Bath and body products are intended to improve health. Soap was not originally created because it smelled good, it was created because it washed off dirt and bacteria, and consequently made us smell good. Likewise, body lotions were not created to make us smell good, but to protect our skin from the harsh world. Given this context, how do your bath and body products hold up? Have your products been designed around maximizing marketability or around their ability to improve your health?
Sadly, the bath and body industry is nearly completely monopolized by large companies who know what sells. What determines the price of a bath and body product is not the ingredients, but the marketing. As a result, nearly every bottle of bath and body products found in a large chain store has harsh chemicals and petroleum byproducts in it. I was in Walmart last month looking down the body lotion aisle and nearly every bottle of lotion contained either mineral oil or petrolatum. The only ones that did not have mineral oil or petrolatum were the glycerin (a type of sugar - not an oil) based lotions. Just because a bottle says "with Cocoa Butter" does not mean that Cocoa Butter is the foundation of the lotion, it generally means that a small amount of Cocoa Butter was added. The primary foundation of the lotion is usually still mineral oil, petrolatum, or something worse.
The reason petroleum products are used is because they are very inexpensive, don't go bad over time, and act as great carriers for fragrance, and because there are no components that can be absorbed by the skin, your relief is fleeting, leaving you perpetually needing more.
The truth is that most bath and body products are not designed with your health in mind; they are designed with marketing in mind. So what can you do? The primary way to take care of yourself is to know what it is you are buying, which means shopping based on what is on the back of the bottle, not the front. So what should you look for?
When it comes to lotions, the key thing to look for in the ingredients is natural oils or butters at or near the top of the product ingredient list. The highest quality products will be made nearly entirely with oils and butters. This means that they will be listed as the first ingredient, likely followed by water. If water comes first, then the majority of what you are buying is made up of water. Even if the bottle says that it contains natural oils or butter, if mineral oil, petrolatum, glycerin, or any chemical name comes ahead of the natural oil/butter in the product list, then the natural oil/butter content is negligible and will have little impact on your skin. Its addition was for marketing purposes.
When it comes to bath products (i.e. soap, shampoo, etc.), the key thing to look for is if the product has sodium lauryl sulphate or any name that sounds or looks similar. Bath products need to have detergents in them in order to clean, but our skin does not need the harshness that sodium lauryl sulphate or its alternatives bring. It is too strong and cannot be properly complexed with moisturizers to leave a silky feel. Find a product that does not have this detergent.
It is the ingredients listed on the back that will determine whether the bath and body products are going to improve your health. So, next time you head into the store to buy a bath and body product for yourself or a friend, make your purchase based on the ingredients on the back. You will be much happier with your skin and will consequently find yourself buying fewer bath and body products.
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