Please read our disclaimer
Are Your Bodycare & Cosmetic Products Safe? What Manufacturers of Natural Products Aren't Telling You.. The following interview appeared in Issue #47 of Spectrum The Wholistic News Magazine.
What Manufacturers of Natural Products Aren't Telling You..
The subject of cosmetics and bodycare products may seem frivolous, but it's not. The skin is our largest organ, and except for those unfortunates living under bridges, we all subject it to a daily dose of healthy, and not-so-healthy, chemicals. Shampoos, soaps, toothpastes, conditioners, moisturizers, shaving lotions, deodorants and make-up—we apply these products on a regular basis, and most of their component chemicals are absorbed into our bloodstream through our skin. Most people assume these products are safe, but don't count on government agencies to protect you from profit-hungry manufacturers who care more about their bottom line than your health. The regulation of the cosmetics industry is such that you can be fairly sure bodycare products won't burn a hole through your skin, or blind you, but that's about as far as it goes. For this issue we interviewed Aubrey Hampton, founder of Aubrey Organics¨. His extensive line of organic cosmetic and bodycare products is the only one we've found with product labels that never read like the ingredients of a chemistry experiment (except for a few chemical names of some vitamin components). We have reported on various carcinogenic or suspect chemicals over the years, and when we go to the natural food store to do our shopping, Aubrey's products are the ones that consistently avoid these toxic substances. Judging from the uniqueness and quality of his products, we assumed we could learn a lot talking with him, and we weren't disappointed. Aubrey Hampton began learning how to make herbal cosmetics from his mother at the age of nine. In 1967, he founded Aubrey Organics¨, a natural and organic cosmetics company. Since then, he has created and marketed over 200 natural hair, skin and bodycare products. A phytochemist and herbalist, Mr. Hampton gives seminars throughout the world where he demonstrates how cosmetics can be made completely naturally, without harming the environment, and without being tested on animals. We hope you enjoy this interview, and after reading it, will think twice about what you put on your body, if you don't already. SPECTRUM: Animals in the wild appear healthy and beautiful, yet they don't use or need body care products. How did we humans come to depend on them? AUBREY HAMPTON: Actually, other species do use cosmetic products, it's just that we're not aware that's what they're doing. When an animal rolls in dirt—sometimes they roll in herbs, flowers, and other things—they're really doing a cosmetic thing for their fur and skin. If the animal has a rash or some other problem, it is handled very well by saliva, for the most part. We had to develop topical products, which go back thousands of years, because of our environment, and because our particular species has a skin and not a protective covering. There are a lot of genetic and species factors that are involved. Originally, cosmetic products were invented for two purposes. First, was simple care—problem skin, problem hair. The other reason was for beauty—to make one attractive for various anthropological reasons. Painting the face different colors denoted a certain rank in a society. It might have even been a way of appeasing the gods. Using coloration on the skin began for ritual or mystical reasons. Then, it became beauty items, especially in Egypt, and, later, Rome. The original purpose of cosmetics was for care and for beauty, but what we've done in modern times is made it only for beauty. Cosmetics are driven by youth, and they always have been. As you age, you want to retain youth. Cosmetics makes you a promise of that, either momentarily, as you use them topically, or, down the road, with their continued use. Built into that is a psychological factor that exits today even more than it ever has. Young women and men in the workforce are competing with older men and women. Consequently, you want to try to look young for your economic survival, as well as sexual survival. The cosmetic industry plays on that theme when they put products on television, and tell you that this will peel off the dead skin, and you will have a brand new, young skin. This is what's going on with alpha-hydroxy acids. They do some good, but they are very limited. The long range effect of these products that use glycolic acid is sensitive skin. Eventually, you wind up with sensitive skin, and then you have to go to other cosmetics to compensate for that.It's like a drug, really. You take one drug, and it affects you a certain way, then you have to take another. For example, if you use an antibiotic, it destroys your ability to handle various fungi and yeast. Then you have to take something that will restore the friendly bacteria that are essential for the body in order to protect against yeast overgrowth. It's the same with cosmetics, when you use make-up for a very long time to look young. As you remove it, your face looks older and older, because the cosmetics, the facial paint you're using, is aging the body. It's doing other things, as well. Many of these chemicals are known carcinogens, but the question is, how dangerous are they? We don't know the answer to that. There are nontoxic alternatives. Hair dyes cause eye problems down the road, as well as other problems, but that doesn't mean there aren't dyes you can use that are safe, such as the hennas and other natural ones. You'll hear people say, "These natural-product nuts are a bunch of crackpots. They think that everything that's natural is better." Actually, natural happens to be better. The reason is that natural items don't have a whole conglomeration of chemicals mixed into them, whereas synthetic things do. For instance, when they use a peroxide, it is very strong, and the pH damages hair. So they have to put in something that compensates for that. Then, they have to put in other compensating factors or other ingredients. That's the real trouble with cosmetics of a synthetic nature.Reading product labels is vital, and that's why I've written two books about it, not even naming our products in them. So when I wrote What's in Your Cosmetics, and the book before that, Natural Organic Hair and Skin Care, my purpose was to alert people to the various dangers of chemicals so they can become smart buyers. The only way to take care of yourself, so you can have some ability to look younger and healthy, is to recognize what the chemicals do. Sometimes you see ingredients that sound very synthetic, but the label says they are from coconut oil or something. Coconut oil has really taken a bad rap. On the labels manufacturers will say "sodium lauryl sulfate from coconut oil" or "triethanolamine from coconut oil." Of course, none of those products come from coconut oil. They are synthetic products, created completely chemically, and they contain petro-chemicals and other chemicals. They are similar to coconut oil, that's the best way I know how to put it, and even similar is stretching it. The people who put "from coconut oil" are lying on their labels, it's that simple. They do it to make you feel better about buying