Cecilia's Sacred Beauty Diary: 3 questions you've always wanted to ask a Skincare Specialist
For her first Live Like a Heroine column, Dr. Cecilia Perotti unveils all things skincare ingredients. Here she answers the three ultimate, in-depth questions you've always wanted to ask a Skincare Specialist.
What are the harmful ingredients commonly found in skincare that we should avoid?
When speaking of cosmetic ingredients and their safety there are so many things to say.
I believe that one of the main features in any respectable personal guideline is to be always open-minded, impartial and above all, constantly updated.
Of course, not all synthetic ingredients are toxic. Either to use or not to use synthetics is more a philosophy than a precautionary strategy. Both ingredients from natural sources and from chemical ones could be safe at certain doses and harmful at others.
Paracelsus was a very inspiring and avant-gardist saying that “the dose makes the poison”. Even a lot of natural things can be bad for you: think about Cyanide in apple seeds or some potent skin-irritant essential oils. For sure in the past 10 years in the EU, a large number of chemicals were banned for consumer safety. In the last few years, a great controversy has seen Parabens as the protagonist. Such a category of preservatives has been widely used in cosmetics for decades but recently seemed to weakly mimic estrogen in certain situations as an endocrine disruptor. For now, the long-term effects of parabens on human health are yet uncertain, but on my side, I deeply believe that prevention is better than cure. I adopt the same approach dealing with SLS and SLES, whose toxicological profile is still undefined yet their aggressiveness for the skin exists without a doubt.
What are the best actives for anti-aging?
Among my favorite anti-aging actives there are rare botanicals such as Prickly Pear, Papaya, Alkanet, African Palm, Pitaya, and Butterfly Blue Pea. Thanks to such genuine and nutrient-rich raw materials, our skin is infused with naturally contained Vitamin A, Carotenoids, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Minerals, Omega 3, and 6.
In my new clean beauty line, these healing traditional anti-aging botanicals are infused with medicinal exotic plants such as Dodonaea, Reishi, Ginkgo Biloba, and precious Pearl Powder, Amber, Micronized Hyaluronic Acid, Water from an Oceanic Salty Lake.
What does natural, organic, green beauty really mean? And Why is it better for our skin?
As for now, there is no clear regulation around the use of natural, organic, clean attributes when it comes to beauty products, such terms are often essentially just words appearing on beautiful cosmetics and personal care products. Therefore, when choosing cosmetics consumers have to trust companies with heritage, ethical philosophy, deep know-how, highest quality standards, and transparency on the raw materials origin, safety, and activity.
A genuine natural, organic, and clean beauty product should be free from synthetics, sulfates, parabens, GMO, petrochemicals, artificial fragrances, glycols, nitrosamine releasers, and harmful preservatives.
We should also pay attention to the packaging materials, preferring those recyclable or refillable, as well as to the origin of the raw material, the way of harvesting, organic farming, extinction risk, etc.
For almost 50 years, in our flourishing warehouse, we’ve tried our best to make every product in a way that contributes positively both to the individual well-being and to that of the planet, thanks to ethical harvesting, production and purchasing decisions, transparency, honesty, social sustainability, a zero-waste, and a less-but-better policy. I deeply believe that this is the future and it is also the only real way to make consumers fully appreciate and understand their purchases. Feeling in harmony with the whole nature, being part of it.
I deeply believe that genuine clean skincare is better for our skin not only for the highest purity, quality, and properties of the botanical ingredients but also for all the love and good intentions infused while producing.
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Find Cecilia on Instagram @ceciliaperotti_ .
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