Going Green

February 2007 Special Advertising Section

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.