it. If the FDA saw that, they would make them take it off. Does this even include brands from the health food store? Sure. You've really got to read a label, and not base your purchases on a store's reputation. Stores take in products based on advertising, or the deals they can get on a product. Or, if people ask for a product, they've got to carry it. On the other hand, there are health food stores that are very particular, but you have to find them. They actually read the labels, and won't have products that have artificial colors, triethylanimine, sodium lauryl sulfates and other chemicals. But that's a very small number of stores. Just about every product I've checked has sodium lauryl sulfate. It doesn't have to. You can use pure coconut oil soap, even corn oil soap. Today we have such natural cleansers such as copras, palm kernal, yucca, and quillaya bark. The quillaya is called the soap root or soap bark. It was used by indigenous people as their method of cleaning—washing their hair, their clothing, everything. And, it didn't harm the environment. All the synthetic chemicals we see in the stores, however, hurt the environment. A product shouldn't call itself "natural" if it contains these chemicals, but we know how abused that word is. I never make products with synthetic or petrochemicals. Many people challenge me, saying it's impossible to do that, but humans have been doing it for 3,000 years. It's hardly impossible, in fact, it's easier to do it today. We have many things we didn't have in the past. For instance, I have embelics that heat an herb for a long time, and I extract using vegetable glycerine in the old way they used to do it. (An embelic is a big pot that seals closed, slowly steam heating herbs to remove their essential oils.) It's still the way they do it in the perfume factories in France. In many products, however, a lot of extraction is done with acetone, and various other chemicals.There are real problems with labeling. For example, there's no way of telling if you're getting real jojoba oil if you see it listed on a label. You may be getting completely synthetic jojoba oil, or jojoba that's in propylene glycol. They don't have to say it on the label. You could probably find a label that doesn't say "propylene glycol" anywhere, yet all the herbs will be in propylene glycol. You only have to list the substance you put in, and not the substances in the substance. That's the law. The problems are hard to address because of the complications. What would you write on the label, "synthetic jojoba oil"? That's what they should write. Or, "These herbs are all extracted in propylene glycol." How do we know that even pure, unadulterated herbs, like jojoba oil, may not be harmful in some way? What it comes down to is the track record of the herb itself. Most of the herbs have 500, 1,000 or 3,000 years of use, and we know they don't harm anybody. When you compare it with the track record of the chemicals that are used to replace it, the herbs have the better track record. But keep in mind that there's no substance to which a susceptible individual might not be allergic. Regarding herb safety, it's important to consider who is making the product, and what they know about the herbs. You've got to trust where you got something. I know when I make products, I know what I'm doing. I know all about the herbs. You can learn a lot about a company you buy from by reading their brochures, from their labels. If you notice that the label seems awfully natural, and it doesn't have many chemicals, or any at all, you can almost assume that they are very particular about the herbs they use.For the consumer, I would recommend reading a lot of different labels. Not the front of the bottle, but the back, the ingredient list. You'll find a lot of labels that say "natural" on the front, but the ingredient list has synthetic chemicals. So, right away, you know they're lying. Why? Because they can do it, and get away with it. They simply don't care about what's in their product. It's that simple. Or, they lack the imagination to create a really good product.Some herbs can cause a problem, but you don't use those herbs. I don't use aconite, for example. I use the mints, but I use them in very tiny quantities, because they can be irritating. That includes peppermint, menthol—all the mints. You just know how to use them. What will happen to someone who uses bodycare products—either commercial, or from a health food store—without choosing those that are truly natural? There are a lot of things that happen. As far as superficial things, it could be dry hair, continued dandruff, breakouts on the skin. These are obvious things that happen because your immune system doesn't like what you're doing. Other things are more complicated, such as a persistent cough. That can be caused by a cosmetic. It is literally absorbed into the skin, and creates an allergic reaction that's like breathing in a bad pollen. Your eyes water, you sneeze, but you never blame the cosmetics. If you have a lot of detergents under your sink, and you're coughing all the time, a clinical ecologist will tell you to keep them in the laundry room where you don't go very often. People don't realize that many cosmetics are made out of the same chemicals from which detergents are made. Fabric softeners cause a lot of allergic reactions, and the same thing that's in the fabric softener is used in hair conditioners. It's called stearalkonium chloride. Even after you used the fabric softener, and you put your clothes on, you can have rashes and other problems.Cosmetics can harm you, which is why they test them on animals to try and prove they are safe. It's a fallacious test, however. If they think it's safe for an animal, it doesn't mean it's safe for us. Even when it does harm the test animals, their contention is that it took a lot to harm them, therefore it's safe to use in cosmetics. They pour shampoo into rabbits' eyes until it blinds them, but if it took an awful lot to blind them, it must be O.K. Animal testing is an excuse to say it's O.K. That's what the chemical companies use to get through the door and introduce something to the market. Animal testing is stupid. It has never helped anybody, and it certainly does not help the animal. It has unleashed so many chemicals in our society that have harmed us. Animal tests are not required, but it's a system they use. I don't talk this way because I'm an animal rights person, even though I am. Not only does it harm the animal, we become the next guinea pigs. It's just passed on to us. Some people may shy away from natural products because they think they might not be as effective. The truth is most of them aren't. People buy a natural product, and it doesn't do all that much for them. I know of a company that makes a pretty clean cosmetic, but without imagination. The chemist/herbalist that puts it together doesn't know the herbs he's using, the balances. He just puts it in because it's a great herb. Then, the person that buys it wonders what's so great about this natural product. This doesn't happen with my products. If people do stumble onto my products, one way or another, they go on using them forever. What they find out is, not only do these products make them look better, they make the skin better. They may have a rash that goes