Today I’d like to take a look at the ingredients listings of some popular luxury facial skincare products being hyped in their slick, glossy ads as “fresh”, “natural”, “with natural ingredients”, and with “botanical extracts.”
These are words being used to describe facial firming products on the market today.
With buzzwords like those, surely these facial firming creams must be natural, right? Truth be told, no. Any product can loosely be called natural. That doesn’t mean it really is.
It is similar to food. I suppose people could consider a drink for kids with “10% real juice” and 90% artificial dyes and high fructose corn syrup to me a healthy drink, but we know that it isn’t.
There are many fake “natural” products out there. They trick you into thinking that what you are buying is actually good for your skin.
For example, they often use artificial fragrance to trick you. That “natural” honey lotion you think is natural may actually contain about 1% powdered honey, but you think it is great because it smells like honey. That “honey” you are smelling is most likely just a synthetic perfume designed to smell like honey–to trick your senses into thinking you’re using a wonderfully natural honey-based product.
This is so common in the skincare industry.
Here are some popular, high-end “natural” products designed to firm the face:
The above products contain WATER as the #1 ingredient. They also contain dimethicone. This is silicone. Let’s learn a bit more about this.
Dimethicone, in science speak, is a silicone-based polymer. It is a man-made in the lab ingredient. It is found in everything from makeup primers to anti-wrinkle creams because of how it can glide over the skin and spread with ease. It kind of acts like a silky form of putty, in some ways, because it can temporarily fill in lines and large pores and allow your foundation to glide over it with ease. That’s why it’s the backbone, so to speak, of so many firming creams. It tricks you into thinking it is firming your skin.
Silicones aren’t BAD necessarily–at least not in the way parabens and DMDM Hydantoin and other toxins in skin care may be. The FDA approves their use and the Skin Deep Database at the EWG doesn’t give it an alarmingly high score. That said, it is not a skin-benefiting ingredient in any way.
Over time, dimethicone usually makes your skin look worse. Dimethicone forms a barrier — it is a polymer. In other words, it forms an artificial coating over your skin. Now think about this. If you are, day in and day out, applying a product that leaves an artificial coating to your skin, it will eventually wreak havoc on your skin.
This happens because everyday dirt, bacteria, sweat, etc. gets trapped underneath that barrier. This creates the perfect opportunity for breakouts and skin irritation to occur. It also inhibits something vital: the natural process of dead skin cells shedding. If your skin cells aren’t shedding, they are collecting. The result? Patches of uneven texture and tone, dryness, skin congestion, and flaking. This creates a vicious cycle. Your skin starts looking dry and dull, so you apply MORE of the product causing the problem to begin with.
Over time, that $200 cream you bought to give your facial skin a lift may actually AGE YOUR SKIN.
Three of the above creams also contain artificial fragrance. We talked about how this is used to trick you. Not only is artificial fragrance a main cause of allergies and asthma, it is there to TRICK you into thinking these fake “natural” products are good for you. If you smell berries or honey or herbs, you think that those products are in abundance in the cream. Most of the time, there is only a miniscule amount of the natural ingredients and the scent is just a perfume.
The firming creams above also all contain harmful artificial preservatives such as parabens, phenoxyethanol, and triethanolamine.
The above products we have just looked at are prime exampled of fake “naturals.”
Our Daily Infusion™ Facelift Cream (with Flavonol™) from Relevé™ is unlike any other facial product on the market.
Just look at the ingredients list above. Our product begins with beneficial seaweed and our very own bio-extracted, Citrus Flavinoid-Peptide complex derived from organic food sources. It’s the only active ingredient proven to help restore the protein matrix responsible for holding the skin together – which gives you a more youthful look naturally through enhanced skin health.
There are NO FILM FORMERS, POLYMERS, PLASTICS, PEARLIZERS, or any other ingredient in here designed to trick you. No synthetics. No artficial fragrance. No JUNK. Just proven, REAL, whole foods ingredients and truly natural extracts to deliver results.
As someone who has spent half my life in the skincare industry, I can tell you that there is no other product on the market that comes close to this one. It’s truly amazing! Yes, it is a luxury item. Most people won’t hesitate to buy shoes or a handbag for more than this, yet we only have ONE face, one skin. You need to pamper it and nourish it–invest in its future.
Daily Infusion™ Facelift Cream (with Flavonol™) from Relevé™ is truly a gem! Click for more info.
Emerald Essentials™ Blog 