Natural Skincare is Beautiful and Ugly
If anyone has ever tried to sell you “all-natural” skincare that doesn’t look like baby poop, it isn’t all-natural. Okay, maybe not all of it looks like baby poop, but there is a significant amount of natural raw ingredients that are not white and pretty.
I love natural, so I am used to the look of baby poop products, but I also worked in the industry for 15+ years so I am aware that only white or perfectly clear and perfectly mixed products that never separate are always chemically derived. There is no such thing as “uniform” in nature, and there is no such thing in natural skincare.
Plants Make Baby Poop Skincare
We here at Susie Q Skin have created what I believe to be the BEST anti-aging face serum and moisturizer product in one. We call it our Vitamin C Retinol Intensive, and it is something of a love child for Susie. This product has so many plants in it, it is crazy. Rosehip seed oil, sea buckthorn oil, raspberry seed oil, horsetail, bearberry, blueberry, green tea, arctic cranberry, licorice, cloudberry...the list goes on and on. Each one of these plant extracts has a color to it, and each time the extract is produced it can be a slightly different color.
One example I always used with customers is avocado oil. Avocado oil, depending on the time of year it is processed, and which vendor processes it, can range from a yellow color to a super dark green. You can treat the avocado oil so that it becomes a colorless product, but then you are chemicalizing it and destroying all the beautiful plant parts that make it so good for you. This means that if you want to have a natural skin care product that actually derives benefits from the various plants, that skin care formula will have some color to it. The more plant material you use, the more color the final product will have. Sometimes this makes for baby poop colored products, but they are chock full of plants!
Why Must I Shake My Bottle?
I tell our customers that they must shake their Vitamin C Retinol Intensive product a couple of times per week or it will separate. When I first started creating this product with the skin care lab, I was very insistent that we only use the most natural full-spectrum preservatives, and that we use the least amount of any binders needed. I wanted to have the most natural version of a retinol product as possible. Most retinol skincare products on the market are full of funky chemicals. Mostly because the ingredient of retinol is made with funky chemicals. There are some plants that produce a tiny amount of naturally derived retinol, but nothing that will actually change your skin.
So, this skin care lab, I tell them my parameters and the list of ingredients I want included. They think I’m crazy. So many plants! So many oils! They try to persuade me to add more thickeners in and less oils, but I stand my ground and say no. They send me a sample to test and I love it. Seriously. The product is bright yellow in color (gotta love oil vitamin c and sea buckthorn oil), and if you let it sit a few days, it separates. They are, of course, concerned about the public perception of a separated face product. We are so trained that face creams and serums should be uniform and white and perfect looking, but those are always made with chemicals and lots of them.
I tell the lab if they are concerned they can send another revision with more of our plant-based thickeners but keep it only to what will keep it from separating. I got the sample and hated it. It felt like spreading a layer of glue all over my face. Even to the point that it would start to ball up when I rubbed in it. Nope. No way would I approve that. So, we stuck with the original version. Now I just warn you, shake the bottle a couple of times per week or it will separate, but in exchange for that separation you get a fabulous product, full of natural plant extracts and oils, and with the least amount of thickeners and chemicals as possible.
All-Natural Skin Care is Different
The beauty of plants is that they are all different. Even on one rose bush, no two roses are the same. The color shape of each petal and leaf is individual, yet all full of life. Avocado oil will be yellow or dark green, lavender essential oil is not purple, but blue tansy is so blue, the straight essential oil will stain your sink. That’s why natural skin care products can take on the color of baby poop.
So, as you’re spreading that yellow Vitamin C Retinol Intensive on your face after you just washed off the baby poop colored HAPPINESS Radiance Mask and Oil blend, tell the plants you are thankful for all the life and energy and love they just imparted on your skin. Nature is powerful, and so are natural skincare products that just go with the color flow.