Perhaps This is How 'Polyparaben' was Born

The incident in today’s post took place in 2013, but it might very well be the real story of how little 'Polly Paraben' was born. That’s her (as I imagine she looks) up there.

I know her name is (mis)spelled , but I figure if we're going to get a name wrong, we may as well give it a bit of pizazz and throw in a pic of an adorable little baby for some visual appeal.

So stick with me and hopefully you will be entertained.

It All Started That Day...

I was browsing the site of one of my regular suppliers and as I had never bought any preservatives from them, decided to check out their selection.

One product looked particularly interesting so I clicked to the product page to learn more. The preservative was a mix of preservatives that promised broad spectrum preservation.

Then I noticed one of the listed ingredients in the mix: it was polyparaben.

Polyparaben?

'This is obviously a typo', I thought and proceeded to write them a courteous email linking to the page in question. I asked them to confirm this was just a typo for propylparaben.

But apparantly not.

The person who received my email (let’s call her (Shirley) had contacted her warehouse manager (to double check) and the official reply was: "I have spoken to the warehouse manager and he tells me there is such a thing as polyparaben, so we don’t think this is a typo."

Don't think this is a typo?

Shirley, You Jest

I wrote them back with a list of links to sources and documentation and finished the mail with a polite 'please ask your warehouse manager to contact me if there are any questions. I would like to purchase and try this preservative but neither can nor will label any of my products with a fictive ingredient'.

A day later (still awaiting their reply), I popped over to their site to check on another product and decided to check in on 'Polly'.

Here's what I found:

The ingredient list had been corrected. Polyparaben had been replaced with propylparaben.

Good for them for their prompt attention to this matter.

But Then I Got to Thinking

This company is pretty sizeable and provides ingredients (as well as some packaging) to manufacturers around the globe of almost all sizes – from medium/large all the way down to teensy-sized operations such as my own.

They have departments in several countries and a stock-list as long as your arm, leg and more to come. In short, they have a LOT of bits and pieces to keep track of.

Imagine – if you will – that they had been selling this preservative for years. And imagine also that nobody noticed this insignificant-looking typo until I happened along and pointed it out to them.

Wouldn't be logical to assume that this could be where the whole polyparaben misunderstanding got started in the first place?

We'll never know for certain, but I can't help wondering.

PS: The e-books below don’t contain any preservatives at all.

Self Preserving BUNDLE

Black Friday by Nature

In celebration of Black Friday, I decided to go ‘shopping’ for something to share with you.

Please enjoy a bit of eye candy brought to you entirely by nature - and all absolutely free of charge. These all caught my eye on a walk in a Copenhagen park today.

I admit I am not familiar with the name of every plant in this picture, but the large brown pod is from a honey locust tree (Gleditsia triacanthos) , the black berries (which sparked this whole idea due to their gorgeous inky black color) are from the Common privot (Ligustrum vulgare ), the red round berries are from European mountain ash (Sorbus acuparia), and the other red berries are Rose hips (Rosa rugosa).

Happy Friday and have a lovely weekend.

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Preservative Free Cleansers with Hurdle Technology

On the left: my latest batch of this preservative free botanical cleanser that includes a selection of handcrafted extracts.

On the right: an earlier batch of the same type of cleanser that has been going strong since the beginning of 2019. (Here’s what it looked like in the beginning) The color of the batch on the right has faded some and started morphing into a browner hue, but it took well over a year before it started changing color. You can see an update from last year on this cleanser right here.

These are preservative free because of a number of things and if you’re interested in reading a bit more about what Hurdle Technology is all about, I wrote a post about it right here.

My book pictured below shows you how to employ Hurdle Technology in a series of natural cleansers with honey and botanicals.

Self-Preserving Natural Cleansers

€61.00

Why Patch Testing is Important

In all my years of making cosmetics (and fooling around with all manner of plant materials in the process), I have never forgotten to patch test an ingredient before use.

Until recently.

This past winter, I made a really foolish newbie mistake. OK it’s worse than that: I made more than one mistake (and managed to do everything wrong at the same time).

To give just a bit of perspective, you may already know I categorize my own skin type as ‘ridiculously sensitive’. The simple task of getting dressed can cause a rash on some days.

There are fabrics, fragrances, materials, and household chemicals I avoid quite naturally without even thinking much about it because it has become my nature to be cautious and careful.

So we can’t really blame the ingredient for what happened (or even call it nasty names). It’s quite safe for use and does not generally provoke allergic reactions. Except of course in people who happen to be allergic to it, which I discovered the hard way.

Here are the mistakes I made.

Mistake 1: Not Doing a Proper Patch Test

An order with several new oils and butters arrived while I was knee-deep busy with work trying to meet a deadline. Everything should have been tested right away, but got only a cursory sniff and ‘application to back of hand’ to get an idea of scent and feel. The ingredients were then stored as per recommended storage instructions and promptly forgotten about.

Applying a bit of something to the back of the hand is a sensory test - not a patch test.

The normal procedure for a patch test is to apply a small amount of product to the inside of the elbow (see illustration above), cover the area with a band-aid (or the likes), wait 24 hours, then remove band-aid and check for any reactions.

But people with ridiculously sensitive skin can’t really use bandaids, so usually apply product neat to the inside of the elbow, then go on about their business.

But I forgot to do that.

Mistake 2 (the Whopper): Using Several Untested Ingredients in Several Products

When the ingredients were incorporated into a series of new products a few weeks later, the butter (which ended up being the culprit) was included in varying percentages in 3 different balms - 2 of which were lip balms.

