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Natural ingredients are a huge rage in the skincare industry, but is the hype around natural ingredients worth it?

According to research and many opinions from dermatologists and skincare experts, most natural ingredients do not have any real scientific legitimacy to support any claims made about their benefits to the skin in comparison to proven and tested synthetic ingredients. Yet, there are a few natural ingredients that indeed can be extremely beneficial to the skin, we are here to tell you which ones to avoid and which ones to incorporate into your skincare routines. Just as there are bad and good natural ingredients, the same applies to synthetic ingredients.

Many people claim that “natural is better”, but this is biased and in truth, not good advice. With any ingredient, natural or synthetic, it is critical to choose the right ones, that provide benefit to the skin. When looking at natural ingredients, research shows that they are harder to preserve against contamination compared to synthetic ingredients. Most natural ingredients are not regulated and are used just as a marketing strategy playing on the notion that if it’s natural it must be better because the reality is that in most parts, the marketing for natural ingredients sounds more appealing to customers.

Essential oils have become incredibly popular, yet they are one of the most damaging types of skincare products that a person could use. Essential oils are packed with fragrances, and if we know something about fragrances, they are bad news for the skin. If you would like to learn more about why we say that be sure to check out our blog about Why fragrance-free.

In summary, fragrances can be extremely sensitizing to the skin, they can trigger acne, rosacea, and eczema and they are a common allergy. Unfortunately, our skin is very good at hiding any sign it is sensitized, many people could be using a product that is causing major issues for their skin and they do not know it until it has gotten really bad.

Ahh, fragrances. The topic of fragrances is a much debated one in the skincare world today, with the research and experts all leading to the same opinion, STOP USING FRAGRANCES.

Fragrances are one of those ingredients in skincare that can cause and do cause so much damage and trigger many different skincare concerns.

Firstly, what do fragrances do? Well, nothing, they have no benefit to the skin, they have always and only been formulated in skincare products to enhance the experience of using the product by making it smell nice, something very old-fashioned and something that had a big marketing appeal back in the “old days”.

However, as much as using an ingredient that smells nice is great, and if that is you then, awesome. The trend of going against fragrances comes because of the harm it does to so many people and their different skincare conditions. A product that works is better than a product that smells nice.

Unfortunately, fragrances are irritating and sensitizing to the skin, and most of this type of damage to the skin can go hidden for many years only to realize the damaging effects when it’s too late.

Fragrances can trigger acne, rosacea, and eczema, and that is the main reason we are anti-fragrance. Part of caring for our customers is ensuring that we do not have any ingredients formulated in our products that can negatively impact your skin. Having concerns such as acne, eczema, and rosacea can be very difficult to manage. So, we do not want you to use fragrances that could be causing concerns you might be dealing with to be triggered and aggravated.

Unfortunately, fragrances are linked to inflammation which is directly linked to aging faster.

Finally, fragrances are a common allergy, and most people do not even know it, not to mention fragrances are a common allergy a person could also develop.

The issue with this is that companies who use fragrances in their products, legally do not have to disclose which fragrance has been used and many products with fragrances formulated in them often are seen on the label list (INCI list) as “Parfum” or “Fragrance”, so if you know that you are allergic to a certain fragrance yet companies do not disclose which fragrance has been used, then you are blindly using that product with the risk of a particular fragrance having been used that will cause an allergic reaction.

Face masks can be a great way to enhance and provide beneficial support to your skincare routine. However, finding the right face mask and types of face masks that are effective is critical. First, you must identify your skin type to choose the right face mask to address your concerns.

Use clay marks, these masks are great for decongesting and helping to unclog pores. With any clay mask, be sure to look for ones with soothing and emollient ingredients to avoid excessive drying.

Unfortunately, sheet masks do not have any research to show that they do anything for your skin and are more of a gimmick concerning addressing major skincare concerns. They can, however, help to hydrate the skin. be sure if you are using a sheet mask that it does not contain fragrances.

Alcohols in skincare are a type of ingredient, used for many different purposes.

