Tuesday 29 October 2019

What does Natural mean to me @ Dhanak

The word natural has many different perspectives. Each individual understands natural personal care, sustainable living and eco-friendly differently. In my journey of exploring eco-entrepreneur, I have explored what does natural products at Dhanak mean to me.

There are many degrees of natural products. Either you can use plant-derived materials or direct plant materials. Either you can use natural, safe chemical preservatives or you can use no preservatives. Chemicals are not bad, water is after all a chemical compound. However, some chemicals are harmful to us and that why we need to move away from those ones. For example, Sodium Laureth Sulphate(SLS) is a very harsh chemical that not only stirps our hair/skin from its natural oils but has been linked to diseases like cancer. Not all ingredients are bad but there are some that we need to watch out for in the ingredient list. That's why is very important that whatever product you use, read the label, research about the ingredients and know what you are using. There few harmful chemicals have led me to switch to natural personal care.

There are different shades of natural ingredients. Broadly can be categorized as

1. Purely Natural: 100% Natural denotes only ingredients that are purely derived by botanicals with minimum processing (only powdering, drying, or extracting through heat mechanisms). Ex: Shikakai powder, essential oils, kokum butter)
2. Naturally derived: Naturally derived denotes that the ingredients have been sourced from botanicals but have gone through a chemical process to get them to the state they are in. They may or may not use preservatives, maybe chemically altered, and artificially colored. Example: Commercial Aloe Vera Gel, Vitamin E Capsules
3. Natural identical: Pure synthetic preparations where the end product resembles what may be naturally occurring on Earth. Example: Flavour oils, Citric Acid Powder
4. Chemical / Synthetic: Purely synthetic ingredients which may not have anything like it resembling in nature. Example: SLS in soap, Artificial Fragrance

Every ingredient, in all the 4 categories have its benefits, has its uses and properties. There is no right or wrong, no black and white when it comes to natural ingredients or Natural products.
I personally in my own life and at Dhanak want to create products that fall in the first category. I want to use Nature in its pure form for my formulations. This has its limitations but my values are very important to me.
I deeply also believe in Natural Beauty. Everyone is beautiful/handsome just the way they are. Whatever colour/size/shape, whatever lines/spots/styles are there in the body are perfect. My products also reflect that. I want to create natural products that will care for the body and support the body, keeping its natural beauty. Of course, Natural personal care also is in harmony with nature because you are not hurting the planet by using the products or making the products.

Of course, I am not perfect, I make mistakes, I make compromises, I experiment and am on the journey of understanding the world of natural personal care!




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