Ingredient Research Part 2

To read Part 1 of this article click here. 

Wondering how I research my ingredients to ensure they meet my stringent requirements? Read on to find out!

In Part One I discussed the requirements I have for ingredients to be as eco-friendly and ethical as possible. So, how do I go about researching a new ingredient? 

I'm fortunate to have studied at an excellent formulation school - Formula Botanica - whose courses give a firm grounding in understanding the most common skincare ingredients and how to research them further. I'm also a member of The Lab, which is their ongoing professional development membership. This contains detailed profiles of many different ingredients, which have been put together by experienced formulators, so it's always my go-to place to start my research. 

Another great source of information is the ingredient suppliers themselves. I like to choose my suppliers carefully, and one of the things I look for is good customer service support with knowledgeable staff, as well as full disclosure about where the ingredients come from. As I mentioned in Part One, I usually like to get things from as close to home as possible, partly to cut down on airmiles and partly because it's harder to exploit workers in the UK/EU countries than in countries with mass poverty (I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just that it's rarer). The ideal is to find ingredients where I can actually visit the place they're made and see for myself that conditions are as we would want them to be. I wrote about my local lavender farm in a previous article, and that is a great example of this. It's wonderful to be able to stroll among the lavender, and the sheer volume of bees there testifies to their organic farming practices. 

One thing I always like to avoid when it comes to ingredients is jumping on the latest trend just for the sake of it. When a new ingredient starts appearing in every big product launch, mainstream companies are quick to copy each other to stay with the trend. But just as in the modern fast fashion industry, trends are usually short-lived and will soon be replaced by some other 'revolutionary' new ingredient, so that doesn't make for products that stand the test of time. Whenever a new ingredient becomes the hot topic of the industry, I therefore prefer to spend some time researching it, and in particular its chemical makeup. The question I try to answer is: is there anything unique about this ingredient that could have benefits to the skin? In other words, why use this particular ingredient instead of something else? For all that companies like to claim their new wonder ingredient does things for your skin that nothing else can, it's highly unlikely that the same chemical extract couldn't actually be found in dozens of other plants around the world. Therefore, there may actually be a more sustainable alternative to what everyone else is using, that would have the same effect. 

​​One type of ingredient I've recently started investigating is specialist cosmeceuticals. These are generally only available from high-tech laboratories, and these will only deal with registered companies, so it's only now that I've become a limited company that I'm able to chat with these labs and discuss using some of their ingredients. In particular, I'm looking at incorporating a few specialist extracts into my new healthy skin ageing range, including NovoRetinTM and GlowAGETM. I'll be writing more about these ingredients later, so stay tuned! 

If you want to find out more about my journey to make Natur Cosmetics as sustainable as possible, don't forget you can click the links under Categories to filter blog posts by topic. And I'll be back with more updates soon!