FDA PROTECTION AGAINST HARMFUL COSMETIC PRODUCTS

In booming skin care and cosmetic market, many players are either mislabeling their products, or marketing their cosmetic products so aggressively that their campaigns turn misleading. Many cosmetic products purport to claim ‘guaranteed’ treatment of a particular skin condition.  FDA has been taking active steps to prevent sale of potentially harmful cosmetics to consumers in one form or the other. FDA insists on strict compliance of safety and labeling requirements no matter what their source; for example, making sure that all labeling is truthful and not misleading.

Despite FDA regulations, growing number of online suppliers of cosmetic products do not adhere to safety and quality concerns. Increasing number of beauty products are advertised as  ‘guaranteed’ cure for one skin condition or the other that are not endorsed or approved under the  FDA guidelines. Consumers need to exercise caution in the case of ‘too-good-to-be-true’ claims.

Many a times, a celebrity appears in an ad to lend his or her stellar qualities to the product. Sometimes they appear to claim to use the product, but very often they don't. There are agencies surviving on providing products with testimonials.

FDA advises consumers to beware of potentially harmful beauty formulations, especially if they are adulterated. For example : (i) misuse of color additives,(ii) using prohibited and restricted ingredients, (iii) packaging may make the contents "injurious to health", (iv) cosmetics are not required to be sterile, but microbial contamination can pose a health hazard, making a product adulterated, (v)Unwanted substances from a number of sources may adulterate a product.

A recent report by Centre for Science and Evironment (CSE) made alarming finding that about half of the 73 brands of popular cosmetics contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.

The CSE’s Pollution Monitoring Lab tested popular fairness creams, lipsticks, anti-ageing creams and lip balms for mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium and nickel.

The tests found mercury in 44% of the fairness creams, chromium and nickel, both carcinogens, in 50% and 43% of the lipstick samples respectively.

Fairness creams Aroma Magic Fairy Lotion, Olay Natural White and Pond’s White Beauty were the top three with high mercury content. Use of mercury in cosmetics is banned. “Mercury is not supposed to be present in cosmetic products. Its mere presence in these products is completely illegal and unlawful,” said  Director General CSE, adding that Mercury is poisonous in any form and the chemical readily absorbs through the skin into the bloodstream.

 Hearts & Tarts-080V, Lancome L’Absolu Nu-204 and MAC So Chaud-A82 had high chromium content. The top three lipstick brands with high nickel content were Lancome L’Absolu Nu-204, Hearts & Tarts-080V and MAC So Chaud-A82.

Herbally Radiant, therefore, promotes natural beauty products because this sector is not well regulated, and most of the manufacturers use harsh chemicals or petro-based ingredients. 

STRESS IMPACTS ON SKIN APPEARANCE

 Medical News today deals with a study published in Acta Dermato-Venereologica which confirms that stress appears to exacerbate certain skin conditions. Previous studies had suggested a link between stress and skin symptoms, but those studies were limited by small patient samples and by not using standardized tools. The new results are seen as important for dermatologists.

Researchers at LKSOM and Temple aimed to assess the relationship between perceived psychological stress and the prevalence of various skin symptoms in a large, randomly selected sample of undergraduate students. Students who reported high stress levels suffered significantly more often from pruritus (itchy skin); alopecia (hair loss); oily, waxy or flaky patches on the scalp; hyperhidrosis (troublesome sweating); scaly skin; onychophagia (nail biting); itchy rash on hands; and trichotillomania (hair pulling).

In one of our earlier blogs, we had highlighted that to maintain beautiful appearance, one needs to avoid stressful situations.  A relaxed mental state is the best way to heal disease, defeat aging and maintain the best looks, including rejuvenating skin to maximum beauty.

Over time, meditation, backed by right nutritious diet regime, helps you lose weight, get rid of stress and develop a more beautiful shape and complexion that exudes a fresh vitality that all long to capture. It complements the benefits derived from natural skin care products, including anti-aging skin care methods.

Creating beautiful skin is both an internal and external affair, so you've got to learn about special foods and substances you should eat (or avoid), special natural skin care creams and sprays that help create clear complexions and keep skin beautiful, and special activities such as "flow generating" exercise, meditative breathing methods that will enhance your complexion.

It needs to be kept in mind that even if you use botox, or plastic surgery, to look younger, you're still getting older and if you don't learn how to rejuvenate yourself from within, you'll slowly lose the benefits of even that process. To get younger and look younger and stay younger you have to learn how to control and deal with stressful situations so that vital inner energies are diverted to maintaining healthy body, mind and, of course, beautiful skin.

With our long experience of herbal organic beauty formulations at Herbally Radiant,we have strong advice to consumers to begin feeding skin with right kind of nutrients that are derived from plant based extracts. The chemicals and synthetic mixtures with petroleum by-product base, are very harmful to skin’s texture. With harsh chemicals, such beauty products remove the natural layer of protection from skin, rendering it in the long run dry and chipped. It is time to ignore the ‘too-good-to-be-true’ claims of such products that are made to lure the customers.

