I read recently that the most natural emulsifier is the instruction to "Shake Well"!
That got me thinking that most people don't know how natural products are different from harmful, chemical laden crap, and how to make the most of natural ingredients for the health of you body, mind and wallet.
Here's the short answer
Natural products are made with nourishing ingredients that your body loves - but so do microbes.
Every other product is made with dead ingredients that don't nourish you or microbes - they're stable and useless! You can see the value of real ingredients I use by reading through the DIY items I offer here: http://www.anarreshealth.ca/catalog/10/diy_supplies
Natural products assume that 50-80% of what goes ON your body will go IN your body - so EVERY ingredient must be safe - having a long history of safe use. Ingredients that keep everything mixed nicely, kill germs and make a mixture stable over long periods of time will probably do the same thing to you once they get inside your body. Please check that any ingredient or product you are using is in the safe zone at The Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com
Natural grade (not cosmetic grade) oils and waxes are absorbed into the skin, providing medicinal and cosmetic value - healing, regenerating and nourishing tissues. Petroleum oils and waxes are carcinogenic, non nourishing, dry out and clog your skin. Mineral oil, baby oil and paraffin are calculated euphemisms for petroleum by-products. The trade off is that natural grade ingredients can also nourish microbes, so they must be manufactured carefully, packaged intelligently and used fresh.
Keep products fresh by looking to nature for its perfectly designed solutions - use in its prime, use essential oils that kill microbes, use natural (not synthesized) antioxidants like real vitamin E and grapefruit seed extract, and ingredients that create an inhospitable environment for microbes ("hurdle technology") like certain salts and citric acid. There are NO chemical synthesized preservatives on the market that are proven to be safe. In addition to the methods described above, I sterilize all instruments with medical grade alcohol and heat, keep my ingredients fresh and in in cool, dark places, and package in glass and metal, using pumps whenever possible.
Stir, shake well and use fresh!!! My popular deodorant MUST be stirred because the vegetable glycerine carrying the essential oil blend will separate from the natural soda and corn starch base. If I added ingredients to keep these from separating, these ingredients would do the same thing in your body - not good! Likewise, my lotions can separate with time, heating, cooling and humidity changes. To "stabilize" the lotions, I'd have to use unwanted chemicals and dead ingredients. So shake shake shake and remember that you can always exchange a product that's not working the way it should.
Stay tuned as I update my thoughts on this page...