Cripes, some sense at last!

I expected to be beginning our new blog with a good moan but, to my surprise, this leapt out at me today and has elicited a small cheer (just a small one mind). The Daily Mail today writes about ‘The Organic Myth’ and how we just don’t know what is in the organic products we buy.

Says the article by Alice Hart-Davis:

“In the U.S., an environmental group has filed a lawsuit against 26 cosmetic companies over claims that products were falsely labelled as organic.

The brands include major names such  as Jason and Boots, which are accused  of violating a California law that requires at least 70 per cent of the ingredients in organic products to be grown without pesticides or chemicals.

In Britain, you might be surprised to learn the laws governing the labelling on organic foods do not extend to beauty products — so a company can describe a product as organic even if it contains only tiny amounts of organic ingredients.”

Read more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/beauty/article-2023497/The-organic-myth-The-label-says-organic-natural-products-youre-forking-for.html#ixzz1UR2yF6Oz

This is not to say that we have anything against organic products. We don’t but we DO get absolutely fed up of the lack of balance and sense in reporting, particularly articles that claim organic ingredients are best for sensitive skin – and skin in general of course - and that synthetic ones or ‘chemicals’, as many commentators like to call them, are terrible for sensitive skin (when, from our experience, the opposite is usually true).

Chemicals are all around us. Everything is made of them. Take essential oils, the darlings of organic and natural cosmetics. They are made up of a number of chemical components, including alcohols, aldehydes, esters, ethers, ketones, phenols and terpenes. The latter can be broken down into numerous small units, some of which include monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, sesquiterpene lactones and di-terpenes. Don’t sound quite so harmless now do they? Aren’t we always being told to avoid cosmetic products containing alcohol?! I can just imagine an article with the headline screaming ‘aldehydes fry your skin’ as someone thinks aldehyde = formaldehyde agggghhh. Seriously, this IS the sort of stuff we are treated to by beauty commentators - nonsense that they’ve found on the internet or perhaps read in the marketing blurb of some company trying to flog products on the basis they are free-from this or that chemical nasty. By the way, this makes interesting reading on the subject of aldehydes:

http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/2008/12/myth-debunking-1-what-are-aldehydes-how.html

Anyway, thank you to the Daily Mail for some balance today. We will be back soon with some of the promised teeth gnashing!

Fed up with the nonsense written about sensitive skin

I am so fed up with all the nonsense written about sensitive skin and what is good for it  - or rather what is not good for it - that I thought it was about time someone who talks to people with sensitive skin every day did a bit of myth busting.

One of the aims of this blog is to save those who have sensitive skin experiencing unnecessary reactions to products and, importantly, to stop unnecessary expenditure. What I hear again and again is ‘I have a drawer/bathroom cabinet/bin full of products which I’ve bought and can’t use. I am so fed up of wasting money!’ Does that sound in anyway familiar?

So, who am I? I am Jane and I work for Queen Cosmetics where we make  and sell sensitive skin products. Before you close me down saying 'oh no, just another company trying to flog its own products', let me STOP you because you might just learn something which helps you. I am not going to highlight any of our products but am going to help you navigate your own way through the murky maze that is the sensitive skin products market. What you then go on to buy, if anything, is your decision.

Another thing I wanted to achieve, is to show how broad the category - for want of a better word -  ‘sensitive skin’ is by using some of the letters/emails/enquiries we get from people because what they are experiencing might just resonate with you.

It would also be good to get your feedback, thoughts and to hear your experiences by starting a forum/comments board where people with sensitive skin can get together and have a sensible discussion without hype, hysteria and any ulterior motives!

Back to the myth busting….next week I will begin with ‘chemicals are bad for sensitive skin’. Just writing it makes my blood boil…..!