What makes a product natural or not?

kathymack

This month's Curl Chemist is really cautioning about using safe handling practices--which I've always tried to do with my homemade products.

If I make a product with herbs, flax seed, AVG, honey or agave nectar, etc., and no chemicals but a commercial preservative--does that make it not natural??

rainshower

kathymack wrote: »

This month's Curl Chemist is really cautioning about using safe handling practices--which I've always tried to do with my homemade products.

If I make a product with herbs, flax seed, AVG, honey or agave nectar, etc., and no chemicals but a commercial preservative--does that make it not natural??

to me, a natural product is one whose state is not much different from its original source or that isn't refined to the point where it doesn't resembling an occurrence that could naturally happen from its original state.

for example, jojoba beads used in an exfoliating face mask. the jojoba part sounds natural, but jojoba beads are processed to make a spherical, grainy texture that can be used on the skin. it's not something that is naturally occuring from the oils/waxes of the plant.

when an oil has been processed by being cut with chemicals to eliminate any naturally occurring color or odor, to me, it's no longer natural, and the processing (refining) may actually render the oil not as beneficial as it could be if it was cold pressed with little to no refining.

if you have unrefined shea butter and 100% aloe gel from the plant and want to make a natural cream, but add synthetic preservatives to prolong its shelf life, to me, that product is no longer natural. an alternative would be to make single-use or small batches that wouldn't require the use of preservatives, natural or synthetic.

minimum to no processing from the original state and no potentially toxic additives is what makes a product natural to me.