We don't normally think of cleaning as the beginning of health care, now we are learning how the smallest things relate to one another. When you use cleansers in your house, detergents in your kitchen and washing machine, your health may be affected by what you use.
In the simplest case for a box of detergent, the raw materials are mined or taken from the Earth in one form or another. A processing plant is used to refine the material used by a factory to combine it with other ingredients that make a final product. Boxes or plastic containers then arrive at your market with all the catchy colors for you to buy. Your health as it turns out could be affected by the contact with your hands, fumes and dust you may breathe. How about the pollution generated by mining, factory byproducts and coloring? In our drinking water! Right now all drinking water has trace amounts of heavy metals and minute particles of plastic. This is called unsustainable manufacturing.
Sustainability is a balancing act. It takes in consideration the present and the future. Sustainability meets the needs of the present without compromising the well-being of future generations. In 2015 the United Nations called for building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future for the people and the planet. What that means is; not only our food traceability is becoming important but also we start to care about our cloths supply, products we buy and what's in the cosmetics we use?
MCrose skin care has always had a vision of making sustainability a part of our culture. The very name came from the use of distilled rose petals for the water component of many of our products and Lavender hydrosol for others. The airless dispensers leave little or no residual product in the container, using plant based actives or derived components that are more effective and proven. There is an explosion of alternative actives, and the reason is, that's what people want. Today’s beauty and personal care consumers have become more knowledgeable, more conscientious and more ideological in their buying choices.
Lets take a brief look at current research and what products are being developed (just a few). Eliminating senescent (dying) cells has emerged over the past few years as a promising anti-aging therapy in the medical field. You might know this as exfoliation, but that's just at the surface skin. Alpine Rose Active is a purified extract from the leaves of the organic alpine rose. The extract rejuvenates the deep layers of the skin and in clinical studies it significantly reduced skin redness, increased skin elasticity, and protected the skin from UVA induced photo-aging.
Another exciting area is with "cake" type foundations, a natural and sustainable alternative to microplastics is SENSOCEL® 8, a very fine microcrystalline cellulose which is ideal for refining the skin feel and improving the texture of liquid and solid formulations. It is scientifically proven that SENSOCEL® 8 is biodegradable under freshwater conditions and is derived from renewable raw materials.
How about hair dye alternatives, hair greying is one of the phenotypic changes during aging, cosmetic research focusing on preventing or limiting this process. An active ingredient that constitutes a new natural solution for hair greying. By acting on hair pigmentation, the hair regains health and beauty.
Eco-design consists of integrating the preservation of the environment at all stages of a product’s life cycle, from the sourcing of raw materials to the end of life, through the manufacturing and distribution processes. Cosmetic Chemists are seeing more plant based actives, recyclable packaging and biodegradable waste products and natural ingredients. The Research is showing many of these actives are more effective than traditional actives and in many cases people are seeing results more quickly. This is what makes the near future exciting for skin care, and why I am incorporating these new actives when they are available.
I will leave you with this. The US is THE largest importer of Chinese goods, $418 Billion with Hong Kong second at $279 Billion. Why are people so hypocritical to disregard the desire for change (Sustainability), promote a country who has total disregard for the environment, uses plastic in everything and low quality control in the skin care products that millions of American woman buy? Read labels carefully, packaged in America is not the same as made in the USA. Things made in the Europe (think Channel) are way better controlled, and that is where I buy my raw ingredients as well as actives produced on domestic soil. We want to make sustainable products for generations to come.
Danielle