Posts Tagged ‘paraben free products’

Purely Polished Skin with Eminence Organics Strawberry Rhubarb Dermafoliant

It’s a totally unique facial exfoliant that starts off as a powder!  With the addition of water it becomes both a physical (the scrubby kind) and an enzymatic (the kind you don’t feel) exfoliant in one!  It’s also natural with organic ingredients so it really doesn’t get much better! Oh yeah, and it’s called Strawberry Rhubarb Dermafoliant made by Eminence Organic Skincare.

 This gentle daily exfoliant is made up of tons of great ingredients including  rice powder, oats, lactic acid, chickpea flour, tons of antioxidants, and of course strawberry and rhubarb.  The main exfoliating ingredients are the lactic acid, salicylic acid (found in strawberries), and a combination of the chickpea flour and rice that provide the physical buffing action.  The rhubarb helps to fight the look of fine lines and the oats help to cleanse and smooth the skin.

It comes in a neat metal container with a shaker lid that you twist to open and twist to close.  You don’t need much powder at all – just a couple of shakes.  Add a bit of water and you’re ready to go!  Gently massage the paste over your clean skin for about a minute and then rinse with water.  If your skin is sensitive you may not use it daily, but you can certainly use it 2-3 times a week.  It can also be mixed with your favorite Eminence cleanser to make it even more gentle.  It sells for $48.00 and when used properly it lasts for at least a few months!

Watch our demo video here

 

As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!

Cosmetic Ingredients Spa Boutique Clients are Most Concerned About

Continuing in the vein of our natural/organic survey results, we compiled a  list of ingredients people would like to avoid.

I tend to focus more on the few ingredients I know work, and have never been much of an avoider. Everytime a new concern becomes public, I review my trusted information sources and decide whether I’ll feel good about using it. Sometimes it’s yes, sometimes no. But I LOVE products and am prone to the fatal flaw of intense curiosity. Those two philosophies don’t mesh well.

That being said, I completely understand where people are coming from when it comes to ingredients of concern. If you are choosing to make more sustainable decisions in every aspect of your life, it  makes senses to asses what it is you are putting on your body as well as in it.

I was impressed by the list of Ingredients of Concern the survey generated. We have some superbly aware clients. I had never even heard of some of the ingredients and I spend a lot of time researching stuff. You guys make me smarter.

I thought I’d list the ones most frequently mentioned, as we’re going to try and use the list to determine what people are looking for when they want “natural” products. Since there’s no official despcription of what that means, we thought we’d let you define it. We’ll do our best to find products that fit within it but still give results.

Here are the ones that came up the most:

• Parabens
• Sulphates (including sodium lauryls and laureths)
• Pthalates
• Mineral Oil
• Propylene Glycol
• Tetrasodium DTA
• Talc
• Urea
• Fragrance/Parfum
• PEG

While many of the classic skincare lines we carry still contain some of theses ingredients, and we do stand behind them, we understand the demand for alternatives.

At Spa Boutique we carry many different natural and organic lines like Eminence Organics, Dr.Hauschka, Glo Minerals, GM Collin Bio Organique, Antipodes Natural & Organic Skincare,  Baborganic, Beauty Through Balance by Ancient Secrets, Jane Iredale Mineral Makeup, John Masters Organics, Jurlique Natural Beauty Care, Luzern Laboratories, Moor Spa Beauty Care, Onesta Hair Care, Phyto Hair Care, Seaflora Skincare, Simply Organic Hair & Body Care, Spa Binge Organics, Youngblood Mineral Makeup…

We want to thank everyone again for giving us such great information.

We would love to hear your thoughts on the topic of this blog! Feel free to leave your comments or questions below.  As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!

Parabens in Cosmetics

Chances are you’ve heard or read something lately about parabens. More than likely it’s passionately negative and accompanied by the words “cancer” and “estrogen-like”. These are scary words. Yet cosmetic companies world wide still use parabens in thousands of products. Why is this? Let’s take a good, logical look at the information available.

What are Parabens?
They are the most commonly used preservatives in cosmetics products that protect against mold, fungi and bacteria that can cause irritations and infections. Most cosmetics have high water content and it’s important to protect and stabilize them. Often, more than one paraben is used in a product to protect against a wide-range of contaminants. Parabens are also used as food additives.

All commercially used parabens are synthetically produced, although some are identical to those found in nature like in Blueberries.

What started all the controversy?
The whole idea has been over-dramatized – when most people talk about it, they’re claiming that “Parabens have been shown to cause breast cancer”. What they are referencing to is that in 2004, Dr. Phillippa Darbre conducted a study to assess whether any of the six parabens commonly used in consumer products in Europe could be detected in human breast tumors. Further studies have also discussed the estrogen-like properties that parabens can have on the body and whether or not they can accumulate in the skin.

What were the actual results?
What the study found was that in 18 of the 20 tumors tested at least one paraben was present, the most common being methylparaben. This does not mean that they cause cancer, just that the parabens were easily detectable in the tumors. The study also did not look at parabens levels in normal tissue.

In 2007 a French study was conducted to see whether parabens accumulate in the skin. The findings were that with a realistic application of parabens to the skin every 12 hours for 36 hours, there was an increased amount of parabens moving across the skin barrier for the first 24 hours. However there was no cumulative effect after 36 hours. This suggests that there would be no risk for people who use products over their whole lives.

How are cosmetics ingredients regulated?
The Food and Drug Administration regulates only color additives in cosmetics
products. This means cosmetics companies can use any ingredient as long as they are not prohibited by regulation. Studies conducted in both 1984 and 2005 concluded that parabens are safe as long as they do not exceed 25 % of a product’s formula. Parabens make up a minuscule fraction — 0.01 to 0.1% — of most product formulations, according to the FDA.

The FDA has stated that at the present time there is no reason to be concerned about the use of parabens in cosmetic products. BUT they understand that further studies are needed and they will continue to re-evaluate as new data emerges.

What does it all mean?!
Ultimately it comes down to the fact that there is no data proving that parabens cause any actual harm to humans in the way that we are currently using them. But there is still enough concern for there to be continuing studies. Parabens are considered safe by those in the industry (chemical, beauty, food) due to their low toxicity profile and long history of safe use.

This view is currently being challenged, and challenge is good. If an ingredient is suspect, then absolutely they should begin looking for safe alternatives. For right now, most of the natural alternatives have the same amount of contradictory information and potential safety issues. Some haven’t been proven to be stable or effective against bacteria, mold and fungi as they haven’t been clinically tried yet.

There is a growing range of paraben-free products out there, with professional lines (spa lines) looking to make the switch to keep consumers happy. Be patient with them. It takes a lot of research for companies to change formulas in this way and keep them effective. They want to provide you with safe products that actually give results.

Spa Boutique carries many different paraben-free lines including Eminence, Golden Moor, Beauty through Balance, and Jane Iredale Mineral Makeup.

 

We would love to hear your thoughts on the topic of this blog!  Feel free to post your comments or questions below.  As always, just for being a follower of our blog, enter coupon code BLOG10 for 10% off your next purchase! Also, remember to follow us @spaboutique on Twitter, like our Facebook  page, and check out our boards on Pinterest! You could be the lucky winner of one of our many contests!