Food for Thought: The Dangers of DIY Skincare with Edible Ingredients

If you've been seeing Skincare Tiktoks, marketing and products left right and centre touting the benefits of natural ingredients like Honey, Avocado or Aloe Vera, you're not alone! However, before you head to the kitchen to make yourself a natural face mask, read on to understand why it may not be the best idea.

Don't natural ingredients have benefits to the skin?

Well yes, but it takes a lot of work to make them useful to the skin. Our skin's number one job (and the one it's very good at) is to keep things out to protect us. Skincare formulators have to work hard to break ingredients down into tiny molecules that can bypass this barrier and be absorbed into the skin. By selecting specific extracts and pairing them with a delivery system such as encapsulation, it allows the beneficial compounds to bypass the gate that is our skin.

Think of it like this: For an ingredient to enter the skin, it has to get to the bottom of a pinball machine. Natural, whole ingredients like honey or mashed avocado sitting on the surface is like playing pinball with a basketball. It's just too big and it'll never reach the bottom. However if you extract that ingredient and refine it to just its essential components, then you're playing pinball with a marble and it'll pass through the gate at the bottom. 

But my skin feels great after make my own masks!

Most definitely, as any product like Banana, Honey or Avocado that is high in oils, , water and sugar will trap moisture and superficially hydrate the surface of the skin - leading to a temporarily softer and smoother appearance. Superficially is the key word however, as these ingredients are not going to be absorbed past the very outermost dead skin cells and be able to make a difference to the way your skin functions or behaves. 

Food based skincare can range from unoffensive but ineffective like Honey and Avocado to dangerous like Lemon Juice, Apple Cider Vinegar or Baking Soda which can cause allergic and phototoxic reactions. Chemists who create skincare study extensively to understand how the skin functions and how to create products that are both safe and beneficial to your body's largest organ. Nowadays with such a diverse market, there are products available for any preferences including all-naturally derived or low cost. 

Therefore, when the benefits are minimal and the risk for allergy and irritation are high, it's best to keep food in the kitchen and off the face. 

For help understanding your skin and it's needs, book a free online or in person consultation with our expert skin therapists today!