The importance of natural ingredients for your skin

With many industries moving towards clean living and sustainability, should you be shopping more consciously when it comes to men’s skincare?

Whether we’re buying food, clothing, cleaning products or skincare, the terms natural, organic, vegan and clean are all commonly used by consumers nowadays. It can be difficult to spot the difference or be sure which brands are delivering what they promise on the label, but one thing is clear - a shift towards more conscious and ethical skincare buying habits is afoot. 

Trying to define each of these relatively new categories is complex. But what we are noticing from discussions with our customers at James + Jake is an interest in finding and using skincare that contains fewer chemicals, synthetic and man made ingredients or artificial fragrance. So why is the trend on the rise and what are the benefits of a more natural product? Here’s the truth about natural ingredients and your skin.

Natural, organic and synthetic - spotting the difference in skincare

There is no technical definition by the cosmetics industry for natural skincare products. But fortunately the ingredients that nourish your body naturally are more common in men’s skincare products than you might think. A natural ingredient is most often plant-based and you should be able to spot many of them on the bottle or jar when reading the labels. They include components such as fruit oils, aloe, or shea butter. However, be cautious when you see these ingredients before assuming they’re all-natural. It’s not uncommon for the plant element to be poor quality, included in super low doses or diluted with other chemicals, which ultimately makes the products more cost-effective to produce. 

In the absence of any official stamp of approval, you’ll need to get good at reading and understanding the labels on products if you want to be sure there is a good proportion of natural ingredients. It is an offense for any UK company to make a claim that a skincare product is 100% natural on its packaging, unless that is true. But there are ways you can be confident the contents of your purchase are derived from plant-based sources or natural ingredients. When it comes to organic skincare products, look out for a stamp or statement from the Soil Association (now merging with COSMOS), which shows the ingredients have been sourced from nature without the use of any pesticides. You can also look for clear definitions in the ingredients list, too. If you don’t recognise anything or the names look too scientific to even pronounce, you might want to ask some more questions before making your purchase. 

When it comes to natural or organic skincare products, it’s just as important to find out what is not included. At James + Jake, our biggest issue when it comes to synthetic products is fragrance. In our experience, it can dry and irritate the skin and only serves to make a skincare product smell nice, without adding any health or aesthetic benefit to your skin. Fine for cologne, fine if you occasionally enjoy using a body spray, and totally fine for date night. But unnecessary - and usually unnatural - when it comes to creams, lotions and moisturisers that your skin will absorb. 

You’ve probably already gone natural 

Did you know that men’s skincare products made using natural ingredients are in fact hard to avoid? Although the consumer-driven trend to increase the natural components within a skincare product is undeniable, they’ve actually been used in many of our products all along. Take argan oil, lavender, green tea, rosehip oil, lemon and ginger for example - do they ring a bell when you’re buying skincare products? If the answer is yes, it’s probably because many products use a proportion of natural products to add vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that give your skin the nourishment it needs. Shea butter is one of the core ingredients in James + Jake’s Calming Post Shave Cream. This natural butter is extracted from the nuts that grow on the Shea tree, most commonly found in Africa. It’s known to sooth, hydrate and reduce inflammation, making it a fantastic natural ingredient to ease the redness or irritation that follows shaving, and makes an appearance in many a skincare product.    

Quantity as well as quality 

Once you’ve got the hang of scanning your ingredients lists to see what is in your products, next it’s a good idea to consider how much has been included. After all, there’s not much point in buying a product because it has “vitamin C-rich mandarin rind” if only a trace amount exists in the bottle. 

All labels for skincare products that are manufactured and sold in the UK must list the ingredients in order of quantity inside. That means the ingredient with the greatest volume in the product should be first on the list and so on. The ingredients at the end of the list will have the least when it comes to quantity in the product. So you’ve probably figured out by now that it’s not enough to look at the quality of the ingredients you’re buying, you should focus on the quantity, too. If a brand is promising certain benefits thanks to a magical ingredient that’s at the end of the list on your packaging, chances are there’s very little volume actually included. This doesn’t mean that you should discard any products that only put the most potent, effective or natural ingredients into your products in large quantities. What matters is that the formulation works well for you and delivers the benefits promised. It’s just wise to check what the product contains before you use it.   

