As a woman in my early twenties, I’ve been using cosmetics and other beauty products for about ten years. What started out as a preteen fascination, which led to much experimentation with products of varying quality and price, has evolved into a more discerning, educated perspective. As I got older, I realized that quality really does matter. Both quality in terms of a product’s effectiveness, but also in terms of its ingredients. After all, what you’re putting on your face now will affect how you look ten or twenty years down the line. I got especially worried after watching an episode of Dr. Oz, where he mentioned that even artificially scented body and face care products can speed up your skin’s aging process.

So when the organic trend caught on I was definitely interested. It just seemed that all natural ingredients would be better for my skin than all those synthetic chemicals. Still, as a cautious consumer, I was weary of joining the ranks of excited organic skincare users and switching to an organic beauty routine without some preliminary research. At his point I didn’t even really understand the science behind what made organic beauty products better for you. I just knew they were more “natural”.

After doing a little research I found out what makes organic products so different: certified organic products are made with ingredients that are grown free of synthetic pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified organisms. They also don’t include harmful additives such as petroleum waxes, fillers and artificial chemicals. Since the ingredients used in skincare products don’t just stay on the skin, but penetrate it, and thus make their way into the body, the idea of unnecessary and possibly harmful chemicals used in my regular beauty products was a little scary.

At the same time I was wondering, were synthetic chemicals really unnecessary? Maybe cosmetics manufacturers used them in their products for a reason. I discussed this with a friend of mine, who was a complete organic beauty junkie, and this is the way she explained it to me: “A hamburger from a fast food restaurant tastes pretty good and is filling, but is horrible for your health because of all the chemicals and processed ingredients. You’re better off eating something fresh. Well, make-up is the same way. All natural, organically produced ingredients are of superior quality. There are plenty of effective natural ingredients that will produce the same results as synthetic ones, but will be better for you. An organic beauty routine is simply healthier and better for the environment.”

That was a pretty basic explanation, but it made sense. But before switching to an organic beauty routine, I wanted to know more about the harmful chemicals contained in regular beauty products, why cosmetics manufacturers chose to use them, and how organic beauty manufacturers were able to avoid using them while still producing effective products.

Stay tuned for next week’s article, where I’ll discuss the answers to those questions.