Makeup companies have started making adjustments to their products, taking some of our worries into account. You have probably noticed that many of the new skincare products are called all natural, at least that’s what it says on the packaging.
Obtaining information from makeup advertising, especially on new products that are to be ‘natural’, we should be educating ourselves about the ingredients and what they actually mean for both our skin and overall health.
Having the understanding of what goes into our mineral makeup means we can then make informed judgements about whether or not we should proceed in the buying or using of these products. There are many mineral makeup products on the market these days, even the most informed of people can get easily confused about it all. As there isn’t a particularly clear definition of ‘natural mineral makeup’ in the cosmetic industry, we have decided to take you through the words so we can all work it out together.
The word ‘Natural’
According to the official Oxford online dictionary, the word natural means: existing in or formed by nature (opposed to artificially made).
The word ‘Mineral’
Again, using the Oxford online dictionary, mineral means: any substance occurring in nature and also a substance obtained by mining, as ore.
So, from a cosmetic perspective, a mineral is a non animal and non vegetable, meaning that it is inorganic by composition. It’s organic purely by its location. As an example, if you live in London and the Zinc Oxide has been mined in Oxford, then you as a manufacturer can sell that product with the phrase “Organic”.
This takes us to the next part of mineral makeup being natural. We will use Zinc Oxide as the example again for this one, as it’s one of the main ingredients within most natural mineral makeup.
As natural means ‘existing and formed by nature’, Zinc Oxide is included because it’s a mineral that you have to mine. This part is natural, but Zinc Oxide is not mined in the purest form and can’t be used immediately after mining.
After being mined the Zinc Oxide must go through a process of refinement. This extensive process removes the impurities via chemical bleaching and removing toxic minerals. So most often, these natural ingredients go through a synthetic process which make it safer to be used for our skin. None of the synthetic process is natural.
When finding natural mineral makeup, watch out for manipulative marketing. The word mineral can be both inorganic and organic, depending on the context that has been used. The same rule applies to the word natural.
In the makeup industry, natural will refer to its location, but not its composition. Pure Zinc Oxide, which you can use immediately on the skin, does not exist. Therefore it cannot be considered to be natural and good for the skin.
Natural mineral makeup that has come from the earth isn’t the same as natural mineral water from the earth. As, in some cases, you can drink water as it comes out of the earth. This doesn’t make natural mineral the same.
We mention this to you as many of us believe that it can be. Because of this misperception, many of the makeup manufacturers will use this as a selling advantage in their media campaigns and advertisment.
The summary for you to get the best mineral makeup is here:
- Natural ‘origin’ – “like water from the mountain”
- Natural ‘composition’ – ”the freshest fruit picked from the tree”
- Natural ‘usage’ – ”having the sun warm us on a cold day”
- Natural ‘benefits’ – ”skin, being synchronised with earths gifts”
Remember these 4 words, as these are what natural mineral makeup are meant to be.
Feature image credit: Catherine via Flickr.
