What do poison oak, poison ivy, and botulinum toxin all have in common?
They’re all natural!
“Natural” and “good for you” are not synonymous. “Natural” and “good for the Earth” are not synonymous.
Poison ivy is a naturally growing plant but you won’t see it in my skincare routine and even though you do see botulinum toxin (Botox) in a beauty routine, doesn’t mean that one is good for you either (botulism is not something to mess around with and can lead to paralysis and death).
These claims of “all natural” are a green washing tactic. Green washing is a company’s way of conveying a false impression to make a you believe something is more sustainable. Companies have done such a good job in linking these ideas that they don’t even need to dive deeper into their claims.
For example, selling essential oils under the marketing of “all natural” is not inaccurate per say but companies have linked you to believe this set of words also means better for the environment when in reality the allergens of essential oils, land use, water use, and emissions make essential oils worse for the environment than a synthetic fragrance.
We as a generation have become obsessed with this idea of natural and a skewed meaning of it and developed a case of chemophobia (terrified of those long name chemicals on your ingredients list).
Here’s what we do know about those chemicals.
A chemical is a compound that has been purified and/or prepped for use. It doesn’t automatically mean fake or dangerous. If we gave the scientific names for all the compounds in things like apples and bananas, the general public would also think it was full of chemicals putting you in danger and the reason we believe this is beauty industry fear mongering.
The beauty industry decided to sell you all natural by feeding you misinformation about chemicals causing cancers or getting into your bloodstream. In reality these diseases and health issues are much more complex than your skin care or your shampoo. The more they scare you the more money they bank as you replace all your favorites with the “clean” alternative.
But have you ever wondered why that honey didn’t actually make your pimple go away and why pouring apple cider vinegar on your hair just dried out your scalp?
Before you go putting mayonnaise on your head because TikTok said it was moisturizing, let’s take a second to think. Chemicals are in your products because chemicals were studied for years by scientists and beauty chemists to combine the right ones to actually work.
Chemicals are not inherently bad for you, big beauty fear mongering is.
All of Dip’s products are made by an incredible chemist, someone who has been in this industry and studied for years. Every ingredient was obsessed over and carefully considered when creating our shampoo and conditioner bars. It’s why we have the best conditioner bar and bar hair care that actually works! Performance was our top priority and we were only able to do it through the help of chemistry and scientifically backed ingredients.
No fear mongering and chemophobia here!