away. Quite often they credit my product for it. But, really, it was probably because it got them off certain chemicals that were causing the problem. Some people will say that herbs are dangerous. Herbs aren't dangerous. Even an allergic reaction that you might get from an herb is far less of a problem than one you would get from a petrochemical or a synthetic mix. I don't even use synthetic preservatives. In my business, it's important to be open. Herbalists from all over the world send me herbs, with all their tests, all the things they've done to them. Some are scientific, some aren't. I look at it all, and there's not one thing that comes to me that I won't take into my lab, work up into something, and see what it does. I'm a very active type of manufacturer, a working herbalist. I'll make 100 variations of a product, sometimes 200. They're all tested on humans, because a lot of people like to test my products out. I also send the products to dermatologists, and they test them. I can't speak for other cosmetic companies, but I look around, and I don't see them doing the same things. What bothers me is that it isn't a matter of money or expense. They're just not in love with herbs the way I am. Why would they would go on using sodium lauryl sulfate and triethanolamine in shampoos when they don't need it? Then, they say it's from coconut oil to get you to buy it. I don't understand that mindset. I can't explain it. I know my products require a lot of work. They're very labor intensive. I make them fresh every week. I do a lot of things that other cosmetic companies won't do. They want to mass produce, and I don't. You were talking about the two purposes of body care products—care and beauty. I imagine that care could be further divided into healing and maintenance. Yes. Care means maintaining the body, which can be anything from simply keeping skin attractive, to keeping the hair in good condition. That's a maintenance thing. The more medical side of care is taking care of problems. Unfortunately, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) does not allow any manufacturer to say that a product will address any problem, because that's the role of drugs. Drugs are really a world of their own. They don't have a lot to do with cosmetics, though often the cosmetic you're using will have an element in it that has a natural drug action. For example, there are herbs that clear up pimples, psoriasis, or the various skin or hair problems we get, and they do it very effectively. You don't need the heavy drugs to do it. But, because of the drug industry, the FDA makes divisions, "This is food, these are drugs, these are cosmetics. They are three separate things." That's the way the FDA insists that they be handled. My products do a lot of things for the hair and skin, both of a maintenance nature, and a healing nature, but I never make claims. One good reason not to make claims it is that it's illegal, and I'm not allowed to do it. Another reason is that people vary. I have a product called Calaguala, made with a type of fern. It's excellent for seborrhea, psoriasis and eczema, and it works on those problems in most people. We know it does because it's been used for that since 300 B.C. by the Mayans, and is now used in Europe internally. If it was classed as a drug, I couldn't use it in my products, or make a claim for it. However, since it's new, just an herb, and it's relatively unknown in America, I can use it and not make a claim. But, as an herbalist, I know what Calaguala does. In your ads, can you say that it was used traditionally for healing certain conditions? You can say that the herb was used for that, as long as it's not related too closely with the selling of your products. Occasionally, I do a little historical thing on the herbs that I have in my products for awhile, but I back off eventually. It's an educational thing. I don't want it to be aligned, necessarily, with the buying of my products. But I do want people to know that this is an herb, used traditionally for skin and hair problems, even with serious problems, and we're putting it in our products. We're using it because it has many good assets. I can say anything I want in a magazine, because it's freedom of the press. But if the information is given out at the same time as the product is sold, then it's labeling. If it's not given at the same time, the FDA would say that they don't like it, but legally, they can't do anything about it. Evening primrose oil made for the General Nutrition stores was pulled off the shelf, mainly because of health claims. Some of the claims were probable true—it does help eczema, and it has fatty acids that are good for the body. But to make claims that it cures serious diseases, and pass that out in your store, as some stores do, it's not allowed. It's better to stay on the good side of a bureaucratic agency, for only one reason—they can make your life miserable, and harm your whole product line. We are really careful with the FDA, and they respect that. By the way, they despise the health food industry, because they think it's made up of a bunch of snake oil salesmen and crooks. I have thirty years in the health industry, and they give me very little trouble. If they don't like something on my label, I change the label. I don't make outlandish product claims, I don't argue with them, I don't go to court. Other people do, but I don't. What can good quality bodycare products do for us? In doing this since I was nine years old, one thing I've seen is that people who have been using my herbal products faithfully for ten, twenty, twenty-five years, maintaining and caring for their skin, look the same. That sounds like an outlandish statement, but I run into it very often. Their skin looks the same as it did 20 years earlier. That's not because of some magic formula that I have, but because they're off the chemicals, and not using heavy makeup. They are following a natural method of caring for the skin and hair, and they look great. There are famous older movie stars that still look great who use my products, and they use a lot of makeup. There are a lot of things you can do, and the people that know, do them. I study every cosmetic product out there, and I'm the only one doing this now. There's one guy in the south of France, Ludo Chardinon, and a few others that still do these herbal things, but they're very small, and we don't hear about them. The big ones you hear about, they are just like mainline American cosmetics. I've looked at their labels, tested their products. The cosmetic industry sells a dream, an image. They all put "natural" on their labels, but how can it be natural with all the chemicals in them. The only ones that get off the hook are the Europeans because they don't put it on the label. When they come to America, some put it on the label, and some don't. The FDA can't do anything about it because they're selling from a foreign country. And, the FDA will admit that they don't have the staff to oversee products coming into the country, so they do it on the level of the consumer and the store. In other countries, you don't have to put the ingredients on the label. America is one of the most advanced countries as far as full divulgence. We feel that you have a right to know about what you buy. It's a mistake to assume other