Harmless chemicals vs. natural ingredients

For the past week, there has been a major media blitz surrounding the Simple natural skin care line with digital billboards across news websites and a commercial throwing harsh paint at a rose. But after looking at the ingredients, there were still so many chemicals, though many virtually harmless, inside the products.

So the question lurks in all our products: Would we rather like the harmless chemicals or real natural ingredients that we could actually pronounce?

The skin care line carries facial cleansers, beauty wipes, and moisturizing creams and has built quite a reputation in the U.K. There are recognizable ingredients like algae extract, glycerin, and xanthum gum---all relatively harmless in beauty products---but some of the items include methylparaben, methylsothiazolinone, and cocamidopropyl betaine that have good to fair ratings in ratio to its toxic properties on the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. Parabens are considered to be bad for natural beauty products even when there's a small dose. 

The chemical names on the labels of our products are mostly used to preserve the product for a long shelf life.

Unfortunately, very few of my products are all-natural like my chapsticks and soaps. The ingredients in my lavender hemp Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap are water, organic coconut, jojoba, lavender and olive oils, lavender extract, citric acid, and Vitamin E. The bottle is even made from post-consumer recycled plastic. 

All-natural products seem to be a dime a dozen, but other products advertising natural beauty care when it's not 100% seem to get the attention. With sensitive skin, try to find the products with limited ingredients that have natural property names involving fruits, oils, and extracts.