Allergy Awareness - How we try to help with skin allergies
Allergy Awareness Week 2019
Allergy Awareness week is from the 29th April. This year, Allergy UK are focusing on outdoor air quality, there is a great deal of concern regarding, for example, the quality of air around schools and recently the London mayor launched an initiative, where 250 children going to primary schools across London will wear pollution monitors on the back-packs so that data can be collected from the actual location of schools .
Allergy Awareness week got us thinking again about how allergies affect our customers. Over the years many people have asked us, both via email and when visiting our shop, about how to manage allergies they may have with respect to skin and hair care products. This is a huge and complicated subject as allergies can of course vary from anything which is a slight irritation to a life threatening condition.
Avoiding Natural Ingredients ?
We believe that avoiding synthetic skin care ingredients and preservatives is the best route for personal health which is why we use only 100% natural plant derived ingredients in all our products. Nevertheless people can be allergic to naturally occurring items and the most prominent examples are the tragic reports of people dying from nut allergies. There's nothing non-natural about peanuts but nevertheless they can cause serious problems and the message here is that just avoiding synthetics and cheap bulking additives might not be enough; anyone who is susceptible to allergic reactions has to be aware of ingredients in skin care or food products that might at first seem completely harmless.
The most common allergy people have to naturally occurring items is to some essential oils and this is why the corresponding allergens are always clearly stated on an ingredients label. People can also be allergic to a particular natural ingredient such as carrier oil in a moisturiser. Or they may have an irritation which they suspect could be an allergy to something, but they’re not quite sure. To try and help with these conditions we offer "Sensitive" products within our ranges of skin and hair care. These include moisturisers, cleansers, hand and body lotions, hair care and body care including shampoos and conditioners.The Sensitive products are free from essential oils and any potential allergens.
We’ve always made it clear to our customers that we don’t offer medical advice and if they suspect anything of a medical nature they should of course discuss this with their GP.
How do we try to help with allergies ?
To try and address any such conditions what we do suggest however is always taking things back to basics. This has often been the recommendation of trying one of our butters, which moisturises and sooth the skin with a product that is as simple as it gets, very pure, organic and natural. Alternatively, depending on the discussion, we have recommended a product which doesn’t contain any essential oils and our Sensitive range of skin and hair care products offer just this.
It’s then really just a question of seeing what happens and to help this we suggest people try one of our tester sized productsor smaller 125ml sized hair care products. A low cost way of finding what works for you to avoid any allergies known or suspected.
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