countries are as forthcoming on their labels.My mother is from the traditions of the south of France, where you make your own products, using them in your home, and give them to neighbors. That's what mother did. She made products, took them to different stores, and we used them at home. That's my background. Of course, I've read a lot of herbal books, and I've studied chemistry. Chemistry is really a useless subject when it comes to herbs, because it has nothing to do with herbs. The term used for what I do is called "phytochemistry." It's the study of plants for their chemical content. But even that doesn't mean as much as putting a product together, knowing what it does, knowing how different herbs interact with each other—that's a whole different world that isn't really taught in any school. You learn it through working with a craftsperson, which is how I learned it. What can people do if they want to make their own bodycare products? I'm writing a book now called The Gourmet Kitchen Cosmetic Chef. It consists of hundreds of recipes so that you can make any product with the best possible quality. The health food store has a lot of things in it you can buy to create a good cosmetic. The only reason people don't do it because they don't know how to do it. They don't have the formulation for it. My book will show people how to do it, how they can make things a lot more inexpensively than they are in the store. Some people already do this to some extent, for example, by keeping aloe in their house, and using it as a fantastic moisturizer, right out of the leaf. What are your suggestions on how to maintain beautiful, healthy skin? There are three steps to guarantee good skin. The first is to clean your skin, but not with a cake of soap. You can't be sure of the soap you're getting. If it had a label on it, and you knew what you were getting, that would be different, but soaps are exempt from labeling. Instead, use a facial cleanser. Then, use a good astringent that doesn't have alcohol or acetone in it. You can go out and buy some witch hazel, put some herbs in it, and make your own. We call astringents clearers, which clear the skin of anything that's left from the soap process. That's good for dry as well as oily skin. The last step is putting on moisturizer, and spraying with mineral water. You want a moisturizer with some oils in it, but not real greasy. When you apply it, it should leave the skin smooth and not oily. But that doesn't mean that you should avoid oils in a moisturizer. Once a week, put a mask on your skin. Choose a mask that has herbs in it, and has a drawing action on the skin. You can make a mask of clay, but I prefer not to have a clay mask. I make one with clay, but it has essential oil in it to prevent the skin from drying out. The mask acts to draw the skin slightly. Steaming the skin is good, too. You put some herbs in a bowl of hot water and steam your skin. This process is for men, also? Yes. There are a lot of men that use my system. Some of them are models and actors, who are concerned about how they look all the time. What do you think about the recent concern with sun exposure? People won't go outside now without sun protector. They should do that. People used to like the sun, and worship it. Today, if we go out in the sun, we find it deadly. It's because of all the chemicals now in the atmosphere, and one of the big ones was a cosmetic called hair spray that harmed the ozone layer. Another was refrigeration, another was spray paint. I have watched the progress of the sun becoming more and more deadly over the past 20 years, and my products, which are pretty good in protecting from the sun, had to be made stronger and stronger. I had to change the formulas. Almost all of my products have sun protection. I use food-grade PABAs. The chemical PABAs can cause rashes with some people, but not everybody. I use some titanium dioxide, a mineral, in some products. I didn't use it for a long time because it tends to dry out the skin, but I managed to formulate with it a few years ago. By grinding the mineral very fine, I was able to add very little and get sun protection from it. There are two types of sun protection. One is an absorber, like PABA, and the other is a reflector, like titanium and zinc. Reflectors protect from all the rays, both A and B. PABA doesn't protect from all the rays. I use a combination, and I use other things as well, such as aloe vera. I'm not in favor of the various products that paint the skin and make it look like a suntan. They contain acetones and other chemicals that aren't good for the body. What about soap? It's a cleanser; it cleans the body. It doesn't do much else, unless something else is built in. Remember, you're rinsing it off the skin, and it's only on the skin for a short time. If you're going to clean the body, you should do it with something that isn't loaded with a bunch of chemicals. I don't know why people buy pink, yellow, blue and green soaps. I guess so people can look at them in their bathrooms. All you're doing is washing your skin with a bunch of synthetic, coal-tar dyes. It's risky even if you have it on your skin only a short while. I agree with Ralph Nadar, that these chemicals should be completely removed from the market. Each year they find another that causes cancer. But that shouldn't be surprising. If you look at the formulas, they all have the same things in common. Why would you remove Red #40, and let Yellow #6 remain? I have read that the scents used in bodycare products interfere with our natural pheromones, the subtle chemicals we secrete for sexual communication. I would imagine any scent, even from a natural product, could mask these. If anything would impair communicating chemicals, it would have to be something that disturbs the chemistry of the body, such as synthetic chemicals that don't belong there. Our olfactories tend to shut down to things they find unpleasant. If you have a pleasant perfume on, and someone finds it attractive, then obviously it's not going to interfere with the mating process, or attraction. You can use perfumes that are sexually alluring. Let's take musk for example. I'm not talking about animal musk, which is too garish, and also may harm the body because of some of its chemicals. Musk has sexual allurement. We don't know why it does that. Do you have any final comments? I think that the people who are reading your article should become aware people, if they are not already. It's their body, and what they put on it is going to go inside. The skin is not a plate, not a wall. It's an organ, the largest organ of your body. It respires, gives off sweat, oils and bacteria. You should take care of it. And, hair is not dead. It's very much alive, but you can kill it by using bad chemicals. You can go bald from the chemicals even when you don't have hereditary baldness in your family. So, I would say, become an aware label reader, and don't buy products with chemicals in them. If the chemical's name is longer than your arm, why do you want it? Why do you need it? Beware of products that make too many big claims on labels. If it says on the front that it contains six or twelve herbs, read the back and see what else it has in it. The thing that really saved all the people I know is using a natural method of skin and hair care.
