisturising factors provokes skin dryness and weakens the integrity of the skin barrier. This is the reason why our skin feels dry after a long bath or swim, because the water has removed and diluted our natural moisturising compounds and lipids. Water can alter skin pH (acidity of the skin generally 4.5-5.5) and further compromise the skin barrier. A compromised skin barrier results in greater trans-epidermal water loss and dehydrated and dry skin.
When water is used in skincare products it requires preservatives to ensure that microorganisms cannot flourish. These microorganisms are yeast, bacteria and mould producing fungi. Our skin has its own microbiome that has resident yeast, bacteria and fungi. The preservatives in skincare products will alter and modify the balance of our skin microbiome and this can lead to further compromised skin barrier as well as introducing potentially irritant, inflammation, allergy inducing chemicals. Water can be described on a label as hydrosol, fruit extract or fruit water but it is still water.
Water and oil don't mix so surfactants also known as amphiphilic polymers are introduced to force two components together. Surfactants can act as
detergents, wetting agents, foaming agents, emulsifiers to create mixtures of oil and water, conditioning agents, solubilizers to mix fragrances and essential oils into water-based formulas, preservatives to keep cosmetics microbe-free, increase stability or modify products viscosity and texture. Surfactants (emulsifiers are surfactants ) are everywhere in skincare products and predominately derived from components of petrochemicals. Polyethylene glycol or ethylene glycol, are called PEG esters represent the most prominent group of petroleum-related emulsifiers.
It is estimated that 80% of all skin care ingredients (this doesn't include packaging) are at least in part derived from petroleum. What to look out for on skincare ingredients lists to avoid petrochemical derived compounds.
Mineral oil
Petrolatum
Paraffin wax
Polyethylene glycols (PEGs)
Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS)
Sodium laureth sulfate (SLES)
Isopropyl alcohol
Butylene glycol
These are all petrochemical derived. To clarify, a petrochemical is a compound derived from crude oil or natural gas. These chemicals are so incredibly processed. Taking parts of chemicals from crude oil or gas and rearranging them to produce a synthetic compound using enormous amounts of energy.
*Note Vitamin E can be synthetic and produced from petrochemicals.
Plant oils and essential oils can be the result of hexane extraction a petrochemical derivative and the ingredient label will give no indication of the manufacturing process and that petrochemical residues may remain. The petrochemical industry is inherently unsustainable. It is not renewable and synthetic surfactants can cause adverse effects, skin irritation, allergies, and cell damage or death known as cytotoxicity. So not good for you or the planet, a lose lose situation.
A further reason to read skincare and personal care labels is the term parfum/fragrance this umbrella term is "to protect trade secrets" of the manufacturer. These two words can hide 100’s of synthetic chemicals including phthalates known endocrine disrupting chemicals that disrupt hormonal balance. We personally never purchase any product that is not being transparent or making it difficult to find and understand the ingredients.
Then there are liquid microplastics (synthetic polymers) that are added to 87% of personal care products (shampoo/conditioner/toothpaste/cosmetics) in the EU. “In some cases, plastic can constitute up to 90% of the ingredients added to a cosmetic product.” Read more (https://www.beatthemicrobead.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Plastic-TheHiddenBeautyIngredients.pdf)
Beat the microbead has complied a list of more than 500 microplastics used in cosmetics and personal care products. Beat the Microbead it should be called Beat the Microplastic as these microplastics should be treated in the same way as microbeads. They are persistent bio-accumulative and toxic. Beat the microbead has an app that you can scan your ingredients. Download here. These ingredients are often used as fillers with no upside to skin only downside to our environment, water ways, animals, us and the planet. Carbomer and Dimethicone are common microplastics
Naturally derived ingredients can be just as damaging to the planet and detrimental to our skin. Essential oils can cause sensitising, allergic reactions and inflammation. The production of essential oils can cause destruction of native habitats, mono-culture and loss of diversity.
We encourage progress not perfection and reading the ingredients list of skincare and personal care products as we do with food and making informed purchasing decisions based on the ingredients and manufacturing process. A naturally derived ingredient can be altered by processing to create a completely unrecognisable compound. Hydrogenation is such a processing technique. Avoid ingredients containing the word hydrogenated.
Vitis V Face TonIQ is a delicate blend of two ingredients: Australian Vitis vinifera (grape) seed oil and Vitis vinifera (grape) seed extract. Clean label. Few and easily understandable ingredients. No water, no petrochemicals, no fragrance no essential oils no hexane produced plant oils, no hydrogenated compounds.
Vitis V is cold pressed unrefined unfiltered and is your essential daily dose of nature's luxury.
It replaces multiple beauty steps into one single concentrated formula.
Minimal ingredients for maximum results.
Pure, clean and nutrient -rich so that you can achieve your most radiant and nourished skin
Photo credit @bernies_art_page