FACT FILES ON HANDMADE, PURE ORGANIC SOAP
If you’ve been following our blogs, by now you’d be becoming aware of the importance of reading ingredient labels on personal care products. You’d be conscious of the fact that most of those commercial products contain petrochemicals.
Making choices is easy, right? In response to this thought, my brain has automatically called up the classic diner scene from the movie “Five Easy Pieces” from the 70s, starring Jack Nicholson- link attached for those unfamiliar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wtfNE4z6a8
One of the main ingredients that personal care products and cosmetics are built around is mineral oil. In fact, roughly 98% of commercial personal care products contain mineral oil…leaving very little room for selective choice to the consumer.
Mineral oil is essentially a waste product of the petrochemical industry. It is a cheap, readily accessible resource from industry- being produced as a by-product of the distillation of gasoline from crude oil. Untreated or mildly treated mineral oils are classified by the World Health Organisation as being Group 1 carcinogenic to humans. Highly refined mineral oils, as in those contained in personal care products, are classified as being not suspected to be carcinogenic…but available information is not sufficient to classify them as harmless.
Hmm…that builds confidence over its use in commercial personal care products doesn’t it? Would you still feel confident slathering that baby oil on your precious newborn child if you read the label and realised that it was nothing more than fragranced mineral oil? That’s the problem- we don’t tend to read the labels, and assume that what is sold to us must be safe…think again! Research into chemicals used and their long term effects is a slow, laborious process, and restrictive actions then taken even slower- think asbestos, tobacco, BPA, DDT, Thalidomide…even leaded gasoline!
The use of petrochemical derivatives/mineral oils became necessary during the restrictions placed on natural resources during WW2. Thereafter, it just made economic business sense to find a useful purpose for them, rather than deal with the costs of waste disposal. The other advantage in using mineral oil over natural oils in personal care products became quickly obvious to industry. Mineral oil is non-biodegradable- providing products with a stable shelf life…more economic sense.
Mineral oil is used in three different forms as a base in products: in a liquid state…mineral oil, in a jelly state…petrolatum, in a solid state…paraffin wax. It gets listed as an ingredient under various synonyms like: liquid paraffin, mineral oil, mineral oil mist, mineral syrup, white mineral oil, white oil, hydrocarbon oil, petroleum hydrocarbons, petroleum, paraffin oil, paraffinic, soft paraffin, and petroleum jelly. The composition of these oils varies depending on the crude oil source, the refining process and the additives present.
The actual problem with using mineral oil on our bodies is that it forms a film on the skin that blocks the pores and the natural processes of the skin. It actually traps dirt and bacteria instead of them being naturally dispersed. The chemically based oil film then prevents the effective absorption of all those added ingredients that are supposedly included to benefit the skin…like those natural oils and vitamins added in minute amounts for marketing purposes. So more chemicals are added…like those to enhance the permeability to the skin.
As a consumer, you have the ability to decrease the number of chemicals your skin comes into contact with. All you have to do is make the simple choice of reading labels and purchasing personal care products with all-natural, organic ingredients instead. Of far more benefit to the skin are natural plant oils- offering all the nutritive qualities assigned to a plant oil. The plant oils are absorbed readily by the skin- benefiting and nurturing it.
Our pure organic soaps offer chemical, colour and fragrance free gentle care to reduce the chemical burden on your skin.
Back to the diner scene from “Five Easy Pieces”…quote, ”No substitution!” There are better options/substitutes available to us. Read those product labels. Become conscious of ingredients…informed people, make informed decisions.