Usually when you hear the word chemical, you think of something synthetic, cooked up in a laboratory, but ingredients extracted from plants and minerals are chemicals too.

A natural ingredient is a chemical, and a synthetic one is also a chemical; it doesnt mean that just because its natural that it is necessarily best for you, Alice said.

For one company, its natural credentials might be used as its selling point, while for another its scientifically engineered compounds are touted as the best for your skin. Both approaches can be misleading and are a source of frustration for Alice.

If youre thinking about the interaction with the body, where a particular chemical comes from is not necessarily going to give you a good indication about whether it is good for you or not, you actually have to look at that interaction, she said.

Our bodies are built on chemistry; everything in us is chemistry.

Look at the ingredients label on a typical moisturiser or shampoo and there will likely be a list of unintelligible chemical names, which most of us wont have a clue what they are. But theres a growing interest among consumers, and safety concerns about certain ones have been raised in recent years.

SLS and parabens, for example, while considered safe by the EU, have been cited as possible hormone disrupters and irritants. As a result, you might have spotted SLS-free or paraben-free labels on some of your favourite products.

Because of strict UK and EU regulations that govern what can go into our food and cosmetic products, and extensive safety testing, Alice thinks consumers should not be overly worried.

But, without mentioning any ingredients in particular, she does suggest, It is a question of keeping an eye on the research and seeing whether those things do turn out to be bad for us or not. We see changes in the regulations all the time as new research is done, looking in detail at particular compounds.

If there is concern about a particular compound, you can always apply the precautionary principle and avoid them, but you have to be careful you dont get paranoid about it.

Ethics and The Environment

When it comes to buying both everyday and luxury cosmetic products for herself, Alice says ethics plays a big role in her choices.

If youre buying something like that, it is really important to know it is ethical and youre buying something that feels luxurious and is lovely for you, but youre doing it with concern for the environment and with concern for all the people whove been involved in it as well, she said.

Dr Alice Roberts

So this year, Alice is working with organic beauty brand Green People as their official adviser on science communication to get all of us thinking about the chemistry of everyday products.

For me public engagement with science is about having a much more open and wider discussion about science and technology and also making sure that you are providing information to people in an accessible way, said Alice, who is also professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham.

Its really important that there is dialogue between scientists and the general public; its about sharing information more effectively and being able to make decisions about where science is going in the future,where technology is going in the future, as a society. We need to make sure that we are much more scientifically literate as a society.

As a long-time user of Green Peoples products, she is proud to be an ambassador for a company that has rigorous organic, fair trade and environmental policies and have always put a lot of scientific research intotheir products.

The fact [Green People] have this ethical concern about the impact on the environment and people so they are concerned about making sure they are using fair trade sourced ingredients, making sure they are as ethical as they can be with their ingredients I think that is great, said Alice.

And, of course, they dont test on animals, a practice Alice finds puzzling. I am just very confused by the fact that cosmetics have ever been tested on animals; it is such a peculiar thing to do if you dont need to do it and you dont need to do it.

For me, the fact that for Green People [no animal testing] has been a central tenet of the way that they work and that they wouldnt now aim to sell products in countries which are asking for products to be tested on animals, I think that is really important for my own personal ethics.

While animal testing for cosmetics is banned in the EU, China, however, currently requires all imported cosmetic products to have undergone such testing.

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The chemistry of beauty - The Epoch Times