“Mirror, mirror on the wall” is a daily quest of people who are willing to try tons of cosmetics in order to become the “the fairest of them all.” But cosmetics may cause damage that they don't imagine. At least one in eight of the 82,000 ingredients used in personal care products are industrial chemicals, including carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins and hormone disruptors, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an international non-profit environmental health research and advocacy organisation. Reading the above, one young Egyptian science teacher decided to “go natural” instead and turn everyday soap into a beauty treat. The result, Body Bakes, is the brain child of 26-year-old Rana Hassan. A pharmacist and a science teacher, Hassan has always been inclined to nature. In December 2013, she created her company to make soap that is not only natural, but also comes in the shapes and scents of patisseries and other goodies. The products may be customised for special occasions as well. “We take care of the details,” said the founder of the company. Around the same time, Healing Herbs, another environmentally aware cosmetics company was founded. Economics graduate Rasha Al-Miligi was attracted to a “back to nature” lifestyle, and she took a natural cosmetics course in France which fired her imagination. She met pharmacy graduate Iman Al-Hindi, and the two women teamed up to produce natural skin care products. The girls test the products on themselves and then let friends try them. “Our products are natural, easy to use, and have attractive textures and colours,” said Al-Miligi. She criticised some commercial brands, saying that they had long expiry dates, meaning that “the longer the expiry date, the less natural the product is.” According to the company's founders, many people buy lipsticks, lotions and conditioners without being aware of their possible effects on health. Taking a simple glance at the ingredients of allegedly natural cosmetics could expose the problem. One study by the David Suzuki Foundation, which is recipient of UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for Science and the United Nations Environment Programme Medal and in 2009 won the Right Livelihood Award that is considered an “alternative Nobel Prize,” has listed 12 dangerous toxins used in everyday cosmetics, some of them using as many as seven of them. Shockingly, the top four products listed in the study were those manufactured by a company that takes pride in being “natural”. Mona Al-Erian, owner of Nefertari, Egypt's first natural cosmetics company, agrees that there is a problem, and she condemns well-known cosmetics brands that claim to be natural but in fact use artificial ingredients. “The effects can appear slowly over a long time, so many people never realise there is a problem,” Al-Erian said. She started Nefertari over ten years ago “from the kitchen of my home,” Al-Erian said, the idea coming from her daughter's allergic reaction to a shampoo. Being a pharmacist herself, Al-Erian looked for a shampoo made completely out of natural ingredients, only to find that all the products on the Egyptian market were synthetic and full of potentially harmful ingredients. That is when she decided to take matters into her own hands and initiate the move towards nature. Having reached 529 completely natural products, Nefertari is now also launching a campaign to raise awareness against plastic in children's toys. “They contain phthalates, substances added to plastics to increase their flexibility, which have caused cancer in animals they were tested on.” “What's the use of putting preservatives in natural oil? This makes the oil non-natural. Too many people follow the logic that if something is manufactured abroad it must be better, which is not at all the case,” Al-Erian said. The writer is a freelance journalist.
