The Chemist.

So, you see this product from your favorite Instagram vendor and it claims to be a natural organic product and you buy it because, I mean natural, organic and “has no chemicals” would sound like safe, right?     

I get really confused when people come marketing their homemade-now-commercially-sold skincare products to me saying “it’s organic” or “it’s natural” another famous claim is “there are no chemicals in this one”.

But, the question is, what really is organic, what is natural? Do these terms even mean safe? Is it possible to have a product that’s chemical free?

When people (read: Nigerians) say organic products, I make a silly joke in my head about Carbon and Hydrogen compounds but I doubt that’s what they mean, I also doubt they know what they mean.

The term “organic” means that the ingredients used in a product must have been grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, Genetically Modified Organisms or ionizing radiation. If animal products, the animal wouldn’t have been given antibiotics or any growth hormones.

Before a product can be certified “organic”, an approved certifier inspects the farm where the plant is grown to make sure the farmer meets all the necessary standards.

So, who certified your product “organic” lmao.

Does the term organic even mean safe?

Sometimes no. I mean, it depends on a lot of factors.

An Ingredients source doesn’t determine its safety, because it could be organically grown but still be toxic or allergenic. The term “organic” is merely a marketing claim it says nothing at all about the formulation ethics et al.

Does organic mean natural?

This is really simple.

No.

Organic doesn’t mean natural.

Many people believe that natural products are better for their skin and there’s currently no scientific evidence to back that up. A lot of companies add one or two “natural” ingredients and brand a product “natural” and said product ends up being bad for your skin. Worse still, there’s no body that regulates these claims, which means in reality, anyone can stick “Natural” on their product.

And because a product contains synthetic ingredients doesn’t make it bad.

Let’s note that I’m not saying that there are no natural products that are good for the skin, but, seeing a product as safe or effective just because of the tag “natural” can be very misleading, especially with the rise of Instagram Skincare vendors.

In my opinion, natural would mean anything occurring in nature; Iron, air, water, plants, sand…the list goes on.

When next someone gives you a lotion with the claim natural, think twice, ask questions.

Very related to this, I wanted to try out a formulation and I needed lecithin, I met a vendor who asked me to use egg yolks for it because “it’s a natural alternative”.

Ugggh.

Another point here is that, Natural products might not be as effective as their synthetic counterparts, because the latter are modified to function even better, last longer and withstand many environmental factors.

Also, there is no product that doesn’t contain chemicals. I know the word chemicals sounds scary but a chemical is any substance that consists of matter in solid, liquid or gas form. There are natural occurring and Artificially made chemicals. This means that your favs, water and air are also chemicals so would you run away from them too? What you should stay away from is harmful/toxic chemicals that would harm your skin like Lead, Formaldehydes, mercury, Chloroform and many more.

You can check the FDAs list of prohibited cosmetic ingredients if you want to be thorough.

I’m almost sure you didn’t know this, you are welcome.

Considering the Tagline for this blog you might have guessed this would be the first post.

If you did, congratulations, if you didn’t, well, congratulations too because you’re here to learn.

We have all heard of lemons and how they claim to be all healing, I mean if you have a heart attack just rub some lemon on it.

I recently saw a blog post titled “10 uses for lemons for your hair, skin, nails and more” I would expect the more would cover for the Heart Attack I mentioned earlier.

So, Lemons smell nice and to be honest, are pretty cheap but how effective and safe is it to use lemons on your skin as opposed to a proper formulated product with the similar properties of a lemon.

Let’s dive right into the science behind this.

Lemon Juice contains a lot of ingredients which are very famous for their good deeds at the moment;

• Vitamin C in the form of Ascorbic Acid, it evens out hyperpigmentation, increases collagen and is a powerful antioxidant, fighting free radicals and claims to reverse/reduce photoaging.
• Citric Acid, which is an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA). They’re great for exfoliating your skin and making it look smoother.
• Niacin (Vitamin B3) is anti-inflammatory, helps with pigmentation and alleviates dry skin too.

If Lemon has all these great acids and vitamins, then why could it possibly be bad for your skin?

With Skincare products, It’s not enough to have “active” ingredients, you must have “active” ingredients in the right proportion. Also, because Lemons are fruits the amount of these ingredients vary from lemon to lemon, which means you never actually get the same amount of Ascorbic acid or Niacin.

The same way a ripe banana differs from an unripe one and an overly ripe one is the same way lemons differ from each other depending on their stage and this is because the chemical composition differs per stage. This would mean that you will never get to accurately replicate a formula.

Let’s see the amount of these ingredients in lemon juice vs. regular skincare serums

	Typical Lemon Juice	Regular Skincare Serum
Ascorbic Acid	0.04%	15%
AHA Content	5%	2-15%
Niacin	0.0001%	2-10%

In reality, you are only getting a decent amount of Citric acid from slathering lemon juice on your face.

Is it really worth the trouble?

Is it in fact safe?

This is a more important question than its effectiveness in my opinion, unfortunately, the answer is No.

If life gives you lemons, make a cold glass of lemonade not a Lemon Juice Toner.

There are many other chemicals in Lemons which are harmful to your skin and because you are using the whole lemon you will also have these other chemicals on your face too.

Lemon Peels (Citrus peels) contain furanocoumarins and psolarens which may not harm you in the shade but once in contact with sunlight they cause nasty blistering burns, this is called phytophotodermatitis but I’m sure you’re not here for big words.

Also DIY Lemon Juice or Toners or whatever have been linked to Chemical Leukoderma which basically means that you end up with uneven lightened patches on your skin and I’m sure that’s not what being a cheetah girl means.

Let’s not leave Lemon’s low PH value out of this, it’s highly acidic at around 2.0 (it could be lower depending on how ripe the lemon is) and can cause a chemical burn which may lead to permanent damage over time. It would disrupt the natural PH of your acid mantle, potentially causing skin irritation, hyperpigmentation and making your skin really sensitive to the sun.

The worst part of this is that most of these things mentioned here would be really hard to get rid of. Pure Lemon can potentially wreak havoc on your skin. If you need to get all the Vitamin C, B3 and AHA value on your skin, stick to properly formulated products that are designed for and tested on skin.   

So, next time your favorite YouTube Vlogger comes up with a DIY lemon Juice Toner for whatever reason and you think you may want to try it, kindly dead that thought.