Monday, 2 June 2008
Welcome back to MCS Wellbeing, the online shop for all Herbalife and wellbeing products. The latest news article is concerned with the concept of natural skin care. This is, in part, a response to a forum discussion I was recently involved in where the participants were trying to decide which factor was the defining one in the labelling of a product as part of a natural skin care range. As with many internet forum discussions there were some spurious and impulsive responses, but such is the nature of the best.I wouldn't ever dare to claim I am about to provide the absolute answer here, but I thought it was worth airing my thoughts nonetheless. As a starting point I think it's a good idea to break the phrase down into it's parts.
The definition of "natural" is described as something which is "in accordance with or determined by nature", or "having a classification based on features existing in nature". Clearly we need to go a little further back and discover what these references mean when they refer to "nature". If we do that then it's possible to find several definitions, however I think the one which is most pertinent in this case is one which describes nature as "a primitive state of existence, untouched and uninfluenced by civilisation or artificiality". So is it possible to apply these definitions to the concept of natural skin care, in order to establish what it is that makes a product range natural?
Well, if I was going to be strict in applying the second definition then the only form of product which could be considered as natural would involve rubbing a handful of grass into one's visage, applying some stream water before rolling around in a large sand dune for exfoliation. OK, so I'm being flippant (again), but I think most people would agree that suggesting a skin care product is only natural if it is completely untouched by man is nonsense aside from massively impractical.
Brushing this literal application aside it is possible to define natural skin care products as something in accordance with nature, or as having a classification based on features within nature. Looking at some of the products on the pages on this web site I can see many examples of a product whose root lays firmly in some naturally occurring entity; aloe vera skin care products being an obvious example, or a body contouring cream which uses fruit acids as it's base, or how about a skin activator whose starting point began with the soothing properties of cucumber. Alright, so these products are not being squeezed freshly from their containers as though being plucked from the trees, but they are all based on the healing properties Mother Nature imbued, and their powers harnessed by man, and injected into a skin care range which can definitely be considered natural.
Labels: natural skin care