As consumers increasingly turn to natural skin products, more consumers are seeking those formulated from naturally sourced ingredients like plants, minerals, animals or microbes.
Consumers tend to assume products labeled as natural are healthy; however, this term has yet to be defined officially by the FDA and could mean different things to different people.
Origin
Consumers tend to associate natural with healthful, and chemical with harmful for both humans and the environment. Though all materials and substances have distinct chemical structures, distinguishing natural from synthetic ingredients can be tricky due to all their constituent components in raw materials such as an essential oil or flavor extract.
Brands using “natural” or “naturally derived” ingredients should pay close attention to their raw material specifications, especially regarding microbiological, heavy metal and other microbial contamination issues that may have an impactful bearing on product formulation process and final performance.
Brands must also carefully consider the environmental impacts associated with using natural ingredients, including any agricultural or physical processing steps, in comparison with synthesizing similar molecules in a laboratory. This is especially essential when many “natural” ingredients originate in agriculture where production of compounds such as alkaloids, phenolic acids or anthocyanins may have more serious environmental ramifications than their synthetic equivalents.
Purity
Recently, consumers have become more accepting of products containing natural ingredients like coconut, jojoba or aloe vera on labels. Reading ingredients like these provides comfort to consumers in lieu of chemical compounds linked to hormone disruption or other potential harms.
Manufacturers frequently use synthetic versions of certain ingredients in their products for safety and consistency purposes. For instance, manufacturers producing products containing naturally occurring clay may add other synthetic chemicals to ensure safe human consumption of their formulas.
Some companies use the word ‘pure’ as an attempt to deceive customers, such as when selling fruit juice preserved with sulphur dioxide or an unsweetened tea that still contains small amounts of sugar. In order to verify whether an ingredient is truly natural, gas chromatography can be used on volatile oils such as essential oils while liquid chromatography should be employed on non-volatile ingredients such as carbohydrates.
Safety
Though many promote the notion that anything “natural” is always better for us, this does not always hold true. Natural ingredients may contain harmful substances such as animal venom, toxic plants (foxglove and hemlock) or heavy metals like lead or mercury which could pose potential threats.
“Natural” cosmetics do not guarantee safety either, such as essential oils which may trigger allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) and sensitize skin, while also interfering with synthetic ingredients or even themselves.
When selecting products, we rely on evidence and scientific research for their Safety Ratings and Effectiveness Ratings, including clinical trial research of individual products. If a trialed product meets our criteria for trials, it receives our Clinically Studied Label; such products have higher Effectiveness Ratings. In addition to considering evidence and scientific research as criteria for making our selection decisions, we take sustainability of product and ingredient considerations such as non-GMO ingredients or those exposed to radiation exposure prioritisation as well as organic certification by EU definition or NATRUE standard when making our final choices.
Interactions
Natural ingredients play a pivotal role in the beauty industry’s move toward sustainability, providing formulators with functionalities to meet consumer demands without compromising product efficacy and reduce environmental impact by replacing conventional ingredients with sustainable ones.
As an example, using natural emollients like vegetable oils, squalane and ester-based surfactants illustrates a transition away from traditionally made products derived from petroleum to more environmentally responsible solutions without compromising product performance. Furthermore, natural preservatives made from plants like Ginkgo biloba or Cinchona tree extract show our dedication to environmental responsibility.
However, we still have much to learn about how natural products interact with each other in formulations. A new online repository hosted by NaPDI Center will enable researchers to share natural product-drug interaction data in order to accelerate drug discovery. The site will feature two high-priority natural products such as green tea and cannabis as well as facilitate multidisciplinary collaborations.
