Natural vs Synthetic Beard Products
Men with beards and facial hair generally fall into 2 categories.
They either use a product or they don’t.
Those that do, in general are not the type to just randomly select a brand or scent, it usually requires a bit of research and or advice and recommendations from other like minded men. And those that do are generally the guys who take pride in their look, have spent a lot of time growing, grooming and moulding it into a great looking beard.
Here at Beard Juice we feel it is our duty to point out a few facts. To give you the chance to make a more informed decision to help you maintain your beard and give it the proper treatment it deserves.
As the ‘trend’ for beards is still growing in the UK and abroad, the amount of beard related products grows. Not only do we have small independents, but the big boy brands are also getting in on the act. Not to mention the hundreds if not thousands of white label brands.
The majority of beard oils follow the same structure of ingredients.
Base Oils
These are the 99% of the oil and can be a single or combination of anything from Argan Oil, Coconut Oil, Jojoba Oil, and to be honest the list is almost endless. These oils are all full of great vitamins and minerals, that if blended correctly and used correctly, will help your hair and skin in many ways, such as moisturising, aiding in hair growth, making the hair more manageable, anti bacterial, anti dandruff and again there is a long list of benefits.
Essential Oils
These are the oils that make the scent, and again can be a single or combination of essential oils. Not only do essential oils have a wide range of scent, they also contain properties that are used in aromatherapy and can have a range of effects on the body and mind. A few examples are calming and relaxing or stimulating scents to get you up in the morning. Essential oils must be used carefully and in many cases very small quantities as they can cause a manner of effects to the body and skin such as irritation and burning. Within the EU there are strict guidelines as to the quantities that can be used in cosmetic products, and all companies that sell within the EU must be registered on the EU Cosmetic Products Notification Portal, along with having Safety Reports.
Base Oils and Essential Oils are made from a wide range of products such as roots, leaves, barks, nuts, seeds, flowers, buds and more, but they are all made from natural products, and can also be Organic.
Synthetics
Synthetic Scents are scents that are made in a laboratory using a really REALLY big list of chemicals and other man made products. The goal is to recreate a specific scent perhaps found in nature, and then take that scent, replicate it, enhance it and prolong the lifespan of that scent. For example essential oil scents are broken down into ‘notes’. The high note oils have a quick evaporating time and therefore the scent burns away quicker than those oils with a low note. Fruity essential oils have a high notes, whereas something like Patchouli has a low note, and the scent can last for days.
A synthetic scent eliminates the notes and every synthetic scent will have a long lasting scent and generally a more powerful scent than the natural essential oil.
It all sounds great, to have a scent that smells stronger than the original and lasts longer to boot. The problem lies with the chemicals that are used to create it. If you were to ask a beard oil company for the ingredients that make their ‘toffee crumble pie’ beard oil / balm, they simply would not be able to tell you, because the fragrance or scent they use to make that oil does not come with an ingredient list. And the beard oil bottle will simply state ‘Fragrance’ or ‘Perfume’ on their ingredient list. Ultimately they do not know what is in their own product!
Facts
The Fact is some of these synthetic scents use up to 600 different chemicals to produce that scent, many of which are OFFICIALLY classed as hazardous waste in countries like the USA. And the real worrying part of this is the side effects that some of these chemicals can cause..
Environmental Working Group (EWG) researchers found more than 75 percent of products listing the ingredient “fragrance” contained phthalates (THAL-ates), which have been shown to disrupt hormone activity, reduce sperm counts, and cause reproductive malformation, and have been linked to liver and breast cancer, diabetes, and obesity.
NOW of course the scent of a product should only be the 1 or 2% of the product, so it is very small quantities that are being applied to hair and skin. But also remember, 60% of what you put onto your skin ( the largest organ on the body) is absorbed into the blood stream. So even though the product has a small percentage of ‘bad stuff’, 60% of it is going in your blood stream…. EVERY DAY! Think about that accumulating in your body!.
So what can you do ?
Match Making
To be honest if your buying a product purely for its scent your doing it wrong. You should always make sure the product has the correct balance of base oils for your hair and skin type. Do your research and match your hair and skin type. Then choose the scent.
Read
Read the ingredients. If it says perfume or fragrance and doesn’t mention where it came from for example if it doesn’t say ‘Naturally Derived’ you know that there is a synthetic scent used. Some companies including ourselves sometimes use the term ‘fragrance (naturally derived)’ purely to stop the competition copying. We no longer do this, as with our new labelling we simply list all our essential oils used to make the scent. If the competition want to copy then that’s fine.
Double Check
There are a LOT, and we mean a LOT of companies, not only in the beard oil sector that like to throw about certain key words like ‘Natural’.
Natural is an extremely vague word, but when we read it we think of.. well natural, so we assume that the product is healthy and good for you. The truth is everything on planet earth was at some stage ‘natural’. Even the synthetic C**P was at some stage natural. It doesn’t make it any shape or form good for for you or….. Natural.
Summary.
Before you decide on Natural vs Synthetic Beard Products
Don’t be fooled. If they say its natural but it has synthetic scents, its far from natural. Yes it is only 1 or 2% of the product, and yes it is being used in a huge amount of products from shower gels, aftershave, washing up liquid etc, but you have taken a long time to grow and develop your mane, surely it deserves the very best 100% natural goodness..
And if you hadn’t guessed already Beard Juice Beard Oils only use 100% Natural Scents, Made with Organic Products, Cruelty Free and Vegan.
