What is “natural”?

What is “natural”?

“Natural” is an increasingly trending skincare claim that has been around for quite a while. But what exactly does it mean?

The problem begins with the fact that there is no single definition so far to strictly describe what the term natural means and what it can imply as a product claim.

Trying to describe the term natural can be complicated. A very broad definition for natural ingredients is the ones that can be found in nature. So everything that exists around us, human made or not, can be described as natural.

It is also quite common to describe the term natural as the opposite of chemical. However, all things, whether they occur naturally or are synthesized in a lab, are composed of either chemical elements or mixtures of them. Even the chemical elements themselves are composed of smaller entities called atoms. Consequently, everything is a chemical.

A natural ingredient can be an ingredient (animal, plant, mineral) that is added as is in a formulation while its chemical properties do not change intentionally. This is the strictest definition and the “most natural”.

There are also ingredients that are found in nature but undergo chemical processes before they can be used in formulation. These are the naturally-derived ingredients. When it comes to skincare products, most of the ingredients go through some kind of processing before they are added into a product. This means that usually the term natural refers to naturally-derived ingredients.

Chemistry allows us to produce synthetic ingredients that exactly match the chemical structure of  ingredients occuring in nature. These are the nature-identical ingredients.

Vitamin C for example, is an ingredient that is used widely, not only in skincare. We can obtain it naturally by extraction or industrially with synthesis from glucose. Both of these ingredients would have exactly the same chemical structure. Without a certification from the ingredient’s supplier it is impossible to distinguish the naturally occurring from the synthetically produced ingredient. 

The debate on whether all these categories can be defined as natural or not is ongoing. But we can all agree that when we refer to natural ingredients we do not necessarily all mean the same thing.