MOST BEAUTY PRODUCT CLAIMS DO NOT STAND TO ADVERTISED FEATURES

In this festive season, consumer activity reaches its peak. Marketing campaigns come up with new attractive offers to impress customers. Insofar as these campaigns help consumers make informed decision, these are useful. However, when the marketeers go beyond that, and make confusing claims, it could leave the customers vulnerable to unfair practices. We have seen more and more marketing campaigns, especially relating to the cosmetic and beauty products, that tend to make unrealistic claims in order to influence customers’ choices.

You might come across a beautiful lady announcing arrival of a “miracle” serum that is “clinically proven” to reduce wrinkles and lines. Many of such claims seem practically outrageous—after all, can something in a bottle actually make you look ten years younger?  According to a survey published in Journal of Global Fashion and Marketing, only 18 percent of all claims made in commercials for cosmetics prove to be trustworthy.

Same survey completed a content analysis of advertising claims, looking at the following types: superiority, such as "award-winning product;" scientific, like "clinically proven;" stand-alone performance ("your skin feels softer"); endorsement, such as "dermatologists recommend this;" and subjective, like "all you need for a day of confidence." Similarly, they classified each ad's claim as vague/ambiguous ("inspired by science"), an omission, a false/outright lie, or as acceptable.

Despite the variation of categories and claims, only 18 percent of the 757 claims reviewed actually stood up to their advertised features. Makeup ads made most of the claims in the beauty industry—294 of them. For other classifications, researchers found that almost half of the brands reviewed actually make false scientific or subjective claims.

All of this suggests that even though the FDA monitors the cosmetics industry, they can only guarantee that the beauty products are safe. It's really up to consumers to determine whether the ingredients in that bottle will solve their skincare woes. Be wary of any miracle products that don't have a scientific study or unaffiliated doctor specifically backing up its claims.

Consumers need to be cautious of weasel words – that appear substantial upon first look but disintegrate into hollow meaninglessness on closer look. Commonly used weasel words include "helps" (the champion weasel); "like" (used in a comparative sense); "virtual" or "virtually"; "acts" or "works"; "can be"; "up to"; "as much as"; "refreshes"; "comforts"; "tackles"; "fights"; "the feel of"; "the look of"; "looks like"; "fortified"; "enriched"; and "strengthened."

Many companies are coming up with “new scientific research” backing an “amazing wrinkle-repairer” formulation; the new ingredients are too new to make sense even to experienced cosmetologists. Many scientific studies do not find place in reputed scientific journals; they just vaguely refer to an unknown study group.  The best bet for the consumer is therefore to read the ingredients on the label and assess the suitability of the product.

We at the Herbally Radiant always print ingredients on the labels of the products to enable the customers to learn about their properties and their effect on the skin.

THIS HOLIDAY SEASON USE TURMERIC CLAY MASK TO REJUVENATE FACIAL SKIN

More customers are now enquiring about our natural face mask. At HerballyRadiant we have been advising them to use mineral-based facial mask “Turmericand Clay Mask” launched few years back which has received good user reviews.
Its key ingredients  are : Minerals (Bentonite & Kaolin) and Turmeric.
Used for centuries both as spice and as beauty enhancing agent, turmeric grows in South and Southeast Asia, and its root is dried, pounded, and turned into a fine powder for use in food and body painting. This lovely saffron colored powder gives curry dishes rich flavors. Turmeric is a great addition to a skin care regime for both oily and normal skin. With its extraordinary antiseptic, antibacterial and healing properties, its topical application on skin creates amazing youthful glow on skin. Mixed in combination with other ingredients it acts wonderfully in reducing fine lines and wrinkles, dark under eye circles, regulating production of sebum (oily substance produced by the sebaceous glands), helping to clear acne scars and inflammation as well as removing dead cells to create spotless bright skin.
Similarly, the beautifying and purifying properties of clays have been used for thousands of years in cosmetic formulations. Cleopatra is known to have used dead sea clay to maintain her smooth unblemished complexion.
Herbally Radiant mixes Bentonite and Kaolin clay in its facial mask. Besides natural healing properties, both clays primarily clean deeply and tighten the pores, freshen the face and brighten the skin, besides removing toxins and reducing inflammation.
Bentonite clay, also referred to as Montmorillonite, comes from volcanic ash that has absorbed nutrients from earth through ages. (The name comes from the largest known deposit of Bentonite Clay at Fort Benton, Wyoming.) It has high concentration of minerals like silica, calcium, magnesium, sodium iron and potassium. These nutrients have excellent therapeutic properties, most potent for cleansing the skin by gently drawing impurities, and helping in fungal or bacterial infections, cuts, wounds, acne related problems.  
Many users may not know that bentonite clay becomes negatively charged when it comes into contact with water? Since impurities, free radicals, and other toxins are positively charged, the clay literally pulls the impurities from the body like a magnet. Bentonite also helps get oxygen to cells as it pulls excess hydrogen and allows the cells to replace it with oxygen instead. Significant improvements can be seen after few weeks of regular use. You’ll notice that your pores will appear smaller because the clay pulls out blackheads, leaving the pore tightly closed preventing further plugs with regular use.
Bentonite is a swelling clay. When mixed with water it rapidly swells open like a highly porous sponge, then drawing out the toxins into the sponge through electrical attraction and once there, they are bound.
Kaolin is a natural clay substance mostly found in soils that have developed from the chemical weathering of rocks in hot, moist climates, like rain forests. Kaolin is mild hence very efficient in improving circulation of blood to the skin, which facilitates healing of the skin conditions. It has unique minerals and phyto-nutrients, which help in eliminating toxin and oil from the skin, and is therefore a major active ingredient in most facial and skin products, body powders, deodorants, scrubs and poultices.
Kaolin clay works by reducing the production of sebum, making the oily skin smooth and bright. Also used as skin detoxifying and cleansing agent, it helps remove dead skin and speed up its regeneration by eliminating toxins and oil from the skin.
            The Turmeric & ClayMask, formulated by Herbally Radiant R&D team after experimenting with various combinations,  also contains pro-Vitamin B5 and Vitamin C Ester found for a perfect natural face mask, deriving optimum benefits for skin - priced at $ 23.90, (including  free Rose Water till current stock lasts) to mix, with shipping free.

