Going Green

When it came to a natural beauty regimen in our youth, placing cucumbers on our eyelids was about as organic as we got. We caked on the makeup, shellacked our up-dos with aerosol-emitting cans of spray, and colored our hair with reckless, ammonia-filled abandon, all without questioning what we were doing to our surroundings, let alone ourselves. But it’s a different world today. We recycle. We buy organic food. We exercise. We conserve. And that eye toward healthy, environmentally aware living is now shifting toward what we use on our hair and skin.

“Society in general is becoming more health- conscious,” says Alexandra Scott, owner of Sashabana SalonSpa in Excelsior. “When a salon can offer something that goes along with that lifestyle, you try to incorporate it.”

The beauty industry is responding to consumers’ wishes by offering less toxic (and often naturally derived) product choices, which run the gamut from using fewer chemicals to creating food-based skin care lines with no preservatives. Some manufacturers, however, are sticking with their tried-and-true methods, saying their products aren’t problematic for the body or the environment. So who should you believe? Mostly, it’s a matter of doing a little research to find products that give you good results and reflect your values—but even that can feel confusing. Here’s a glimpse into the way skin and hair care professionals are responding to their changing industry.

Perhaps the biggest advocate for the organic movement in the beauty industry has been Horst Rechelbacher, who brought naturally based products to the masses when he founded Aveda in 1978. Aveda’s plant-based lines for the hair and skin fast became a hallmark of the industry. But Rechelbacher, who now co-owns Intelligent Nutrients in Minneapolis with the Edina-based Regis Corporation, has turned his attention to a new love: body care made of food-based, organic ingredients.

“Our philosophy is one should never put anything on the body that does not benefit  the inside of the body,” he says. “Cosmetics are questionable. They have too many potentially carcinogenic agents in them. This has never been realized.” 

Rechelbacher cites the work of Samuel Epstein, MD, chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, who says that cosmetics feature chemical resins and other plasticized agents that have been linked to cancer. “If you look at the creams, the lotions, and the hair products, the majority of the ingredients are made from petrochemical resources,” Rechelbacher says. “These end up in a mother’s milk, and eventually go to the kidney, the pancreas, and the liver. The liver nurtures every organ and links nutrition to all other organs, including the brain. If we have a deficiency, we are imbalanced.”

Because of his belief that cosmetics are unfriendly to both the body and the environment, Rechelbacher started further researching nutrition-based beauty products, which have always interested him. Whereas he worked with cosmetic chemists at Aveda, Rechelbacher now surrounds  himself with food scientists. “They know how to make substances that make the body healthy,” he says.

The new Intelligent Nutrients (IN) personal care line comprises organic spices, herbs, natural gums (such as those that hold yogurt together), and other foods, such as rice. The products, which are mostly for skin and hair care, will be available this summer through the main store in Minneapolis, a lifestyle store in New York, and in IN-affiliated salons throughout the US, UK, and Canada.

Donna Duffy, owner of Fusion Lifespa in Deephaven, is also a strong believer in the harmful effects of traditional cosmetics. Duffy says that most of the beauty products used and sold in her spa are free of parabens,  the preservatives commonly found in personal care products. Although parabens have yet to be officially linked to health problems, people like Duffy prefer not to use them because of their unnatural composition. “These mess with women,” she says. “It’s a toxic use of chemicals that women don’t need in [their] lives.”

In addition to parabens, which can show up on an ingredient label as methylparaben, propylparaben, or ethylparaben, Duffy also avoids products with ingredients such as petroleum-based propylene glycol. However, she acknowledges that for the consumer who wants to thoroughly decipher a beauty product’s ingredient label, it can be tricky. For example, a label could list superoxide dismutase (SOD), a free-radical fighting antioxidant, as an ingredient, but the user has no way of knowing how much of it is used. “Even if you only put in one half of 1 percent of SOD in the product, you can put it on the ingredient list,” Duffy says. “It won’t even be active by the time you put it on your face. You need at least 7 percent of these ingredients to be considered therapeutic.”

She suggests a few ways to make label-reading a little easier. First, ingredients on both consumable and non-consumable products are listed from most common to least common. Therefore, if you see an antioxidant listed as the second to last ingredient, chances are that product will contain an insignificant (and probably) ineffective) amount. Since parabens are most always listed last anyway, you should check for how many are there instead. If all three (methyl-, propyl-, and ethyl-) are listed, chances are the product is much worse than if only one appears. One or two is better than all three, but zero is best, says Duffy. Second, simply check how a product is marketed. “If a company has a therapeutic amount of something in it, they’re going to tell you,” Duffy says.

Not everyone in the beauty industry is sold on completely organic products. Before Alexandra Scott opened Sashabana Spa in November 2004, she tested preservative-free products but was not impressed with the results. “The integrity of the product was compromised after a short period of time. Your hair didn’t look the way you wanted it to look,” she says. “Also, the shelf life was short, and I could never be sure I was selling something that I could guarantee would be good for my clients.”

However, Scott did not want to completely abandon the idea of carrying wholesome products. Her goal became to “offer the best products I could find that were also as health conscious as they could possibly be,” she says. For example, Sashabana started carrying the Pureology hair-care line, which is sulfate free and 100 percent vegan, along with two other lines. For skin care, Scott chose Pevonia for its botanically based content. Even nail care—known for the noxious fumes it tends to emit—now offers healthy alternatives. Sashabana uses Zoya, a carcinogen-free nail polish line, and LCN Nails, which are acrylic-free, non-toxic artificial-nail enhancements.

The products have been a hit with customers, Scott says—so much so, in fact, that people are driving to Excelsior from all over the metro to buy them. “People are showing interest that these are healthier alternatives,” she says. “It just makes them feel good to know that they’re not putting chemicals all over their bodies.” 

Still, there are those in the industry who aren’t entirely convinced that beauty products are unsafe. “To be eco-conscious is very good,” says Rocco Altobelli, founder of the salons that bear his name. “We should all do our part, but the thing is, regulating how your hair gel is made has no bearing on the environment. Our industry is not causing any significant problems.”

As an example, he cites that his factory is located in a residential area in Burnsville. “When the city sold it to me, I loved the fact that because we have a clean manufacturing plant, we wouldn’t be objectionable to the neighbors or the environment,” he says.

Although the Rocco Altobelli product lines, which include Alto bella, h2t, and dermAstage, aren’t marketed as natural, the company’s labs work with more than 1,800 different raw materials. Altobelli’s new dermAstage line, for instance, uses a combination of vitamins, amino acids, enzymes, fruit extracts, and antioxidants.

Although these materials may be derived from nature, some are altered in the lab to make them more effective, Altobelli says.

“If you want all-natural products, go to your refrigerator and whip some up,” he says. “You have to have preservatives in your products. Otherwise, that stuff grows bacteria and mold, and you have to fight that. It has to sustain itself on a shelf.”

Altobelli also believes that consumers need to look beyond the hype of organic beauty products to truly determine what will work for them. “Some people look for buzzwords, but unfortunately, they’re educated by marketing people,” he says. “There are those companies that latch on to ‘natural’ to sell their products.”

For the majority of cosmetics consumers, chances are that they will be content somewhere in the middle of the spectrum: finding products that make them feel good without the guilt. “We can’t be completely neurotic about it,” Duffy says. “You do all these things as you can, when you can. I think it’s important to know what’s out there, but not be completely overwhelmed by it.”