Natural Skin Care Products

I have been researching for hours trying to find a definition for "natural" skin care. Guess what? I can't find one. Natural can mean just about anything. In fact, in the food industry, "natural" has no nutritional meaning and isn't truly regulated by the FDA. (as opposed to organic which does mean something. I'll discuss this in a future blog)

When I think of "natural", I think of nature. (duh!!) So natural can mean that it occurs naturally in the world. I think of roses and lavender, birch and slippery elm trees, waterfalls and mountain streams, oregano and rosemary. I also think of poison ivy and oleander (both poisonous).

So if I put poison ivy or snake venom in my soaps that would make them natural--not good ingredients, but I could call my soaps "all natural". Where do you think cocaine comes from? Coca leaf tea. All natural. Nicotine? Tobacco leaf. All natural. Marijuana? You got it. A plant. All natural. In fact, for all the vegetarians, I could include any animal fat in my soaps and call it "all natural" because animals occur naturally.

I don't use the term "all natural" for this reason. It doesn't mean anything.

Now I could give a meaning to this term. I think I will call my soaps all natural that contain only oils, fats, water, and essential oils (EO). The EOs are distilled from plant materials (seeds, flowers, roots, etc) and do not contain synthetic products as some of the fragrance oils (FO) do. So, if you want Edgewater Cottage All Natural Soaps, purchase Lavender, Patchouli, Honey Oatmeal, and Tea Tree Mint. They are made with EOs only and are as All Natural as you can get and mean something by it.