Men’s skin and natural ingredients 

Men’s skin is around 20% thicker than women’s. Oil helps products to penetrate deeper into the skin’s tissue, which is another reason why natural skincare products are great for our skin. They tend to contain a range of different ingredients, botanicals and oils that aid skin’s natural recovery, hydration levels and health. When we were developing the Major Hydrator face moisturiser, we included oils such as Camellia seed to help nourish, hydrate and deliver all the benefits of the product through that tougher, sturdier layer on the surface of your skin.

Healthy living includes healthy skin

We believe that if you enjoy exercising or playing sport, eat a balanced healthy diet, and take steps to have a positive mindset, then skincare is the next step in self care. And if you’re concerned about what goes in your body, why not pay attention to what goes on your body?

Natural skincare products are effective at restoring the body and skin’s natural balance, whether it’s hydration or vitamins and minerals you might need. And at James + Jake we pay close attention to the ingredients we use in products to make sure they help you maintain optimal skin health. 

There is a big debate in the industry and in the media over the necessity of all-natural skincare products. And while we know there are plenty of manufactured, lab-developed ingredients that work wonders on your skin when it comes to appearance and fine lines, there are certain ingredients that have no business being applied topically on your body.

In the same way you would avoid consuming too many artificial ingredients in your food, it’s safer to opt for more naturally sourced ingredients in your skincare. If you want to take some simple and easy steps towards a more natural skincare routine, start by opting out of any creams or lotions that contain artificial fragrance or colour. If the body wash you purchased at the supermarket is bright orange (and that colour didn’t get there by squeezing real californian oranges), you might want to question whether it’s doing your skin much good. It’s one of the reasons we developed James + Jake’s all-natural Energy Elevating Body Wash and Replenishing Body Moisturiser. Both products are free from artificial fragrance or colourings and instead are packed with plant-based natural oils to repair, soothe and hydrate the skin. In our body wash for example, we opted for natur al citrus extracts to cleanse the skin gently. They also come with an invigorating fragrance that’s 100% natural - take a sniff and you’ll get notes of lemon, ginger, black pepper and grapefruit. 

Protecting the environment 

It’s not just microbeads in skincare products that harm our environment. Chemicals in your shower products, such as the body wash and shampoo, also end up washed down the drain and into our waterways. Unless 100% of that waste is filtered and treated, there’s a decent amount heading into our oceans and it all adds up to create a worrying wave of pollution. Choosing natural ingredients in your body or shower products, helps to reduce your impact on the ocean. It might only make a small difference, but if we all switched to a natural body wash or shower product once in a while we could drastically reduce the toxins that get flushed down our plug holes and into the sea.   

Modern life = skin stress

With a hectic schedule, your work, sports and life in general can all take their toll on your skin’s health. Pollutants such as transport fumes, drying elements such as air conditioning, and even light from your computer screens or smart phone all increase the skin’s exposure to free radicals. Put simply, these are tiny molecules that add stress to the skin, depleting natural lipids and proteins deep within, as well as accelerating the ageing process. And because as men we are not commonly wearing makeup (although that’s now changing), we have less of a protective shield on the skin’s surface than women who regularly opt for foundation and other layers of product. 

As scary as that sounds, you can fight back with antioxidant-rich products, which help to counteract the effects. Natural ingredients such as fruit extracts that contain vitamin C, one of the most effective antioxidants you can get,  as well as vitamin E (tocopherol), contribute to the skin’s natural ability to repair and rejuvenate when stress takes hold. 

Another result of our increasingly busy lifestyles is dehydration. As we rush to catch our trains, work all day, exercise at the gym, then head straight to drinks with friends, our skin is gradually losing moisture. It’s essential to combat the effects with plenty of water in your diet, but you can also do your bit to rehydrate on the surface too. A natural skincare routine is going to help you replenish moisture levels in your skin. With a mixture of both moisture-friendly ingredients like glycerin and oils such as sweet almond oil, you’ll replace what you’ve lost in no time.   

To browse the full range of natural James + Jake products, including our replenishing Major Hydrator moisturiser for men and the GQ-approved Post Exercise Foot Spray, click here.

Recommended reading: You Asked J+J: Is post-shave cream important and what should I use after shaving?