What Does "Natural" really means in US skin care products?

The word "Natural" is simply misleading and can be used by any company simply to promote the product. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn't not regulate the word “Natural” on cosmetics and Skin care products. It is Buyer Beware market. Terms like "natural," "earth-friendly" and "nontoxic" are also not regulated, and companies are able to use these terms at will. It is up to the consumer to differentiate marketing from reality by refusing to buy products that use misleading claims.

If you see a product that is labeled as natural it means some of the ingredients come from plant. If it is labeled as “100 % natural” it means all the ingredients come from the plant. I want to make it very clear it doesn't mean it is 100% safe.

" Tree of Life" -Shea Tree

Botanical name: Vitellaria paradoxa (formerly Butyrospermum parkii)
Family: Sapotaceae family.
Life Span:200-300 years
Height: 40-45 ft
Uses:

1. The Shea (Karite) tree begins to bear fruit after about 15 years; and can take up to 30 years to bear a quality crop of nuts with a high content of irremovable fatty acid. It is this irremovable fatty acid that gives Shea Butter its unique healing properties and makes it far superior to cocoa butter and other vegetable butters.
2. It can survive on a minimal annual rainfall of about 400-500 mm, temperatures of about 30 degrees Celsius to 45 degrees Celsius, and relative humidity of less than 10 %.

Shea Butter Types (Butyrospermum parkii)

Unrefined Shea Butter:

Source: Unrefined Shea Butter

Extraction:It is extracted naturally without the use of any chemicals or additives. It is the pure form and its properties are unaltered.
Touch/Feel:It has a very soft feel and creamy in texture.
Color:It varies in color depending upon the nut. It ranges from ivory white to Light yellow color.
Smell: Mild nutty and fades away in few minutes once it is applied to the hair/skin.
Usage/Properties: It is the more pure form and has both healing and moisturizing properties.It is even used on babies on some African countries.The moisturizing effect on the skin can stay even after  12-15 hours. ( I have personally tested on my hair, It is amazing. How I used on my hair deserves another blog posts)

Give me a Guilt free Product

Hello Beautiful,

First of all I want to make it clear, I am not against the use of cosmetics but against the use of chemicals in my cosmetics.Quite lately I have been reading about the US cosmetic industry. Do you know there is no regulation for Cosmetic Industry?The reason is Cosmetic industry is 30 Billion dollars in US market.

The FDA is a regulatory authority which monitors the Cosmetics products .Basically, if a Cosmetic company abide by the ingredients that is listed in United States by FDA, it can manufacture any product it wants to. The consumer is the scapegoat here. Unless and until a consumer reports there is a problem in the product, the cosmetic industry can keep on selling the product.But how I can find that cancer is caused by the Lipstick that I have been using for 5 years? From baby products to Lipsticks that we use in day to day of our life, there are chemicals that is used in our cosmetics that are carcinogens.Over 85-90% of the cosmetics that we use contains Paraben.

Shea Origin

The Karite tree (Shea tree) grows only in Africa. This unique tree grows uncultivated in 19 contiguous nations. This region is referred to by some as the Shea Belt and spans some 3,000 miles from Senegal in the west into the foothills of the Ethiopian highlands in the east. This area lies between the Sahara desert to the north and the African rain forest to the south.
(source: United Nations FOA)

Shea Location

The shea tree grows naturally in the wild in the dry savannah belt of West Africa from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east, and onto the foothills of the Ethiopian highlands. It occurs in 19 countries across the African continent, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad,Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Guinea.

Source : Wikipedia