With all the pesticides, genetic tinkering, and chemical mixing done to just about everything we eat, touch, and slather on our skin, it is no wonder many people jumped on the organic bandwagon when it came into town.



But here is the thing you really need to think about when it comes to organic materials; is your lipstick really made up of nothing but home grown berries, mint leaves, and flower petals?

True, that is not what we all think of when we think of organic, but we do think of materials naturally grown without any extra human toying. But sit back and think for a moment and consider that your cosmetics probably do have at least some synthetic ingredients in them.

However, this is no cause to panic. Some of these synthetic elements are necessary in order for you to have the best cosmetics and skin care materials and are perfectly okay for you to use.

The difference between a synthetic material and something organic may seem obvious, but there are a few things you need to keep in mind. Organic materials are quite self explanatory; materials derived from plant, mineral, or animal sources that are not altered by any synthetic process.

If these materials undergo any physical or biological processes, they can still be considered organic. For example, corn dried, taken from the cob, and milled is a physical change necessary to create corn flour.

Yeast is a mirco organism that can be used to produce desired changes in other materials and is an example of a natural biological process.

A synthetic material is created through artificial means, usually through various chemical reactions. Organic materials can be taken from their environment in their naturally occurring form and be chemically altered in order to produce something entirely different, and does not naturally occur in nature.

But remember, some items humans create through chemical processes can still be considered natural though. Table salt, which comes from sodium and chlorine (items we would not normally experience in their natural forms, nor would we want to), can be created by human means.

However, you can also find it popping up naturally throughout the world. What sort of salt do you find in the ocean? How many of you have soaked in natural sea salts in the tub?

What does all this have to do with your eye color or skin cream? You want to know what is best to put on your skin. A wholly synthetic cosmetic may not affect your skin in any way, but what about after you are finished with it and you throw it away?

Naturally cosmetics companies are not going to create items that cause adverse effects to our skin; they would never make any sales and end up with a large amount of lawsuits to boot. However, they may not be considering consequences later on when products are tossed in the trash.

Do some research to find out which ingredients in your skin care products and cosmetics are synthetic and which are organic, or at least natural. Ingredients such as apricot and papaya are obviously going to be natural, as long as nothing was done to alter them chemically.

Finding products that can help both our skin and our environment can be difficult, but knowing you are making at least some small difference can be rewarding. True, it will be hard finding products without a lot of synthetic ingredients, but it is okay even if there are a few items with synthetic ingredients involved.

It would be difficult to create an eye liner wholly made of naturally occurring ingredients; otherwise every company would be doing so.