How natural are Doc’s Skincare products?

The often-used terms “all-natural” and “natural” are not regulated by the USADA or the FDA like the label “organic”.  In the cosmetic and food industries, however, these terms imply at least a 95% by volume botanical/natural formulation (btw-“organic” per the USDA means 95% organic ingredients too); this is the standard supported by the Natural Products Association.  Rest assured that all Doc’s Skincare products have well more than 95% all-natural products.

When creating a shelf stable and reasonably priced product, a responsible natural and organic focused manufacturer has to balance the safety of shelf stability (an unstable product can expose users to unsafe bacteria and fungus as well as a product with reduced function) and a “natural” profile.  What’s more, the FDA demands that we produce unspoiled and shelf stable products.

Unfortunately, creating a shelf-stable and safe product requires the use of synthetic chemicals like phenoxyethanol and EDTA (read this article to understand why we use such chemicals and how they are perfectly safe).  Also, not that there is an abundance of “mis-information” about these ingredients on the internet.  Most importantly, they are NOT linked to cancer in ANY serious study.

A few resources to look into from the US National Library of Medicine:

1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12396676
2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26206148

You’ll notice in all of our ingredients lists (check those out here) that there is an abundance of healthy botanical and all-natural ingredients.  In specific formulations and circumstances, we use synthetic chemicals as “preservatives” and ONLY when they are needed to protect our customers from bacterial and fungal overgrowth or to keep a product stable.  We’ve gone through great lengths to avoid dangerous preservatives like parabens and sodium azide and have picked only the ones that have been proven safe by extensive in vivo scientific studies.

Our products are some of the most natural products available on the market.  In particular, Doc’s Natural Chamois Cream is THE most natural product of its kind on the market (AND the BEST by-the-way).  Due to the manner in which chamois creams have to be formulated, if someone wanted a chamois cream without ANY preservatives or with only purely botanical preservatives, it would have to be either made at home in small batches every few days because of shelf stability and expense (about a $60 tub of chamois cream) or by a “one-off” niche small-batch manufacturer (now it’s an $80 tub).  We’ve investigated this route thoroughly and we simply can’t provide our customers with a shelf stable or reasonably priced product that performs anywhere near the level of our current cream.