I’m sure you’ve seen the claims. “100% holistic skincare”, or perhaps “100% pure skincare”. Are these claims a big con or is there something worthwhile behind them?

In my view there’s some powerful reasons for today’s woman to use pure and holistic skincare. One of the best reasons is that the skincare and cosmetics industry has no requirement to submit their products to a regulatory or government body to show that the ingredients are safe. And so there are many suspect ingredients in modern skincare products. Pure skincare products are safe, and effective.

However whether you’re looking for pure skincare products, or holistic skincare products or cosmetics that are made from totally natural ingredients, you need to understand a couple of things.

Firstly, what does “natural” or “holistic” or “pure” really mean? It isn’t possible to use 100% natural ingredients in any skin care product, and in fact that shouldn’t be the goal of any cosmetics and skincare product manufacturer.

Any ingredient that is natural should be naturally occurring, for example is derived from plants. However it isn’t possible to actually use that ingredient in a skincare product unless it is processed in some way, because it needs to be taken out of the plant in which it is found and put into a form that is usable in the product, and that requires some form of processing.

However just because it has to undergo a form of processing to extract it from a plant does not imply that it is no longer effective or safe. And it also doesn’t disqualify it from being “natural” or “holistic” or “pure”. It just means that it has to be processed.

So there isn’t, in effect, a 100% pure skincare product, or 100% holistic skincare product available.

Is this an argument to justify buying any old skincare product? Absolutely not. There are some quite nasty ingredients in many of the mainstream big brand name skincare and cosmetics products on our shelves. The companies that manufacture these are not required to prove their safety before they are used in cosmetics, and many should be avoided. Parabens, Dioxane and Diethanolamine are just 3 ingredients found in various skincare and cosmetics products that are considered to be less than safe. And in some cases are suspected of causing cancer. Or skin irritation, for example.

So although there is no 100% pure skincare product on the market, there are excellent natural skincare products available. Yes they use ingredients extracted from plants by a form of extraction process, but these ingredients are tested and proven safe and, particularly, effective skincare ingredients. Something that cannot be said about many mainstream skincare products and cosmetics that so many people regularly use.

Here’s a few ingredients that are fairly considered to be natural or pure ingredients and can be found in the best “holistic” skincare products, or “pure” skincare products.

Phytessence Wakame. Extracted from a seaweed native to Japan. This seaweed is a form of kelp and is commonly found in the Japanese diet, one of the reasons the Japanese seem to have such good skin right into older age.

Cynergy TK which is a substance which is extracted from the wool of sheep, and which plays an important role in overall skin health. Cynergy TK has been shown to actually stimulate the production of collagen and elastin in our skin.

Collagen and elastin are 2 of the most important substances found in healthy skin. They are both proteins and are both involved in maintaining elasticity and firmness of skin, both responsible for producing great looking, younger looking skin. As we age our bodies produce less collagen and elastin than our skin needs to remain supple, and so any skincare product which promotes the production of collagen and elastic will work extremely well as an effective skincare product.

So in conclusion. Is the claim of 100% holistic skincare, or 100% pure skincare a con? No, not at all. There are both powerful reasons not to buy mainstream regular skincare products which you will routinely see on the shelves now, and there are also powerful reasons to buy pure skincare, or holistic skincare products. Yes they have some “processed” ingredients, but this does not detract from the fact that they are derived from safe, and effective, natural ingredients. And they work extremely well.

And whilst the companies that make the mainstream products are household names, the company that makes skincare products with such ingredients as Phytessence Wakame and Cynergy TK is not a household name at all. You’ve probably never heard of it. But you need to.