The subject of cosmetics and bodycare products may seem frivolous, but it's not. The skin is our largest organ, and except for those unfortunates living under bridges, we all subject it to a daily dose of healthy, and not-so-healthy, chemicals. Shampoos, soaps, toothpastes, conditioners, moisturizers, shaving lotions, deodorants and make-up—we apply these products on a regular basis, and most of their component chemicals are absorbed into our bloodstream through our skin.
Most people assume these products are safe, but don't count on government agencies to protect you from profit-hungry manufacturers who care more about their bottom line than your health. The regulation of the cosmetics industry is such that you can be fairly sure bodycare products won't burn a hole through your skin, or blind you, but that's about as far as it goes. For this issue we interviewed Aubrey Hampton, founder of Aubrey Organics¨. His extensive line of organic cosmetic and bodycare products is the only one we've found with product labels that never read like the ingredients of a chemistry experiment (except for a few chemical names of some vitamin components). We have reported on various carcinogenic or suspect chemicals over the years, and when we go to the natural food store to do our shopping, Aubrey's products are the ones that consistently avoid these toxic substances. Judging from the uniqueness and quality of his products, we assumed we could learn a lot talking with him, and we weren't disappointed.
Aubrey Hampton began learning how to make herbal cosmetics from his mother at the age of nine. In 1967, he founded Aubrey Organics¨, a natural and organic cosmetics company. Since then, he has created and marketed over 200 natural hair, skin and bodycare products. A phytochemist and herbalist, Mr. Hampton gives seminars throughout the world where he demonstrates how cosmetics can be made completely naturally, without harming the environment, and without being tested on animals.
We hope you enjoy this interview, and after reading it, will think twice about what you put on your body, if you don't already.
SPECTRUM: Animals in the wild appear healthy and beautiful, yet they don't use or need body care products. How did we humans come to depend on them?
AUBREY HAMPTON: Actually, other species do use cosmetic products, it's just that we're not aware that's what they're doing. When an animal rolls in dirt—sometimes they roll in herbs, flowers, and other things—they're really doing a cosmetic thing for their fur and skin. If the animal has a rash or some other problem, it is handled very well by saliva, for the most part. We had to develop topical products, which go back thousands of years, because of our environment, and because our particular species has a skin and not a protective covering. There are a lot of genetic and species factors that are involved. Originally, cosmetic products were invented for two purposes. First, was simple care—problem skin, problem hair. The other reason was for beauty—to make one attractive for various anthropological reasons. Painting the face different colors denoted a certain rank in a society. It might have even been a way of appeasing the gods. Using coloration on the skin began for ritual or mystical reasons. Then, it became beauty items, especially in Egypt, and, later, Rome. The original purpose of cosmetics was for care and for beauty, but what we've done in modern times is made it only for beauty. Cosmetics are driven by youth, and they always have been. As you age, you want to retain youth. Cosmetics makes you a promise of that, either momentarily, as you use them topically, or, down the road, with their continued use. Built into that is a psychological factor that exits today even more than it ever has. Young women and men in the workforce are competing with older men and women. Consequently, you want to try to look young for your economic survival, as well as sexual survival. The cosmetic industry plays on that theme when they put products on television, and tell you that this will peel off the dead skin, and you will have a brand new, young skin. This is what's going on with alpha-hydroxy acids. They do some good, but they are very limited. The long range effect of these products that use glycolic acid is sensitive skin. Eventually, you wind up with sensitive skin, and then you have to go to other cosmetics to compensate for that.It's like a drug, really. You take one drug, and it affects you a certain way, then you have to take another. For example, if you use an antibiotic, it destroys your ability to handle various fungi and yeast. Then you have to take something that will restore the friendly bacteria that are essential for the body in order to protect against yeast overgrowth. It's the same with cosmetics, when you use make-up for a very long time to look young. As you remove it, your face looks older and older, because the cosmetics, the facial paint you're using, is aging the body. It's doing other things, as well.
Many of these chemicals are known carcinogens, but the question is, how dangerous are they?
We don't know the answer to that. There are nontoxic alternatives. Hair dyes cause eye problems down the road, as well as other problems, but that doesn't mean there aren't dyes you can use that are safe, such as the hennas and other natural ones. You'll hear people say, "These natural-product nuts are a bunch of crackpots. They think that everything that's natural is better." Actually, natural happens to be better. The reason is that natural items don't have a whole conglomeration of chemicals mixed into them, whereas synthetic things do. For instance, when they use a peroxide, it is very strong, and the pH damages hair. So they have to put in something that compensates for that. Then, they have to put in other compensating factors or other ingredients. That's the real trouble with cosmetics of a synthetic nature.Reading product labels is vital, and that's why I've written two books about it, not even naming our products in them. So when I wrote What's in Your Cosmetics, and the book before that, Natural Organic Hair and Skin Care, my purpose was to alert people to the various dangers of chemicals so they can become smart buyers. The only way to take care of yourself, so you can have some ability to look younger and healthy, is to recognize what the chemicals do.
Sometimes you see ingredients that sound very synthetic, but the label says they are from coconut oil or something.
Coconut oil has really taken a bad rap. On the labels manufacturers will say "sodium lauryl sulfate from coconut oil" or "triethanolamine from coconut oil." Of course, none of those products come from coconut oil. They are synthetic products, created completely chemically, and they contain petro-chemicals and other chemicals. They are similar to coconut oil, that's the best way I know how to put it, and even similar is stretching it. The people who put "from coconut oil" are lying on their labels, it's that simple. They do it to make you feel better about buying it.
