4 Common Misconceptions About Natural Ingredients

For Allure, by Elizabeth Siegel.

Photo: Con Poulos

Here, experts dispel four of the most common misconceptions about natural ingredients.

You can break out the blender to make your own face cream. Technically you can, but anti-aging skin care is more scientific than mixing avocado and olive oil together. Many active ingredients come from unripe plants or parts of the plant you don't eat, like seeds, roots, and stems, says cosmetic chemist Ni'Kita Wilson.

Citrus brightens up skin with vitamin C. Iffy. Several types of vitamin C are used in skin care, but the one you want is L-ascorbic acid. "It's easier to make in a lab than to extract from fruit," says Wilson. "You can't be sure it'll be effective if it's natural."

Superfoods (hi, kale!) are as good for your complexion as they are for your body. Nope, sorry. Your skin doesn't absorb nutrients the way your stomach does. "Your digestive tract breaks down foods and metabolizes them. Your skin doesn't," says cosmetic chemist Randy Schueller. "Otherwise, you could stick pizza on your arm and be full."

Fruit stem cells can kick-start your skin's own stem cells to get rid of wrinkles. Comparing apples and skin is like comparing apples and oranges. "Fruit stem cells have no bearing whatsoever on stem cells that exist naturally in our skin," says Schueller. "The two act in totally different ways. And if we could modulate our stem cells to grow new skin, it'd be a huge deal." In other words: No one would ever age.

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