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Natural and naturally derived ingredients: what’s the difference?

Natural and naturally derived ingredients: what’s the difference?

Natural beauty products are more popular than ever, but with that comes a lot of confusion about just how natural some of these beauty products are. Clarity and education of our ingredients are hugely important to us and a fundamental part of Willowberry’s ethos, because we make our products with complete integrity and because we want our customers to feel informed and confident about what they are putting on their skin.

We are very proud that all Willowberry products are as natural as they can possibly be. All of our oil-based (anhydrous) products, such as oils and balms, contain 100% natural ingredients. All of our products containing water (such as lotions and creams) contain very high quantities of natural/naturally derived ingredients, plus safe, gentle preservatives, in minimal quantities.

Any products containing water (such as lotions and creams) require a preservative to be used, otherwise micro-organisms such as fungi and bacteria could grow in the cream and it wouldn’t be safe to use.

SO WHAT DO NATURAL AND NATURALLY DERIVED MEAN?
We refer to an ingredient as ‘natural’ when the ingredient has been used in its natural, raw state after being extracted from the plant source. For example, chia seeds are cold-pressed to extract the oil from the seeds; this chia seed oil is then used within our products.

We refer to an ingredient as ‘naturally derived’ when the natural ingredient is treated to access other properties of the natural raw material; for example, getting natural fatty acids and natural fatty alcohols from a coconut.

Naturally derived ingredients such as natural fatty acids and natural fatty alcohols are necessary to create certain elements of skincare products, such as emulsifiers and preservatives that are needed within a cream-based product. We think it’s pretty great that we can source these from nature, rather than creating them synthetically in a lab.

We could just call a naturally derived ingredient 'natural origin' and be done with it - but we want to be as clear as possible, so that you can have 100% confidence in our products.

If you want to delve deeper into our ingredients, we explain every single one on our Product Ingredients page. And if you like what you see, you can check out our complete range of Willowberry skincare in our online shop.

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