The skin is our largest organ, and what we put on it is as important to our good health as what we eat. Natural beauty products are non-toxic, natural, biodegradable and cruelty-free. They're made from ingredients such as avocados, grapeseeds, jojobas, safflowers, sunflowers and wheat germ - ingredients that would make a healthful addition to our diets as well as our skin care.

Indeed, beauty experts agree that healthy, beautiful skin is the result of a healthy lifestyle including a nutrient-rich diet, regular exercise and a daily regime of natural skin care and protection. For example, natural skin lotions which contain jojoba, sunflower or borage oils are light, refreshing and can provide the skin with nutrients.

Environmental Reasons

Natural cosmetics are also better for the environment than petroleum-based products, which are made with highly refined chemicals that don't always easily biodegrade. Better yet, natural cosmetics are frequently cruelty-free, which generally means their formulations contain no animal ingredients and that their components haven't been tested on animals for at least three to five years.

Animal Testing

Many conventional manufacturers continue to test every ingredient and formulation on animals even though non-animal tests often are just as effective and cost one-tenth as much, an average of about $50,000 per product compared to $500,000 for animal testing, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in Washington, DC. An estimated 14 million animals suffer and die every year in the United States to test the safety of cosmetics and household products.

Harmful Ingredients

Another fact to consider is toxic ingredients such as FD&C dyes used in hair products which can endanger your health. One recent study found that women who use synthetic hair dyes had a 50 percent greater chance of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma than women who had never dyed their hair. Indeed, many synthetic ingredients found in conventional personal care products raise health concerns because they may actually harm the skin and contribute to environmental sensitivities and other illnesses. For example, researchers found that multiple myeloma, a malignant tumor of the bone marrow, occurred at four times the rate of the general population in the 58,000 hairdressers, manicurists and cosmetologists they studied.

In the bigger picture, it's important to realize that every dollar you spend is a vote for the kind of world you want to live in. The money you spend on natural cosmetics supports cruelty-free practices and the development of the herbal industry rather then the development of the petro-chemical industry. "The natural substances used in the natural cosmetics industry are sustainable and support sustainable agriculture," notes Rob McCaleb, president, Herb Research Foundation, Boulder, Colo. "And they're probably better for your skin and hair as well."