What’s it mean? In the skin care arena, it generally relates to the accumulation of certain substances in the body over time. In order for something to accumulate, of course, it has to stay in the body and not get flushed out. Many synthetics in skin care, unfortunately, do stick around. While companies get away with trace amounts of toxic synthetics in their products, those trace amounts can add up.

A 2004 EWG study looked at industrial chemicals in babies and umbilical cord blood. It found 287 industrial synthetics. The average baby in the study carried over 200 industrial chemicals. Many of those chemicals likely came from pesticides on the inorganic food we eat. Others came from skin care.

Of the 287 industrial synthetics, over 200 are potentially toxic, carcinogenic or may cause defects. Others have impacts we don’t yet know. We do know that things like low birth weight, type 2 diabetes, low sperm counts, breast cancer, and early onset of female puberty, among other related health issues, are on the rise.

Advice? Eat organic and local if you can. Filter your water, and stay away from fish high on the food chain. Use synthetic-free, organic personal products.

Let’s be clear: your skin is designed to lose water to evaporation…the key is losing the right amount. The dryness of the air has a big impact on how quickly moisture evaporates from skin. We call it the atmospheric humidity gradient, or more generally, the osmotic gradient. Between the seasonal humidity fluctuation and heaters, humidity can get as low as 10-15 in the winter. The drier the air, the stronger the barrier needed to maintain the proper hydration equilibrium. Let’s look at an example: Prune Fingers. So why exactly do your fingertips get wrinkly when you go in the bath? Guesses? Do your fingers shrivel because all the water is gone? Nope, they’re actually over-hydrated from soaking in water. The skin cells fill up like balloons, making skin expand and forcing it to form waves. You have too much skin for your fingers!

Next question: how long does it last? That’s the osmotic barrier in effect…the greater the differential between skin hydration and air humidity, the greater the stress on the barrier to maintain the status quo. Next time you go to the desert, unless you feed and water your skin properly, you’ll see that it will de-hydrate to match the dry air. And you don’t want that!

It started well. Dinner in a wonderful neighborhood restaurant in San Francisco with friends, family and some new significant others. It turned ugly faster than you can say Big Agro Business.

“Oh, you’ve got organic and all-natural products. Really, be honest with me, it’s just marketing and branding, right?”

Turns out the guy across from me was a fan of rhetorical questions – before I uttered a responsive syllable, my new friend continued, “I mean please, the whole fad makes me sick. These people don’t know what they’re talking about. These studies are garbage. Do you have any idea how much of those industrial chemicals you’d have to get in your body it’d have the effect those studies describe? Stop kidding yourself. Any real scientist will tell you it’s all crap. Nothing has changed.”

I could feel nervous fidgeting around table. I took a deep breath and started by agreeing with him. Some of the science out there is shoddy, and not every negative health trend is the result of contaminants in our food, our water, our air and, yes, our skin care.

But… a wide range of health problems are on the rise, from premature births and underweight babies, to lowered sperm counts and early menstruation, to allergies, to reproductive organ damage. Hundreds of industrial chemicals, many of which are in the family of endocrine disruptors, are being found in newborns and in cord blood. There are scores of studies linking common synthetics found in plastics and skin care products to a range of health problems…which have led nations around the world to ban many of those substances.

And you want to talk dosages? Well, one tiny dosage in one exposure may not cause cancer, just like one puff of a Marlboro won’t kill you. But what about the thousands of synthetics we and our children are bombarded with day after day? And what of the fact that many of the synthetics have bio-cumulative effect, sticking in the body and growing day by day? Still believe tiny individual exposures can’t possibly have an effect?

“Harrumph.” From across the table. “I’d like to see conclusive proof…”

“Well, there’s plenty of proof. But the larger point is this: sometimes conclusive causal proof is elusive (in part because there are so many different chemicals hitting us at once, that it’s difficult to isolate just one). Doesn’t it still make sense to avoid as many potentially dangerous synthetics as possible? Especially when skin care synthetics are often simply cheap derivations of natural ingredients?”

“…and don’t let me get started about the environmental reasons to prefer smaller, organic farms over Big Agro. Ok, enough, let’s eat. Lemme guess, the fois gras is yours…”

Start with a remarkable architecture of bricks and mortar. The bricks are cells at the skin’s surface. They’re filled with a water-loving amino acid cocktail that acts like a magnet to pull water up from deep in the skin, and sometimes out of thin air. The bricks swell with water, and the skin surface becomes soft and pliable. This reverse irrigation system ensures that every skin layer is well-hydrated.
The bricks are held together by mortar, a bunch of natural lipid layers that provide softness and smoothness. The mortar, unlike the bricks, is relatively water-tight. It’s a team effort: the bricks bring the water to the surface and the mortar keeps it there.