Now there has been the claim that alcohols in skincare are bad and should be avoided at all costs, when in fact that is untrue and advice contrary to getting the best out of the ingredients.

With alcohol in skincare, there a bad ones but there are good ones as well. When it comes to the bad alcohols in skincare, they will cause dryness. These are alcohols you will want to avoid; they are as follows.

• Denatured alcohol
• SD alcohol
• Isopropyl alcohol

Particularly if these alcohols are listed on a product’s ingredient list within the first 6 ingredients because this means that they are of a high concentration in the formula.

Fortunately, research shows that in low amounts, these alcohols are ok but still, as the consumer you will probably never know the % that it has been formulated with.

However, there are good alcohols in skincare, and they are as follows.

• Cetyl alcohol
• Stearyl alcohol
• Cetearyl alcohol.

These alcohols can help with dry skin and help to stabilize the product formulations.

There are many products marketed for oily/acne-prone skin, yet they contain most or all of the bad alcohols.

The reason companies use those alcohols is to provide a matte finish and dry the skin to make it look less oily and greasy, yet the irony is that your skin becomes drier which then can cause your skin to produce more oil and then your skin becomes oiler which leads to more breakouts and look even more shiny. Talk about destructive skincare.

Slugging has become a viral trend, and many people claim it is the secret to younger-looking skin.

Slugging is essentially using an occlusive ingredient as your last step in your routine which would be applied after using your regular moisturizer. A popular occlusive ingredient and one we would recommend is petrolatum jelly. Slugging using an occlusive ingredient like petrolatum jelly is used to create a trap that seals in moisture and prevents any type of water loss to help hydrate your skin, it is trapping and sealing in all your skincare products that have already been applied which could according to some expert advice, enhance the ingredients and products to work better yet we’d caution sticking to that.

Mainly it will seal and trap in your moisturizer to help seal in more moisture while also hydrating your skin. We recommend petrolatum jelly because it is non-comedogenic, meaning it will not clog your pores, making it safe for oily/acne-prone skin.

Slugging is a great trend to try in the winter and according to many who have tried this trend, it has helped their skin to achieve that glow look everyone is after.

You may have seen this term on many different skincare product labels, but what does it mean?

The term non-comedogenic refers to ingredients that are safe for oily/acne-prone skin that will not clog your pores. If an ingredient is labelled as non-comedogenic, it, according to research will not clog your pores and hence not cause and trigger breakouts or worsen your acne. It is highly recommended, that if you are struggling with acne, use products that are labelled non-comedogenic.

This was one of the most important factors when deciding on the creation of all the products we sell, was to ensure that none of our products contained any pore-clogging ingredients and were all non-comedogenic because having great active ingredients is awesome but if they are being cancelled out by an ingredient that has high risk to clog pores then what is the point?

So, it is something close to our company’s heart, to ensure that all of our products are non-comedogenic and safe for anyone struggling with acne or has oily/acne-prone skin. And even if you are someone not struggling with acne or have oily/acne-prone skin, there is still benefit in using non-comedogenic products to avoid your pores becoming clogged and having to deal with texture concerns.

There are many websites that will detail information on which ingredients clog pores and have different scales ranging from 1-5, going from least likely to most likely, there are some ingredients that many claim have a small risk of clogging your pores and that could cause concern, ultimately non-comedogenic safe products have to do with avoiding the big players who could clog your pores.

Many people deal with little black dots on the nose and often turn to pore strips to get rid of them, but as we have come to know, pore strips are not good for the skin and can be quite irritating to the skin particularly if used frequently.

So, before we talk about how to get rid of them, firstly what are they? Sebaceous filaments are just a build-up of oil, dead skin cells, and bacteria. So how do you get rid of them? You need to build a skincare routine with targeted ingredients.

The first ingredient is salicylic acid, which is a beta hydroxy acid (BHA) which is oil soluble meaning it can get into the pores and unclog all the build-up of dead skin cells and help to dissolve the oil.

The second is retinol, retinol improves skin cell turnover which helps to unclog pores and helps to decrease oil production.

And third and finally, would be niacinamide which helps to decrease and control oil production.