any Australian companies are producing ‘natural’ cosmetics. These products have feel-good smell-good components such as essential oils, non-animal soaps, vegetable and plant extracts. Many also have chemical preservatives. Some herbal products are very expensive for no obvious reason, and some people are allergic to natural substances.

Most of the ‘natural’ products avoid animal extracts, which means (don’t read on if you’re a queasy type) you miss out on ambergris (from whales) and dried beaver’s genitals in perfumes; collagen (animal tissue) and hyaluronic acid (from roosters’ combs) in moisturisers; oestrogen (from pregnant horse’s wee); tallow (animal fat) in soap, lipstick, and shampoos; and spermaceti (more poor whaley bits) in creams and shampoos. Sometimes these will be given alternative scientific names to further disguise their ancestry.

One company advertises geranium, ivy, aloe, lavender, mint and many more yummy-sounding things without saying exactly what they are supposed to do apart from being ‘natural’. The ‘skin firming concentrate’ has horsetail, horse chestnut, pineapple and condurango, which I previously had pegged as a Peruvian dissidents’ club. Egg white and gelatine are also used in many moisturisers because they tighten the skin until they are washed off again.

Did you ever imagine something called hyaluronic acid was from roosters’ combs? I guess ‘New improved dead chook bits in a can!’ doesn’t quite have the same allure.

Environmental Hazards

At a seminar on women’s health and the environment in North America, the conference was told that seemingly unrelated problems, from cancer to menstrual disorders, infertility and chronic fatigue syndrome, often resulted from women’s unique susceptibility to environmental poisons such as pesticides and lead.

It was reported that the essential female hormone oestrogen is vulnerable to such poisoning. Breast cancer has been linked to a higher concentration of DDT pesticides and other organochlorins in the blood. Women in the petroleum and chemical industries have a higher rate of breast cancer.

In the face of a poisoned earth, all the cosmetics companies suggest to tackle the problem is spreading more fat on your face.

One claims that its Advanced Night Repair Protective Recovery Complex will “help prevent environmental damage: ultraviolet rays and free radicals”. Free radicals are unstable molecules – feral sciencey things that the skin produces when it is exposed to sunlight or pollution. Free radicals run amok and break down the elasticity of the skin.

Another ‘power moisturiser’ claims it can protect your skin’s beauty from ‘environmental aggression’ and air pollution. And one moisturiser “intercepts skin-damaging ‘toxic hazards’ before ageing effects begin to show”. Want help with stress, pollution and the hectic pace of modern living? Have we got the product for you.

If we continue to give more priority to our skin care than to our planet care, we’re going to have a worse environment and worse skin, because it absolutely can’t be fixed once it’s damaged (that’s the skin, not the planet).