Insert serious head shaking and disapproving tongue clicking sounds.

You can probably guess the next part.

One would expect a reaction to be immediate, but it wasn’t. As I started testing/using the different balms, my lips grew increasingly swollen and painful. The swelling happened in spurts over a period of days. The far right is the reaction at its worst. The far left is my normal lips.

Looking at this picture, one might be tempted to consider said ingredient as a lip plumper, but I can assure you this kind of ‘lip plumping’ is quite painful, spreads uncontrollably and is not something you want to try.

Finding the Culprit Ingredient

It took weeks of dedicated detective work to pinpoint the culprit balms, and from there, the culprit ingredient. The long time frame was in large part because the inflammation needed to subside before anything could be applied for testing. The inflammation wasn’t really interested in subsiding.

Here’s a patch test I did on the inside of my elbow after narrowing down the possible suspects. This was not with the ingredient alone, but a balm that had a small percentage of the ingredient in it.

If you think this looks itchy and painful, you would be absolutely correct.

This reaction didn’t show up until after 48 hours. It continued to spread up and down most of my arm and took a full week to subside – all from one small application.

Lesson Learned

Apart from these painful mistakes, it has become quite clear that 24 hours is no longer enough time for my own patch tests.

The moral of this story?

Patch test!

I know you are probably wondering, but the culprit ingredient shall remain unnamed as it is not really toxic to anyone but me. Everyone I asked to test it had zero reaction to it (and I know folks with sensitive skin of all types).

Do Tell

Are you allergic to something that the rest of the world seems to tolerate just fine? How did you discover it? Feel free to share in a comment below.

Infused-Oil Balm

One of the best things about working with botanicals and making your own infusions is they become bespoke ingredients. In a world of cookie cutter ingredients and products, being able to combine everything into a truly unique product is something I never seem to tire of.

Pictured: one of my latest balms with a blend of different butters and handcrafted infused oils. The all natural fragrance is from the combination of ingredients.

Although this particular formula is not in my latest book (pictured below), it might just make its way to volume 2, because making balms is a bit of a passion for me.

Book of Natural Balms - Volume 1

The Cosmetic Chemical War Needs to Stop

Over the past months, I have been updating and moving posts from my blog on Google’s Blogger platform to my main site. Reading through this oldie from TEN YEARS AGO, I was disappointed to see how relevant it still is.

Maybe it’s time we rethink how we communicate and share information, because from where I’m sitting, there’s too much mud slinging and bashing going on – from both sides of the beauty fence.

Chemical Free Cosmetics

This all starts with a rather disturbing TV ad for a 'natural' cosmetic series from 2010. The ad was simply put together: a continuous list of chemical names slowly rolled across the screen, similar to how movie credits are presented.

Each chemical had the word 'no' in front of it. As the names rolled by, a soothing female voice explained how healthy and chemical free this new, all-natural product series was, and that all of the dangerous chemicals you were seeing on the screen were nowhere to be found in this wonderful series of skincare products.

I don't remember all of the names from the ad, but did recognize quite a few of them, for example:

• No Monoterpenes

• No Sesquiterpines

• No Phenols

• No Benzyl Alcohol

• No Esters

• No Ketones

• No Farnesol

They ALL sound dangerous, don't they?

However.

The chemicals on this list are present in essential oils and have a variety of beneficial functions: such as to help heal, calm, disinfect, deodorize, battle infection, soothe, preserve, stimulate cell regeneration, and do all kinds of other health-inducing things.

Of course, if you overdose or misuse them, they can become irritants – even toxins. But then, so can C-vitamin, green tea, and bananas. Even plain old water can be dangerous to your system if you overdo it.

Chemical Free Isn’t Possible

To this day, I don't remember the name of the advertised products because my attention was drawn to the utterly distasteful function of this ad – to sell products by fearmongering and spreading misinformation.

In retrospect, I believe ‘chemical ignorance’ was at the root of this ad and am happy it is no longer legal (in Europe) to advertise any cosmetic as ‘free from’.

Somewhere along the line during the forward march of green beauty, the word ‘chemical’ became synonymous with danger. Instead of focusing on the benefits of using natural and organic products, the major players of the green beauty movement have helped create a generation of chemophobes.

Air is a chemical. Water is a chemical, and we need both to survive.

In short, making a chemical free product is simply impossible.

If you choose to work with plant-based ingredients, that’s fine. But don’t delude yourself they are chemical free. Plants are packed with chemicals.

The Green Bashers Are Just as Bad

Equally distasteful are the 'chemically knowledgable’ folks who have an understanding of chemical substances yet find it necessary to publicly bash anything and anyone who uses the term ‘green’ or ‘clean’.

Really, folks?

Does disdainful flaunting of your knowledge by bashing those who haven’t yet learned to understand and appreciate chemicals really help anything or anyone?

Only someone who feels personally threatened acts by lashing out in such defensive manner. Why on earth do you feel threatened by people who are merely trying to find a more natural (and environmentally friendly) alternative?

If you prefer to work with (and use) petrochemicals and synthetics, that’s fine. But don’t disregard, disrespect or vilify those who choose to focus on plant-based / natural.

Just because they don’t have the same background / education / experience as you doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them.

So, Who’s Going To Take the First Step?

News Flash: We can all learn from each other if we stop bashing and start sharing knowledge with mutual respect. After 10 years of witnessing so much unproductive twaddle from both sides, I am at a loss as to why this is so monumentally difficult to understand.

Do Tell

Have you witnessed people arguing over cosmetics ingredients /chemicals like their life depended on it? What did you do?