Skin care has certainly been in the news during 2005. The increasing concern of retaining youthful looking skin has led to skin care companies developing skin care products that include all kinds of exotic ingredients supposedly being able to reduce lines and wrinkles on your face, eliminate age spots and other blemishes, hydrate, smooth and tone your skin as well as making various other amazing claims.

In addition, concerns have been raised about some of the potentially harmful ingredients being applied to our skin and thus absorbed into our bodies, with potentially harmful effects on our health.

These reports have led to a 'natural' skin care ingredient boom right across the skin care industry and increasingly we see advertisements promoting natural skin care products.

Toward the end of 2005 however, buyers have been realising that natural skin care products may not necessarily be all-natural skin care products and are starting to doubt the validity of advertisements promoting their skin care products as being natural.

Further, the men's skin care market has been more strongly targeted with many well-known brands creating and promoting a skin care range specific for men.

So what can we expect in 2006?

I believe, that the above trends will continue during this year and will intensify in certain areas. These areas include:

* An increased focus on Men's skin care

* More anti-aging 'miracle' products

* Increased focus on promoting so called 'natural' skin care products

* An increased 'buyer be ware' attitude from consumers about just how natural the promoted skin care products are, and

* An increase of scepticism toward the promotion of natural in respect to skin care products by manufacturers.

I see the manufacturing of skin care products to be divided into three types of manufacturers:

1. Traditional Skin Care Manufacturers

These produce skin care products that will provide good results, but these products are not advertised to be natural, organic or anything other than skin care products. Their products include emulsifiers, preservatives and possibly potentially harmful ingredients, but they do work and customers do get results.

2. Jump on the Bandwagon Manufacturers

These are manufacturers market their products as being natural and actually do include natural ingredients or at least naturally derived concentrates together with other ingredients. They will promote these products as being natural and will attract buyers who are concerned about what they are putting on their skin and subsequently into their body.



This category contains another type of manufacturer, I call it the Psydo-Natural manufacturer. This type uses only natural ingredients, but does not use these ingredients in their natural state. That is, they will not always use traditionally made herbal extracts, but will use isolated, active ingredients from herbs or essential oils in their products.



The problem with this type of product is that the ingredients are no longer complete, they are 'out of balance' and as a result could cause potential health concerns. This has been explained in another article called 'Natural, All Natural, Holistically-Natural or Pseudo-natural - that is the question'.

3. Holistic Manufacturers

This third type of manufacturer of natural skin care products are manufacturers that have resolved to provide purely natural skin care products to their clients and are dedicated to use holistically, natural ingredients to produce truly natural skin care products. They use pure essential oils, traditionally made herbal extracts, and follow the philosophies of natural medical practices such as herbal medicine and naturopathy.

The next 12 months or so will see consumers becoming more and more aware of what is truly natural and what is not. The Internet is a great source for gathering such information and women especially will start to research skin care products in ever increasing detail to find the type of products they prefer.

Men will start to become more aware of their skin's needs and will increasingly start to follow similar skin care regimes as women. However, I think it will take men a little longer to start thinking about the purity of their skin care. They will probably leave it up to their spouses to select their skin care range for them.

About the author:

Danny Siegenthaler is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and together with his wife Susan, a medical herbalist and Aromatherapist, they have created Natural Skin Care Products by Wildcrafted Herbal Products to share their 40 years of combined expertise with you.

© Wildcrafted Herbal Products 2006