Why a beauty fridge?

On Tuesday, as mentioned before, SLOWFASHIONhouse.com held a press event in Stockholm. The theme was organic beauty —  one of the key issues, when talking about clean skin and no nasties, is preservatives.

Traditionally, the preservatives used in cosmetics are from the group known as parabens, which is a common term for ethyl-, methyl-, propyl- and isopropyl-, butyl- and isobutylparaben (in order from the simplest to the most complex).

The purpose of preservatives is to prevent the growth of microorganisms in the products. Microorganisms can obviously be a health risk, sometimes serious, but even ‘harmless’ ones can cause degradation of the ingredients and reduce their durability and quality, simply by growing in them. Parabens are environmentally harmless as far as we know, less allergenic than other known preservatives — this is very well documented — and because each one works differently, a combination of them is often used to protect against microorganisms.

In the recent years there has been much debate about parabens because of suspected hormonal activity, especially for the more complex ones. However, recent research indicates that ethyl- and methylparabens are probably unproblematic.

Helle Forum told us: "Whenever you have a cosmetic product containing water, you need preservation. And, since the focus is often on parabens: if we do not want parabens in our cosmetic products, we as consumers must be able to identify what was used instead if a product is "free from parabens" — as the need for preservation is still there.

And talking about allergy risks: you have to realize that the risk may be greater if there are higher amounts of one single preservative as opposed to small concentrations of several different ones.

These matters are very complex. So I would appeal to you as a consumer to decide if you can rely on your supplier — whether you want to go to the source and evaluate the cosmetic industry yourself or you want to leave the evaluation in the hands of a shop or an adviser you trust.

My recommendation is that if you decide it is important to you to avoid parabens, please examine what has been used instead — and please be aware that choosing different/milder/other forms of preservation than parabens will demand something of you, too: keep your skin care products and cosmetics cool (in the fridge), do not put your fingers into the jar - and remember to finish one product of each type before you move on to a new purchase, as the product’s "life after opening" is shorter."

If you have questions about the preservatives in any of the products you find in the SLOWFASHIONhouse bathroom, or on how to decide for or against parabens, you are very welcome to ask.