By Mike Smiley, founder MS Naturals, LLC

With more and more skincare enthusiasts vying to go ‘earth friendly’, organic and vegan products are more popular than ever.

 However, natural skincare is not something new. A holistic approach to beauty has been around for decades. Many skincare addicts like us have been on the natural and organic soap box since the 80s as we talk about the healing properties of simple, inexpensive household products like  apple cider vinegar and coconut oil, for example.

 Unfortunately, as the natural and organic beauty sector grows, the ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ tag is becoming more and more desirable with health conscious shoppers.

 But like “fat free” “low fat” “sugar free” etc, as sellers of skin care products adopt these ‘natural’ tag, it can become abused, too. So, how can you be sure of which natural skincare products will work, and which brands to trust?

The Science of Natural and Organic Skincare

Your body inherently knows the difference between organic and non-organic substances. It can decipher what is a ‘natural’ product by the molecules in it.

Think of your taste buds. Do you think you can you tell the difference between corn flakes and card board flakes even with your eyes closed? Same with your skin cells. They know. That’s not to say you can’t put chemicals on your skin to get an effect. But the artificial chemicals can’t be used by your skin cells to repair and heal themselves any more than card board flakes can be used to nourish your body.

 There are some notable exceptions though. Your body absorbs and uses different molecules in different ways. This means that whether you’re using a salicyclic acid that was formulated in a lab or using a salicylic acid which was found in nature, the results remain the same.

Get to Know Your Skincare Products

While the science above is very important, many people still choose to go ‘natural’ due to ethical reasons or due to a distrust of the big beauty corporations.

This is perfectly fine and understandable. That’s exactly how My Skin’s Friend was born. My wife and I have been in the natural and organic camp since the 1980s when we both realized that what we put into and onto our bodies affected our overall health. We were on the leading edge of healthy eating and fitness long before everyone else.

I was in Whole Foods shopping for a clean lotion during one winter. I picked up one bottle after another that had clean sounding names and pictures of avocados, almonds, apples and other wholesome looking fruits and vegetables thinking the product was made from them.

Without fail, when I read the ingredient list, it was full of chemicals with the food product pictured prominently on the front listed as the very last ingredient—when mean it was only in there because by law, it had to be. There wasn’t enough of it to make any difference at all in the formulation.

I got frustrated and left empty handed and as I was walking to my care I was thinking, “why can a company make truly organic products with real food instead of trying to fool people into thinking their chemicals concoctions were natural.” At that moment, my brain responded with “why not you?

I dismissed the idea but it kept nagging me until finally I paid a visit to a person I knew who was an expert in formulating organic skin and hair care products. Beyond that, he actually made each product from scratch starting with whole, fresh, organic foods.

 That was in 2014 and we’ve launched My Skin’s Friend to fill that gap I never seemed to be able to fill before. What it does mean, however, is that you need to get to know your skincare a little better. And whatever you see on the label is what is inside the bottle or jar. We start every batch from scratch with whole, fresh, organic foods. They are truly the cleanest and most effective organics you can buy.

THE Top Natural Skincare Ingredient

Some of the most effective, scientifically-proven ingredients in beauty products are naturally sourced. This means that if you do want to try out a natural skincare routine, there are plenty of different solutions for different skin types. But there’s one that stands out above them all.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C has been, without a doubt, one of the biggest beauty breakout stars of the past few years. In fact, if you’re not using some sort of vitamin C product, then we urge you to do so straight away.

My Skin’s Friend Vitamin C serum is one of the very few that uses real ascorbic acid—which is an antioxidant. It helps to brighten, smoothen, and tighten skin by promoting healthy collagen production and skin-cell renewal.

Vitamin C is found in many natural products, such as citrus oils, pomegranate seeds, and seaweed. You can even make topical vitamin c at home. The problem is that vitamin c goes bad very quickly so if you decide to try your hand at making it yourself, be sure an throw it out after three days.

So how does My Skin’s Friend Vitamin C Serum last up to two years?

Ascorbic acid is a very unstable molecule and that’s why most Vitamin C Serums on the market use something called M.A.P. (Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate) or S.A.P. (Sodium Ascorbyl Phoshate).

The makers of these products bind the ascorbic acid and magnesium (or sodium) molecules together to keep the ascorbic acid molecule from oxidizing. This gives it a long shelf life. The only problem with this method is that your skin does not contain any “digestive” enzymes required to break these two apart so it just sits on your skin.

Our formula is quite ingenious. We use a special process to encapsulate our ascorbic acid molecule inside a plant fat cell. The process is called microencapsulation. You can discover more about the actual process by Googling it.

It effectively coats the vitamin c cell to keep it from oxidizing while still in the bottle. That’s anoher way we protect it until you apply it. Instead of putting into a cheap dropper bottle like everyone else does, we bottle ours in an expensive air and light resistant pump to keep it fresh for up to two years.

The genius behind the microencapsulation is that once you apply it to your skin, that protective fat capsule releases the vitamin c molecule and actually assists it in getting into your skin cells. Both are bio-available to your skin cells.

But wait . . . there’s more.

Like all My Skin’s Friend products, we like to over deliver. To our organic Vitamin C serum we also add raw, unpasteurized kombucha. Why? Because our skin needs to maintain a ph of about 7 because we all have a protective bacteria barrier that prevents bacteria from getting into our cells and causing white heads, black heads and pimples.

This raw kombucha (which we also make ourselves from scratch because the commercial brands were not effective) helps restore that bacteria barrier that soaps and other things can destroy.

We also ad humectants and other nutrients. You can get the whole story of this amazing anti-aging formula here.

Investing in organic skin and hair care is a good investment not only in the way you look but the way you feel too. Long term health issues may be reduced or even eliminated by removing offending chemicals that are most likely sneaking into your body in the processed foods you are eating and the chemical-laden products you are putting on your skin.

Our goal is to give men and women worldwide a choice as to what they put onto their bodies. We think there are other organic fanatics like us and we’re here to serve them.