The first thing you will find when you look for any natural organic cosmetic is that there are lots of them. In order to compare, you may start looking at the ingredients. When you do, you may see that some contain unnatural chemicals, waxes and other potentially harmful substances. Most are not hypo-allergenic and some are just irritating.

Let’s just start with buffers and exfoliation creams. Whether they contain wax pearls, sea salt, sodium bicarbonate or some other abrasive, they are designed to scrub off dead skin cells. The downside is that they typically cause redness and can just as easily scrape of healthy ones.

Gentle cleansing is all that is needed on a daily basis. A natural organic cosmetic mask containing mineral clay may be used once a week to provide a deeper cleansing. Particularly, as you get older, daily scrubbing is not a good idea. Your skin starts to thin with age and is more easily damaged.

One company advertises that they offer a "truly" natural organic cosmetic that is free of parabens. That’s great, but they also sell a complete line of sunscreens and include SPF in many of their products meant for daily use.

There is much controversy surrounding the over-use and over reliance on sunburn protection factors (SPF) as a cancer preventative. Many studies have shown that there is a link between SPF sunscreens and melanoma, the most life threatening form of skin cancer. Plus, SPFs are chemical ingredients. How can they say that is a natural organic cosmetic?

The Attorney General of California recently filed a lawsuit against manufacturers of natural organic cosmetic and body care products, because they have been found to contain dioxane. Although the chemical is not listed as such in other areas of the country, in California, it is considered a known carcinogen. In other words, it causes cancer.

It is a common pollutant found in groundwater and practically everywhere. The reason it could be present in some herbal or botanical products would have to do with improper cleaning, filtering and/or purifying.

In the United States, the natural organic cosmetic industry is not properly regulated, because a company can use the wording on its name or label without being certified by the USDA National Organic Program. In other words, it is up to you, the consumer to read the label and protect yourself.

Some of the biggest offenders are anti-aging creams because they commonly include animal collagen fibers derived from dead cows. No matter what anyone says, you cannot call that natural or organic.

It is not even effective, but it sells well, so they keep using it. People think that it will work like collagen-injections, because they only recognize the word and do not understand that the injections work by fattening the lowest layer of skin and "stretching" out wrinkles.

There is a truly natural organic cosmetic that soothes, protects and nourishes. The company uses only vegetable oils and botanicals, except for one ingredient that is derived from sheep’s wool, raised by ranchers who know the importance of avoiding the use of pesticides and herbicides. It’s worth you time to look for that one.