It is up to you to decide on which skin care products to use, but making an informed decision will help you have more confidence in your purchases. 

With more synthetic and perfumed skin care products being made, people are becoming more concerned about the potential health risks of these products. Horror stories are always being exchanged over the internet and it becomes difficult to discern between the truth and exaggeration.

Skincare products made with natural ingredients are becoming more popular, but usually, these are on the expensive side of the price spectrum. These claim to use only natural ingredients that will not harm your skin or your health.

It is obviously up to you to decide on which skin care products to use, but making an informed decision will help you have more confidence in your purchases.  

A little lesson in skin:
Firstly, a (I promise) quick description of skin layers – there is the top layer, aka EPIDERMIS which consists of flattened dead skin cells. The middle is the DERMIS and the inner most layer is the HYPODERMIS.

The DERMIS does a very large portion of the defence against external factors work for your body. It prevents certain environmental dangers such as pollution, external water and other substances from entering inside your body and bloodstream.

Now, you need to keep in mind that there is a difference between skin penetration and skin absorption. When a topically applied product manages to penetrate the skin, it will go as far as the bottom layer of the dermis and so, will NOT be absorbed into the blood stream.

Skin absorption, on the other hand occurs when a topically applied substance manages to go past the various barriers of the skin and into the bloodstream. Whether or not your health will be compromised will be determined by whether your body is able to filter out the bad toxins through your kidney and let it out as bodily fluids.

The skin does a very good job of protecting you against the chemicals in lotions, deodorants, perfumes and makeup. They may get absorbed into your skin, but not into your bloodstream. And if they get into your bloodstream, they are filtered out through bodily fluids.

Here are a few important facts to remember:
1.Most chemicals have particles that are generally too large to be absorbed through the three layers of the skin and into the bloodstream. The few chemicals that can be absorbed are usually taken care of by our kidneys and flushed out of the body before they can do any harm.

2.Your favourite skincare products are also made to ensure that they are not absorbed into the bloodstream as this would take away from their effectiveness on your skin. As a skincare product, you want it to work on your skin and so, absorption into the bloodstream would defeat the purpose.
In addition, creating a product that is easily absorbed into the skin is quite difficult for manufacturers and so, they have to develop ‘penetration enhancers’ for ingredients such as retinol and vitamin c to be absorbed by the skin.

3.If chemicals are absorbed, our bodies are well equipped to filter out what does not belong through bodily fluids such as urine and sweat.  

So, absorption into the skin is something that does happen. Otherwise, where do you think the lotion you rub into your skin goes? It does not evaporate, instead, it’s soaked up by the top layer of your skin to give you that beautiful and healthy glow.

Penetration into the skin, on the other hand is very rare. Trusted skincare brands are a good source of skincare products that are not harmful in the long term with regards to penetration into the bloodstream.

The Body Shop Honeymania Body Butter would be a good skincare product to try as it is made with natural ingredients and is a trusted skincare brand.