I never knew until a few years ago what the real deal was with those illegible labels on the back of skin care products. Do you?
When I started my personal search for 100% natural skin care, I really couldn't see the wood for the trees anymore: ecocert, natrue, fair trade... and many other quality marks. But I also read: Dimethicone, Allantoin, cyclowattes? And a lot of ingredients that are completely unrecognizable to me. Should I look them all up in a dictionary?
And oh yes, of course I also searched for vegan, animal testing free, organic and 100% natural. But where can I actually check those statements?
We all smear a lot on our face and to be honest: I think most people don't know what you actually put on your face, what the quality marks stand for and what the terms 'natural based' mean or not. Sounds like a vague marketing term (may I say, I've been a marketer myself for years ;-)).
I took a good look at it, but I couldn't do that without help, see my recommendations for apps at the bottom of this blog to be able to check fairly quickly what is or isn't in your favorite skincare. But let me first discuss the two big things here:
Skincare labels
Do you ever pay attention to quality marks when you want to buy something? Well, I have thoroughly studied it, because with Food for Skin we wanted to certify and I can tell you: there is a lot of good, unfortunately there are also quality marks of the type "We at WC duck advise WC duck", in other words: quality marks created by chemical companies. So do some research if you think a quality mark is really important and go to those websites and look up additional information. Personally, through my research, I am completely convinced that it is important to have a quality mark. I'm definitely for high and clear standards, that would clear up a lot, but like chocolate (coincidentally my previous job) it's a jumble of labels for skincare right now.
As mentioned, standards and control are absolutely important. But even with the strictest certifiers, there may still be certain % ingredients in it, which in my opinion do not belong. Food for Skin is standardized (not yet certified due to high costs) on Natrue. Natrue is one of the strictest certifiers, but to be fair: there too, for example, you have categories, so that category 3 is slightly less 'pure' than category 1. And the ultimate consumer never sees that! Our advice is therefore: check your ingredients, ask your favorite brand where they come from, under what circumstances it is made. Because if we, consumers, don't 'ask', the Big Beauties (the big pharma's) certainly won't 'spin'.
Check cosmetics ingredients
Yup, such a nice and clear story ;-) Can you identify the ingredients on the back of your shampoo bottle? I don't hear, still don't, even now that I already have a lot of knowledge about it. This is partly due to the fact that, according to EU legislation, you must use INCIs. INCI stands for: International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients, or the international naming system for cosmetic ingredients. And that is why backs are really not legible or recognizable, unfortunately also the backs of our Food for Skin products. You have to use the official names of those ingredients. For example, did you know that Solanum Lycopersicum is 'just' a tomato? I didn't know that.
When we started Food for Skin, we only intended to put 'recognizable' and 'edible' ingredients on the back, not knowing about the INCIs at the time. It is good that there is an international nomenclature, so that there is at least 1 standard for it, but whether this really helps consumers?
Check ingredients skincare
Three ways to quickly see a list and the good and bad skin care ingredients:
1. The Beat the Microbead (BTMB) app
This one is from the Plastic Soup Foundation. With 1 photo of the label you know whether your product contains harmful microplastics. We challenge you to scan your bathroom! Download here .
2. Incidecoder.com website
And, a little more work, but the website inclidecoder.com is great! You can search by your favorite product (provided it is a major brand), or by a specific ingredient. You can read what this ingredient does or does not do for your skin and what it consists of.
3. Download an INCI app
There are various apps that, after a scan of your skincare product, show whether there are harmful substances or bad ingredients in your facial care. It also shows what possible irritants are in the product. You can also easily find lists of all harmful ingredients in cosmetics and read more about them.
Some options are:
Food for Skin wants to be transparent and honest and has therefore translated the INCIs for all products into 'plain Dutch' and explained why this is in the product. See the example of the Tomato Base Cream here. Do you have any questions about our ingredients? Feel free to ask Cathy, the skin expert (hello@foodforskin.care). We will share everything we know with you.
Care products without harmful substances
It is our mission to 'clean up the beauty industry together'. Clean of ambiguity and without bad ingredients such as plastics in your facial care. That is why we want to start raising awareness among our readers.
Is it all too much work for you, we understand that! Then choose a clear route: 100% natural skin care. Tip: not 'natural based', because then something has been done with the natural ingredient. You certainly don't have to choose Food for Skin, but any other brand that is really natural is 'safe' with you. Provided professionally composed, professionally produced and checked in a lab. Unfortunately, as a consumer you cannot see this anywhere on the packaging to see if this has happened. Many small brands choose to stir the pans themselves and not to have it checked. As a consumer you can't see this in anything, except if the government comes to take a sample (and that chance is unfortunately not great). So also with natural brands: checking the ingredients of your cosmetics is not a superfluous luxury and at least ask whether it has been approved according to EU cosmetics legislation.
Just ask
This is a topic I want to talk about a lot more, but my blog is getting way too long! For those who really want to dive in: read Robin van Wechem's book 'The anti-wrinkle complex – the back of the beauty industry'! Is Food for Skin perfect? Mmmm we are absolutely 100% natural, we have it professionally formulated, produced and checked and we are open about our ingredients.
