What is natural?

This is a very big question as there is no legal definition for a “natural” cosmetic, so anybody can claim their products to be natural despite they have synthetic ingredients in it. Therefore my answer to this question is based on what I believe a “natural” cosmetic is. The basic definition says natural is something present in nature or produced by nature. This is a very basic definition as at a level everything comes from nature. Petroleum comes from the decomposition of ancient plant material so plastic in theory is a natural derivative! So what is natural? In order to get a clearer picture and definition we need to take into account other factors, such as the care of the environment and the desire to be closer to nature. With this perspective, petroleum derivatives, including synthetic fragrances and colours, do not fit into the natural definition as oil is not from renewable sources and causes environmental pollution. Silicones despite derived from silica, involve long synthetic processes and they are often combined with oil derivatives, therefore also silicones can not be classified as natural. This takes us to a more holistic definition of natural:

Natural is something found in nature or made by nature,

extracted in an environmentally sustainable manner, from renewable sources,

keeping its chemical structure and properties as close as possible to the original form

The implications of this definition lead to ban any kind of natural derived material modified in a way that:

changes its fundamental structure

combines it with synthetic derivatives such as ethylene oxide.

Also hydrogenation, as it is usually performed with Nickel, and may change the molecular structure of the material to be hydrogenated, does not fit in with the above definition.

This is a very basic definition and in the future posts I will go into more detail.