Is the FDA doing its job? Depends on your view of what its job is, we suppose. If you think it’s analyzing skin care products before they hit the shelves, getting out front on suspect ingredients, or setting up an enforceable system for accurate labeling of naturals, chemicals and organics, then no, they’re not doing their job. You can’t really blame them. IOHO, they’re under-funded and under-authorized.

phthalates and elements of packaging (e.g., BPA) that are widely used in the US that are banned in other industrialized countries. In fact, the Environmental Working Group has found that more than 750 personal care products would violate safety standards in other industrialized countries. There is no pre-approval for cosmetics or even over-the-counter drugs. There is gross non-compliance in the industry on labeling standards, and less than aggressive labeling requirements.

Where does that leave us? It means the consumer has to be particularly vigilant and informed. Fortunately, there are sites out there to help. Sana has taken upon itself to create products that would meet the standards we’d all like to see…standards that put health, safety and the environment above commercial concerns. We’ve also tried to provide as much information as we can about things to look for and things to avoid. Please let us know if you have questions or things to add…

Skin is particularly vulnerable and sensitive when it’s dry or chapped. The lack of hydration opens cracks and fissures in the skin, breaking down the skin’s physical barrier to external agents. Plus, its antimicrobial function is impaired without water.

All of this means synthetics, irritants, and carcinogens have an “in” to your skin when it’s dry, chapped and compromised. And we’re not just talking about external contaminants. The very skin care products that are meant to protect your skin in harsh elements are filled with unsafe synthetics that have a direct pathway to the bloodstream. Awfully circular, no? All the more reason to keep skin protection clean and natural, wouldn’t you say?

Parabens are low molecular weight synthetic preservatives used in a wide range of personal care products. They are endocrine disrupters, which means they can interrupt and/or disrupt the flow of hormones in the body. Their primary impact appears to be as an estrogen-mimic with mild carcinogenic properties. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown that parabens can permeate the skin, enter the body and bio-accumulate. Parabens appear to be most troublesome in areas where absorption is most likely – e.g., in deodorants and shaving cream. Some studies have found a connection between parabens and breast cancer.

Sana does not use Parabens, or, for that matter, any other synthetic preservative.

Skin is a physical barrier to keep intruders out. It doesn’t like loiterers, either. Skin effectively attacks all kinds of microbes and germs at the skin surface. It secretes antimicrobial peptides with waxy stuff called sebum. Sebum is a good sealant – it helps build the wall, reducing skin permeability and keeping good in and bad out. It’s also an acidic lipid, which makes the skin less than hospitable for intruders. The acidity is called the acid mantle.

Sebum isn’t all good. Like a lot of things relating to the skin, hormones control sebum production…which is why sebum levels sometimes go out of control at puberty. And too much sebum is not a good thing: it is such a good sealant, it locks everything in, including dirt, and is closely linked with acne. Too little ain’t so great, either, since the acid mantle is an essential defense against intruders.

So what does bathing and soap have to do with sebum? Lots.

Soap can cause havoc. It affects the acid mantle in two ways: First, surfactants strip the skin of sebum and other important natural lipids by binding to proteins. Second, the alkaline pH of soap can interfere with the normal acid barrier, raising the pH (e.g., 5.5 to 7.5), and making infection and cracking, fissured skin more likely.

Not only that, skin pH effects the normal shedding process. The dead skin cells normally degrade and shed under acidic conditions. When the skin’s acid mantle is impaired, the natural exfoliation process gets impaired as well…which can lead to scaly xerosis. The skin is very good at repairing itself, and can usually correct the damage after a few hours, BUT chronic washing, say 10 times a day, can permanently alter the acid mantle. Seriously, wash carefully!

Organic materials derived from animal or vegetable sources are biodegradable, while substances derived from mineral sources are generally not. Any curious kitchen scientist can make plastic out of food products, but most companies make their plastic out of nonrenewable crude oil.

Plastics can be melted down and remade into other recyclable products (e.g. a plastic milk jug can be remade into another plastic milk jug), but even if you take the time to put your plastic items in the blue bin, recycling plants may deem them unrecyclable. If the plastic container has not being properly rinsed of food or beverage, or if it still has a label, it goes directly in the landfill, where, as a non-biodegradable material, it can remain for decades.

It takes a lot of (worthwhile!) effort to recycle plastic; the numbers at the bottom of plastic products are extremely important since they determine whether a plastic can be recycled or not, and whether two plastics can be recycled together. If a plastic is not grouped with like plastics, it goes into the landfill, so pay attention to the numbers at the bottom of the plastics and read about the plastic recycling policies of your home state! Indeed, evidence suggests that most plastics are not recycled, but rather are dumped into our oceans where they accumulate over time and destroy wildlife and animal life.