If the FDA saw that, they would make them take it off. Does this even include brands from the health food store?
Sure. You've really got to read a label, and not base your purchases on a store's reputation. Stores take in products based on advertising, or the deals they can get on a product. Or, if people ask for a product, they've got to carry it. On the other hand, there are health food stores that are very particular, but you have to find them. They actually read the labels, and won't have products that have artificial colors, triethylanimine, sodium lauryl sulfates and other chemicals. But that's a very small number of stores. Just about every product I've checked has sodium lauryl sulfate. It doesn't have to. You can use pure coconut oil soap, even corn oil soap. Today we have such natural cleansers such as copras, palm kernal, yucca, and quillaya bark. The quillaya is called the soap root or soap bark. It was used by indigenous people as their method of cleaning—washing their hair, their clothing, everything. And, it didn't harm the environment. All the synthetic chemicals we see in the stores, however, hurt the environment. A product shouldn't call itself "natural" if it contains these chemicals, but we know how abused that word is. I never make products with synthetic or petrochemicals. Many people challenge me, saying it's impossible to do that, but humans have been doing it for 3,000 years. It's hardly impossible, in fact, it's easier to do it today. We have many things we didn't have in the past. For instance, I have embelics that heat an herb for a long time, and I extract using vegetable glycerine in the old way they used to do it. (An embelic is a big pot that seals closed, slowly steam heating herbs to remove their essential oils.) It's still the way they do it in the perfume factories in France. In many products, however, a lot of extraction is done with acetone, and various other chemicals.There are real problems with labeling. For example, there's no way of telling if you're getting real jojoba oil if you see it listed on a label. You may be getting completely synthetic jojoba oil, or jojoba that's in propylene glycol. They don't have to say it on the label. You could probably find a label that doesn't say "propylene glycol" anywhere, yet all the herbs will be in propylene glycol. You only have to list the substance you put in, and not the substances in the substance. That's the law. The problems are hard to address because of the complications.
What would you write on the label, "synthetic jojoba oil"?
That's what they should write. Or, "These herbs are all extracted in propylene glycol."
How do we know that even pure, unadulterated herbs, like jojoba oil, may not be harmful in some way?
What it comes down to is the track record of the herb itself. Most of the herbs have 500, 1,000 or 3,000 years of use, and we know they don't harm anybody. When you compare it with the track record of the chemicals that are used to replace it, the herbs have the better track record. But keep in mind that there's no substance to which a susceptible individual might not be allergic. Regarding herb safety, it's important to consider who is making the product, and what they know about the herbs. You've got to trust where you got something. I know when I make products, I know what I'm doing. I know all about the herbs. You can learn a lot about a company you buy from by reading their brochures, from their labels. If you notice that the label seems awfully natural, and it doesn't have many chemicals, or any at all, you can almost assume that they are very particular about the herbs they use.For the consumer, I would recommend reading a lot of different labels. Not the front of the bottle, but the back, the ingredient list. You'll find a lot of labels that say "natural" on the front, but the ingredient list has synthetic chemicals. So, right away, you know they're lying.
Why?
Because they can do it, and get away with it. They simply don't care about what's in their product. It's that simple. Or, they lack the imagination to create a really good product.Some herbs can cause a problem, but you don't use those herbs. I don't use aconite, for example. I use the mints, but I use them in very tiny quantities, because they can be irritating. That includes peppermint, menthol—all the mints. You just know how to use them.
What will happen to someone who uses bodycare products—either commercial, or from a health food store—without choosing those that are truly natural?
There are a lot of things that happen. As far as superficial things, it could be dry hair, continued dandruff, breakouts on the skin. These are obvious things that happen because your immune system doesn't like what you're doing. Other things are more complicated, such as a persistent cough. That can be caused by a cosmetic. It is literally absorbed into the skin, and creates an allergic reaction that's like breathing in a bad pollen. Your eyes water, you sneeze, but you never blame the cosmetics. If you have a lot of detergents under your sink, and you're coughing all the time, a clinical ecologist will tell you to keep them in the laundry room where you don't go very often. People don't realize that many cosmetics are made out of the same chemicals from which detergents are made. Fabric softeners cause a lot of allergic reactions, and the same thing that's in the fabric softener is used in hair conditioners. It's called stearalkonium chloride. Even after you used the fabric softener, and you put your clothes on, you can have rashes and other problems.Cosmetics can harm you, which is why they test them on animals to try and prove they are safe. It's a fallacious test, however. If they think it's safe for an animal, it doesn't mean it's safe for us. Even when it does harm the test animals, their contention is that it took a lot to harm them, therefore it's safe to use in cosmetics. They pour shampoo into rabbits' eyes until it blinds them, but if it took an awful lot to blind them, it must be O.K. Animal testing is an excuse to say it's O.K. That's what the chemical companies use to get through the door and introduce something to the market. Animal testing is stupid. It has never helped anybody, and it certainly does not help the animal. It has unleashed so many chemicals in our society that have harmed us. Animal tests are not required, but it's a system they use. I don't talk this way because I'm an animal rights person, even though I am. Not only does it harm the animal, we become the next guinea pigs. It's just passed on to us.
Some people may shy away from natural products because they think they might not be as effective.
The truth is most of them aren't. People buy a natural product, and it doesn't do all that much for them. I know of a company that makes a pretty clean cosmetic, but without imagination. The chemist/herbalist that puts it together doesn't know the herbs he's using, the balances. He just puts it in because it's a great herb. Then, the person that buys it wonders what's so great about this natural product. This doesn't happen with my products. If people do stumble onto my products, one way or another, they go on using them forever. What they find out is, not only do these products make them look better, they make the skin better. They may have a rash that goes away. Quite often they credit my product for it. But, really, it was probably because it got them off certain chemicals that were causing the problem.
