Alpha hydroxy acids (AHA's) are widely promoted in Women's and beauty magazines. Much is written about their effectiveness of preventing wrinkles and slowing down the aging processes in your skin... but do you know what they are? Should you use them on your skin? Are they natural? Should they be in your natural skin care products?
Alpha hydroxy acids (AHA’s) are Fruit acids, which are weak organic acids derived from various sources such as, grapes, apples, sugar cane, maple, pineapple, papaya, willow bark, lemon, lime, sour milk, blackberries, yoghurt and cider, and play an important role in skin care.Fruit acids are natural exfoliants that perform a number of functions at the level of the stratum corneum on the skin's surface. They loosen and dissolve dead cells from the skins surface and help to regenerate new skin cells, aid in the control of acne, smooth rough dry skin, improve the texture of sun-damaged and aging skin and retain moisture which leaves your skin healthy and vibrant.
That is basically a good thing, but as usual, many companies are using concentrated extracts, or worse still, synthetically manufactured AHA’s or BHA’s (beta hydroxy acids), and that is not a good thing. When scientists comes across a ‘new substance’, so to speak, they have a tendency to want to make it better than nature’s version… more concentrated for quicker results… and so on. Unfortunately, this usually brings with it side effects and sometimes actual physical damage.A natural ingredient – just what exactly does that mean? Does it mean it is a substance that nature created and it has been added to a product in order to make that product natural? No, a natural ingredient is an ingredient that is, where ever possible, present in it’s natural form, for example AHA’s can be extracted and then added to a product, thereby the maker of that product can claim it contains ‘Natural ingredients’. Or the AHA’s can be use in a product in the form of an extract of Papaya with all the other ingredients present in Papaya fruit. This is a more balanced set of ingredients which work together to achieve a desired effect, thus it is a truly natural ingredient.Let me give you an example: Aspirin (a very commonly used pain killer) is derived from the bark of the white Willow tree. The substance or the active ingredient is called Salicylic acid, a BHA. This is the stuff that reduces pain. It is also the stuff that can cause Stomach ulcers…. Now, the herbal extract of the white Willow bark does not (or is much less likely to) cause Stomach ulcer. Why? because the herbal extract contains many other ingredients that are contained in the bark which the extraction process brings out. Some of these substances are mucilaginous (Porridge is mucilaginous) which means they are slippery and when taken internally, they cover the membrane of the Stomach (the lining) and prevent the salicylic acid from causing ulceration – clever, isn’t she, that Mother Nature woman?Sometimes you will hear these additional ingredients referred to as “phyto-chemicals”. This is very current topic today with respect to Vitamins and other ‘natural’ supplements.What does all this have to do with natural skin care? Well, as I have written before. Natural skin care is not necessarily natural and one could debate back and forth what ‘natural’ is, or what it should be. One thing is certain, natural skin care products should not contain any ‘un-natural’ ingredients, be they synthetically produced or in ‘purified / isolated form’. Natural should be as close as possible to the way it is found in nature. That is not to say one should not use Vitamin E as a principal ingredient in a cream, but it should not be of a synthetically derived form. Wheat germ oil, for example, is very high in Vitamin E and contains many other phyto-chemicals, which are nourishing to the skin. At Wildcrafted Herbal Products we choose to define natural as ‘the way nature created it’, so we prefer not to use isolated natural ingredients. Instead, we choose to use ingredients from plant extracts, essential oils, carrier oils and other extraction processes according to Naturopathic principles, which preserve the integrity of the plant or relevant plant parts.We hope this clarifies some of the confusion which is propagated in the media and provides you with information you can use when next looking at ingredients on natural skin care products.
The Critical Role of Skin pH in Human Health
The pH level of our skin is a crucial factor in maintaining its health and integrity. Acting as a protective barrier, the skin shields our internal systems from external threats while also playing a role in temperature regulation and toxin elimination. The skin's slightly acidic pH, typically ranging from 4.5 to 6, is essential for inhibiting bacterial growth and maintaining a robust defense mechanism against infections. As we age, our skin's pH tends to neutralize, making it more vulnerable to bacteria and leading to various skin issues. Understanding and maintaining the correct skin pH through proper skincare and lifestyle choices is vital for long-term skin health.
Factors that can influence you skin type
The following article looks at the different skin types, such as oily, dry, normal, sensitive, mature or a combination of these. It provides a brief description of each of the skin types and what you need to be aware of in order to balance your skin and provides you with approaches to natural skin care that help you make the correct choices for your particular skin.
Are Herbs Weeds or Treasures?
Herbs or medicinal plants are often considered weeds - usually because they grow in undesirable places. Many herbs have been introduced into Australia and because they are not native plants, they have often few competitors for resources such as water, soil nutrients and light and have few predators. Subsequently, these plants can grow and spread unchecked, endangering native vegetation and even various animal species such as birds and insects. Weeds certainly can be a real threat to native flora, fauna, rain forests and even aquatic ecosystems.
