We don’t make it a secret that we’re very proud to use natural ingredients and components in our products, but we wanted to give some focus to our intentions and the reasons for those choices. In fact, now matter what perspective you approach the question from — personally, morally, environmentally, physiologically, etc. — there’s never a good reason to choose a synthetic product. Natural products are always the way to go.

9 Reasons to Choose Natural Skin Care Products over Synthetic

To prove that, here are our top reasons why we choose natural skin care products over synthetic, and why you should, too.

#1. Nothing Stays on the Surface

Everything you put on your skin gets into your body one way or another. That might be through absorption or cellular metabolism, it might be through inhalation, or it might be through contact, like eating after putting lotion on your hands. No matter the method, the plain fact is that all these skin care products eventually find their way into your body one way or another. If you wouldn’t feel comfortable eating it, you shouldn’t be handling it without gloves. By choosing natural skin care products over synthetics, we can be more confident that the compounds we’re applying to our bodies are safely absorbed, without unintended complications.

#2. Everything Makes its Way to the Sea

This sort of goes hand in hand with the first point — nothing stays on your skin’s surface. It washes off, too. It goes down your sink, or your shower drain. The by-products of its construction are dumped in spillways and landfills or washed away by the rain. Natural skin care products can return to nature just fine. Synthetics, on the other hand, sometimes cause very serious complications. Chemicals like parabens or phthlates, for instance, can wreak havoc on hormones in many species, as well as humans, and they can disrupt whole ecosystems. Even today, synthetic skin care products are responsible for devastating huge swaths of the marine biosphere. If natural skin care products are better for one ecosystem, they’re better for all ecosystems, since, on Earth, no two systems are ever truly separate.

#3. The Synthetic Skin Care Industry is Dangerously Under-Regulated

When things are to be used topically, the safety testing one might expect is largely unmandated. The skin care industry is often something of a free-for-all and that isn’t exactly reassuring to the consumer. To put it in perspective, the US has banned eleven compounds from being used in skin care products, while the EU has banned thirteen hundred.

#4. You Don’t Know What You’re Buying with Synthetics

So long as you can make a case that a component is a “trade secret” synthetic skin care products are not required to list that component on the package. This loophole is particularly clear in synthetic fragrances, which many people are highly sensitive to. With natural skin care products, there’s no reason to hide anything so you can be much more sure of what you’re putting on (and in!) your body.

#5. Synthetics Get Passed to Developing Babies

Topical skin care products, as we’ve said, get absorbed into the body. If you’re pregnant, that means they’re being absorbed into your baby’s body, too. Many synthetic compounds impact the proportion and balance of various hormones. That’s not healthy for an adult, but it can have a meaningful developmental impact on children in utero. Since most of these compounds are estrogenic (including parabens, phthlates, and triclosan), this has a particular impact on the development of male children. Studies are ongoing to try to better quantify the scope of that impact, but why take the chance? Natural skin care products don’t mess with hormones, so you don’t have to worry.

#6. Natural Skin Care Products Have Less Filler

Synthetic skincare products tend to use abrasive chemicals diluted in fillers, trying to bulk up the mix to increase profits. That’s not great for the consumer, obviously. With natural skin care products, on the other hand, every single component is included for a reason. Since those ingredients are more potent, it takes less product to do the same job. A more efficient recipe will get the same job done, with less. That means less packaging, less waste, and more effective treatment for your skin.

#7. Natural Skin Care Products Tend to Be Non-Allergenic

Synthetic skin care products can cause rashes, inflammation, irritation and itch, and other symptoms of allergies. Now, natural skin care products can have allergenic ingredients, too (nuts, for example) but with fewer products, clearer labels, and more transparency, it’s much easier to avoid anything you’ll likely have a reaction to.

#8. Natural Skin Care Products Are Better for the Environment.

Environmental stewardship is extremely important to any Green company, Heliotrope included, and natural skin care products are a great example of some that philosophy in practice. It all starts with the natural ingredients. Organic products in particular are farmed without unnatural pesticides or fertilizers. It’s not a rule, but the trend is that they tend to be grown and harvested more sustainably, too. With an emphasis on local products, keeping everything fresh and reducing shipping and transport carbon footprints, natural products are already a step up.

Since they’re not being synthesized from various other compounds, there aren’t nearly as many by-products from the manufacturing process either. Many natural skin care products are made with zero residual waste. The environmental stewardship philosophy comes into play at every stage, so they also tend to have eco-friendly packaging, where synthetic skin care products rarely bother, relying more on cheap plastics and mass industrial conveniences.

#9. Natural Skin Care Products Nourish Your Skin

Skin is a living, breathing thing. The cells are very much alive, and they’re always working. They get hungry. While synthetics tend to form a slick coating over the outermost layers, natural skin care products are designed to be absorbed — eaten — by your skin. They’re literally made out of food.

Natural skin care products nourish your skin, nourish your body, and are good for the soul.

At Heliotrope, we take tremendous pride in the natural skin care products we produce. Check us out in San Francisco, or take a trip over to our retail and warehouse space in Oakland and find out what we’re all about!