Some people will say that herbs are dangerous.
Herbs aren't dangerous. Even an allergic reaction that you might get from an herb is far less of a problem than one you would get from a petrochemical or a synthetic mix. I don't even use synthetic preservatives. In my business, it's important to be open. Herbalists from all over the world send me herbs, with all their tests, all the things they've done to them. Some are scientific, some aren't. I look at it all, and there's not one thing that comes to me that I won't take into my lab, work up into something, and see what it does. I'm a very active type of manufacturer, a working herbalist. I'll make 100 variations of a product, sometimes 200. They're all tested on humans, because a lot of people like to test my products out. I also send the products to dermatologists, and they test them. I can't speak for other cosmetic companies, but I look around, and I don't see them doing the same things. What bothers me is that it isn't a matter of money or expense. They're just not in love with herbs the way I am.
Why would they would go on using sodium lauryl sulfate and triethanolamine in shampoos when they don't need it?
Then, they say it's from coconut oil to get you to buy it. I don't understand that mindset. I can't explain it. I know my products require a lot of work. They're very labor intensive. I make them fresh every week. I do a lot of things that other cosmetic companies won't do. They want to mass produce, and I don't.
You were talking about the two purposes of body care products—care and beauty. I imagine that care could be further divided into healing and maintenance.
Yes. Care means maintaining the body, which can be anything from simply keeping skin attractive, to keeping the hair in good condition. That's a maintenance thing. The more medical side of care is taking care of problems. Unfortunately, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) does not allow any manufacturer to say that a product will address any problem, because that's the role of drugs. Drugs are really a world of their own. They don't have a lot to do with cosmetics, though often the cosmetic you're using will have an element in it that has a natural drug action. For example, there are herbs that clear up pimples, psoriasis, or the various skin or hair problems we get, and they do it very effectively. You don't need the heavy drugs to do it. But, because of the drug industry, the FDA makes divisions, "This is food, these are drugs, these are cosmetics. They are three separate things." That's the way the FDA insists that they be handled. My products do a lot of things for the hair and skin, both of a maintenance nature, and a healing nature, but I never make claims. One good reason not to make claims it is that it's illegal, and I'm not allowed to do it. Another reason is that people vary. I have a product called Calaguala, made with a type of fern. It's excellent for seborrhea, psoriasis and eczema, and it works on those problems in most people. We know it does because it's been used for that since 300 B.C. by the Mayans, and is now used in Europe internally. If it was classed as a drug, I couldn't use it in my products, or make a claim for it. However, since it's new, just an herb, and it's relatively unknown in America, I can use it and not make a claim. But, as an herbalist, I know what Calaguala does.
In your ads, can you say that it was used traditionally for healing certain conditions?
You can say that the herb was used for that, as long as it's not related too closely with the selling of your products. Occasionally, I do a little historical thing on the herbs that I have in my products for awhile, but I back off eventually. It's an educational thing. I don't want it to be aligned, necessarily, with the buying of my products. But I do want people to know that this is an herb, used traditionally for skin and hair problems, even with serious problems, and we're putting it in our products. We're using it because it has many good assets. I can say anything I want in a magazine, because it's freedom of the press. But if the information is given out at the same time as the product is sold, then it's labeling. If it's not given at the same time, the FDA would say that they don't like it, but legally, they can't do anything about it. Evening primrose oil made for the General Nutrition stores was pulled off the shelf, mainly because of health claims. Some of the claims were probable true—it does help eczema, and it has fatty acids that are good for the body. But to make claims that it cures serious diseases, and pass that out in your store, as some stores do, it's not allowed. It's better to stay on the good side of a bureaucratic agency, for only one reason—they can make your life miserable, and harm your whole product line. We are really careful with the FDA, and they respect that. By the way, they despise the health food industry, because they think it's made up of a bunch of snake oil salesmen and crooks. I have thirty years in the health industry, and they give me very little trouble. If they don't like something on my label, I change the label. I don't make outlandish product claims, I don't argue with them, I don't go to court. Other people do, but I don't.
What can good quality bodycare products do for us?
In doing this since I was nine years old, one thing I've seen is that people who have been using my herbal products faithfully for ten, twenty, twenty-five years, maintaining and caring for their skin, look the same. That sounds like an outlandish statement, but I run into it very often. Their skin looks the same as it did 20 years earlier. That's not because of some magic formula that I have, but because they're off the chemicals, and not using heavy makeup. They are following a natural method of caring for the skin and hair, and they look great. There are famous older movie stars that still look great who use my products, and they use a lot of makeup. There are a lot of things you can do, and the people that know, do them. I study every cosmetic product out there, and I'm the only one doing this now. There's one guy in the south of France, Ludo Chardinon, and a few others that still do these herbal things, but they're very small, and we don't hear about them. The big ones you hear about, they are just like mainline American cosmetics. I've looked at their labels, tested their products. The cosmetic industry sells a dream, an image. They all put "natural" on their labels, but how can it be natural with all the chemicals in them. The only ones that get off the hook are the Europeans because they don't put it on the label. When they come to America, some put it on the label, and some don't. The FDA can't do anything about it because they're selling from a foreign country. And, the FDA will admit that they don't have the staff to oversee products coming into the country, so they do it on the level of the consumer and the store. In other countries, you don't have to put the ingredients on the label.
America is one of the most advanced countries as far as full divulgence. We feel that you have a right to know about what you buy.
