Hi Lovers! I thought I would jump on a blog post to begin sharing with you some of my top skincare tips and tricks. Skincare to us at NINI Organics means skincare that CARES!
So, let me kick off by addressing the title of this post - Skin Food VS Chemical Waste. What does this even mean?
Well, for me skincare products should only be packed full of nourishing, nutrient dense, rich, vibrant, natural and organic ingredients that will only ever feed your skin. This IS skin food! If you take what nature offers and apply it to your skin, (obviously within reason, always check before applying a natural ingredient to your skin) your skin is going to live and bathe in that nutrient dense skin food. It is as basic and simple as that.
If, however, your skin is constantly being overloaded with chemical waste products, over time this could destroy your skin’s natural ability to heal itself and look as vibrant as possible. It’s a fact that conventional skincare is mass produced for convenience, ease and profit! For skincare companies to be able to produce such large quantities of product that are identical each time means they are bulked out and packed full of chemical waste. This chemical waste could be by-products from the oil or car industries such as Petroleum Jelly, that are quite honestly useless and can sometimes even be irritants to the skin. I like to use the word chemical waste, as in fact everything is a chemical - natural and organic ingredients are chemical compounds, water for example is a chemical. However chemical waste is simply a wasteful product that does nothing for your skin.
So, with that being said let’s have a look at some of my favourite skin foods to look out for in your green beauty products and which chemical waste products to avoid at all costs.
My top three SKIN FOODS:
Cacao Powder - Studies have shown that using Cacao topically can help stimulate blood flow to the surface of the skin, keeping it look fresh and healthy. Cacao is also packed full of antioxidants which help repair the skin from damage. You can find Cacao in our Coffee and Cacao Face Scrub and our Natura Miracle Mask.
Hibiscus Flower - Known as nature’s Botox for the skin! Hibiscus Flower gently exfoliates the skin keeping it smooth and supple, whilst increasing cell turnover. Hibiscus is one of my all-time favourite ingredients as it leaves your skin looking and feeling fabulous. You can find Hibiscus in our Natura Miracle Mask and Infinity Beauty Balm.
Jojoba Oil - The base of all our oil products. Jojoba is an incredible oil that suits almost everyone's skin, as it’s the closest oil to our natural sebum. Jojoba is more like wax than an oil. It's perfectly balanced in Oleic and Linoleic Acid hence suiting most people’s skin.
My top three CHEMICAL WASTE products to avoid:
(There are so many ingredients I would avoid at all costs, but here are my top three)
Propylene Glycol - According to the Material Safety Data Sheet on Propylene Glycol, this chemical is a strong skin irritant, and has been implicated in contact dermatitis. Propylene Glycol can inhibit skin cell growth and damage cell membranes. Causing rashes, dry skin, and surface damage. This ingredient acts as a carrier and helps deliver other (potentially nasty) ingredients further into your skin, so if you find this ingredient in a product run a mile!
Petroleum Jelly - A controversial one as Petroleum Jelly isn't the most damaging ingredient to the skin, and once refined correctly is pretty harmless. However, in its unrefined state, Petroleum Jelly is a mass produced oil and very carcinogenic (this means it has the potential to cause cancer). But that's just it, it offers little to the skin, in fact it's more suffocating the anything else so why risk run the risk of buying a waste product that might not have been refined correctly. It is a cheap bulking agent that offers almost no positive encouragement for the skin, if anything your skin can become addicted to the oil, which will cause you more problems than solutions. Why not reach for a natural plant -based butter such as Shea or Cacao butter which are far more nourishing to the skin and is not at all carcinogenic!
Perfume - If you see perfume or fragrance in a product once again run a mile! There are so many hidden secrets around using perfume in an INCI list. Companies do not need to legally state what the perfume or fragrance in a product consists of, under the guise of trade secrets. However, this means it can hide up to 5000 chemical compounds! WTF!! Additionally, perfume can cause skin irritation and headaches. I would always steer clear from anything containing a synthetic perfume. The natural alternatives are essential oil-based products or products with no scent at altogether. Although essential oils do not contain a list of nasty chemical compounds, they do need to be used carefully as they can also be allergens to some.
It’s as simple as that lovers, our skin is incredible and deserves to be treated with the utmost respect! If you want vibrant, gorgeous, glowing skin make sure you are choosing something that is packed full of 100% skin food - such as the ingredients we use here at NINI Organics and avoid those full of chemical waste with the odd active ingredient here and there.
Just remember– listen to your skin, do your research, read the labels and to question and quiz any ingredients you’re unsure about. This way you can’t go wrong!
Check out Alex's favourite green skin food ingredients blog post here.