HARSH CHEMICALS AGGRAVATE ACNE, PIMPLES, BREAK OUTS AND OTHER PROBLEMS

While we receive more and more customers seeking relief from acne, pimples and break outs, we find many cosmetic companies announcing “new” products for relief from acne and similar skin disorders. In their aggressive marketing campaigns, they are making claims of 52% success over 4-6 weeks. The global acne products market is presently estimated to reach $3.02 bn next year.

Since Herbally Radiant had experimented with many natural organic ingredients before launching its CLEAN range (cleanser, toner, serum and scrub) to address the problems of acne, pimples, spots and irritations, and that has received very encouraging reviews from its customers, our R&D team went deeper to examine the safety of ingredients of new products being launched with 52% success.  

Among the key ingredients of the new pharma-based products, offering “guaranteed relief”, it was noticed that they contain 2.5% active benzoyl peroxide and 0.5% salicylic acid. With our long experience and expertise in natural organic beauty formulations, we know that sensitive skin needs more delicate treatment. Strong chemical ingredients can aggravate the problem.

Main acne factors are : oil production, dead skin cells, clogged pores, bacteria and hormonal imbalance.  Acne typically appears on face, neck, chest, back and shoulders that have most oil (sebaceous) glands. Acne occurs when hair follicles become plugged with oil and dead skin cells.

Hair follicles are connected to oil glands. These glands secrete an oily substance (sebum) to lubricate your hair and skin. Sebum normally travels along the hair shafts and through the openings of the hair follicles onto the surface of our skin. When body produces excess amount of sebum and dead skin cells, the two can build up in hair follicles, and form a soft plug, creating an environment where bacteria can thrive. If the clogged pore becomes infected with bacteria, inflammation results.

The plugged pore may cause the follicle wall to bulge and produce a whitehead. Or the plug may be open to the surface and may darken, causing a blackhead. A blackhead may look like dirt stuck in pores. But actually the pore is congested with bacteria and oil, which turns brown when it's exposed to the air.

Pimples are raised red spots with a white center that develop when blocked hair follicles become inflamed or infected. Blockages and inflammation that develop deep inside hair follicles produce cyst-like lumps beneath the surface of your skin.

Herbally Radiant R&D team tested different powerful natural ingredients to create safest skin-friendly products for lasting relief. After testing many combinations, it launched most popular range: CLEAN – Cleanser, Toner, Serum and Scrub. Aloe vera based, CLEAN products contain witch hazel, cranberry extract, black willow bark, glycolic acid, bill berry, activated charcoal, vegetable glycerin, orange-lemon extract, roman chamomile, rosemary, Pro-Vitamin B5, rooibos tree extract together with essential oils like tea tree, neem, jojoba and avocado. When applied regularly, these ingredients inhibit inflammation and bacterial proliferation, keeping skin comfortable all day long, while gently working on skin.

The CLEAN serum is a powerful formulation, 100% natural, pure and effective. This fast absorbing and non-greasy serum works as a booster to support and treat the skin from within, delivering the highest potency of anti-oxidants and oils, thereby rejuvenating, hydrating and brightening the skin.