It's a mistake to assume other countries are as forthcoming on their labels.My mother is from the traditions of the south of France, where you make your own products, using them in your home, and give them to neighbors. That's what mother did. She made products, took them to different stores, and we used them at home. That's my background. Of course, I've read a lot of herbal books, and I've studied chemistry. Chemistry is really a useless subject when it comes to herbs, because it has nothing to do with herbs. The term used for what I do is called "phytochemistry." It's the study of plants for their chemical content. But even that doesn't mean as much as putting a product together, knowing what it does, knowing how different herbs interact with each other—that's a whole different world that isn't really taught in any school. You learn it through working with a craftsperson, which is how I learned it.
What can people do if they want to make their own bodycare products?
I'm writing a book now called The Gourmet Kitchen Cosmetic Chef. It consists of hundreds of recipes so that you can make any product with the best possible quality. The health food store has a lot of things in it you can buy to create a good cosmetic. The only reason people don't do it because they don't know how to do it. They don't have the formulation for it. My book will show people how to do it, how they can make things a lot more inexpensively than they are in the store. Some people already do this to some extent, for example, by keeping aloe in their house, and using it as a fantastic moisturizer, right out of the leaf.
What are your suggestions on how to maintain beautiful, healthy skin?
There are three steps to guarantee good skin. The first is to clean your skin, but not with a cake of soap. You can't be sure of the soap you're getting. If it had a label on it, and you knew what you were getting, that would be different, but soaps are exempt from labeling. Instead, use a facial cleanser. Then, use a good astringent that doesn't have alcohol or acetone in it. You can go out and buy some witch hazel, put some herbs in it, and make your own. We call astringents clearers, which clear the skin of anything that's left from the soap process. That's good for dry as well as oily skin. The last step is putting on moisturizer, and spraying with mineral water. You want a moisturizer with some oils in it, but not real greasy. When you apply it, it should leave the skin smooth and not oily. But that doesn't mean that you should avoid oils in a moisturizer. Once a week, put a mask on your skin. Choose a mask that has herbs in it, and has a drawing action on the skin. You can make a mask of clay, but I prefer not to have a clay mask. I make one with clay, but it has essential oil in it to prevent the skin from drying out. The mask acts to draw the skin slightly. Steaming the skin is good, too. You put some herbs in a bowl of hot water and steam your skin.
This process is for men, also?
Yes. There are a lot of men that use my system. Some of them are models and actors, who are concerned about how they look all the time.
What do you think about the recent concern with sun exposure?
People won't go outside now without sun protector. They should do that. People used to like the sun, and worship it. Today, if we go out in the sun, we find it deadly. It's because of all the chemicals now in the atmosphere, and one of the big ones was a cosmetic called hair spray that harmed the ozone layer. Another was refrigeration, another was spray paint. I have watched the progress of the sun becoming more and more deadly over the past 20 years, and my products, which are pretty good in protecting from the sun, had to be made stronger and stronger. I had to change the formulas. Almost all of my products have sun protection. I use food-grade PABAs. The chemical PABAs can cause rashes with some people, but not everybody. I use some titanium dioxide, a mineral, in some products. I didn't use it for a long time because it tends to dry out the skin, but I managed to formulate with it a few years ago. By grinding the mineral very fine, I was able to add very little and get sun protection from it. There are two types of sun protection. One is an absorber, like PABA, and the other is a reflector, like titanium and zinc. Reflectors protect from all the rays, both A and B. PABA doesn't protect from all the rays. I use a combination, and I use other things as well, such as aloe vera. I'm not in favor of the various products that paint the skin and make it look like a suntan. They contain acetones and other chemicals that aren't good for the body.
What about soap?
It's a cleanser; it cleans the body. It doesn't do much else, unless something else is built in. Remember, you're rinsing it off the skin, and it's only on the skin for a short time. If you're going to clean the body, you should do it with something that isn't loaded with a bunch of chemicals. I don't know why people buy pink, yellow, blue and green soaps. I guess so people can look at them in their bathrooms. All you're doing is washing your skin with a bunch of synthetic, coal-tar dyes. It's risky even if you have it on your skin only a short while. I agree with Ralph Nadar, that these chemicals should be completely removed from the market. Each year they find another that causes cancer. But that shouldn't be surprising. If you look at the formulas, they all have the same things in common. Why would you remove Red #40, and let Yellow #6 remain?
I have read that the scents used in bodycare products interfere with our natural pheromones, the subtle chemicals we secrete for sexual communication.
I would imagine any scent, even from a natural product, could mask these. If anything would impair communicating chemicals, it would have to be something that disturbs the chemistry of the body, such as synthetic chemicals that don't belong there. Our olfactories tend to shut down to things they find unpleasant. If you have a pleasant perfume on, and someone finds it attractive, then obviously it's not going to interfere with the mating process, or attraction. You can use perfumes that are sexually alluring. Let's take musk for example. I'm not talking about animal musk, which is too garish, and also may harm the body because of some of its chemicals. Musk has sexual allurement. We don't know why it does that.
Do you have any final comments?
I think that the people who are reading your article should become aware people, if they are not already. It's their body, and what they put on it is going to go inside. The skin is not a plate, not a wall. It's an organ, the largest organ of your body. It respires, gives off sweat, oils and bacteria. You should take care of it. And, hair is not dead. It's very much alive, but you can kill it by using bad chemicals. You can go bald from the chemicals even when you don't have hereditary baldness in your family. So, I would say, become an aware label reader, and don't buy products with chemicals in them. If the chemical's name is longer than your arm, why do you want it? Why do you need it? Beware of products that make too many big claims on labels. If it says on the front that it contains six or twelve herbs, read the back and see what else it has in it. The thing that really saved all the people I know is using a natural method of skin and hair care.
Return to top
HOME 
HOME