6 Common Skincare Myths And The Facts You Need To Know

by | Beauty

I’m so excited to share this next video with you! Camila (Miaerba.com) and I sat down to bust the top 6 skincare myths on the internet.

If you’re wondering where we got the info, Camila’s studied skincare formulation for years and follows this stuff religiously, so she has the facts to back it up.

We also have an extra special download for you on the blog too.

Stay tuned till the end for a few fun bloopers – these videos are never as easy as they look :)

Your mythbusting queens,

LV + Camila


Hey everyone, Lindsey Victoria here from A Life Well-Balanced where we’re sharing tips and practical advice on how to live a more balanced and positive life. Today, I’m so excited to be here with my good friend Camila Olivares from Mia Erba. We are going to be doing Mythbusters. We are busting all those skincare myths.

Lindsey: So Camila, you formulate skincare.

Camila: Right.

Lindsey: She knows all about what should be going on our skin and what shouldn’t. So we thought today was a perfect day to give you 6 myths and bust them.

Camila: Yes. So Myth No. 1 – 60% of what you put on your skin goes into your bloodstream. That’s totally false. It can actually be anywhere from 0% to 100% and it really just depends on a lot of things. It could either be on your environmental factors, on the health of your skin, on the delivery mechanism of the product, and the ingredients that are being used. For example, a carrier oil might penetrate into just the very top layer of your skin, but it’s not necessarily going to go into your bloodstream, whereas essential oils that are so potent will actually penetrate into the bloodstream, so it really depends on what the product is. 60% of what you’re using goes into the bloodstream is totally a myth. It could be 0% to 100% and it depends on so many variables.

Lindsey: Awesome, that’s good. Thank you for clearing that one up. Myth No. 2 – Natural skincare is completely chemical free. That is false. If you think about what a chemical is – air is a chemical, toxins are chemicals, the plate that you eat off has chemicals in it.

Camila: Everything has its own natural chemistry. I think the problem is that people are confusing the word ‘chemical’ for synthetics, so we ‘re saying that natural skin care is actually synthetic free, it’s not chemical free. That just goes to show you how there’s zero regulations on what we can say on our on the labels and it’s confusing to people when you’re saying something ‘is chemical free or toxic free’. In the EU now, it’s illegal to even say that something is ‘Paraben Free’. So you have to be really careful in what you’re saying and I think it’s just been confusing to people, but the truth is that plant-based skin care is synthetic free – we don’t use synthetic ingredients.

Lindsey: There you go, Myth No. 2, busted. Natural skincare is completely chemical free – false.

Myth No. 3 – Most conventional skincare is filled with synthetic ingredients and that is false.

Camila: That is actually false because the sad fact is that most mainstream and conventional skincare is actually water, so the lotions, the creams, the shampoos, the cleansers – they’re all made up of 80% to 90% water. Really, water isn’t really doing anything aside from giving you some minor hydration, but it’s really just sitting on your skin and not really giving you a lot of therapeutic benefits, like a plant-based ingredient would. So if you look at some lotions or some shampoos that are made from plant-based skincare, you’ll see that they’re made with aloe extract or you’ll see that they could have a butter as one of the first ingredients.

Lindsey: Got it, so then that’s actually why a lot of conventional skincare on the market can be quite cheap because it’s really just filled with water.

Camila: Distilled water.

Lindsey: You can just take a shower with water. There’s nothing special.

Camila: That’s why they cost $3 – $8.

Lindsey: There you have it, that’s Myth No. 3 – busted.

Myth No. 4 – mineral oil stops your skin from breathing. That is false.

Camila: Correct!

Lindsey: I was a little surprised to hear this.

Camila: Yes that one does sound surprising, but the truth is that mineral oil does just sit on your skin and it creates an occlusive layer of oil that basically sits on your skin. So you can see why people would think “Okay that’s that’s going to stop my skin from breathing.” However, the truth is that even plant-based oils also create an occlusive layer on the top of your skin, but the difference between mineral oil and plant-based oils is that plant-based oils have similar composition of lipids as our skin does, so they’re easily metabolized by our skin. And they also contain lots of lovely plant compounds which can benefit you as well. They have therapeutic benefits while they’re sitting on your skin and they’re moisturizing, and they have vitamins, whereas mineral oil just doesn’t carry anything.

Lindsey: Okay, so that’s why people are saying mineral oil is not so good. So if you can avoid it, avoid mineral oil. It doesn’t do anything.

Myth No. 5. All preservatives are dangerous. That is apparently false.

Camila: Of course, that’s false. Some preservatives are known to be very irritating and some preservatives have been banned from certain markets. People tend to avoid them altogether because there are hormonal disruptors, but the truth is that preservatives actually play a very important role in our skincare and they’re there to fight off yeast, mold, and bacteria. And if any of those were to come in contact with your skin, they can actually cause a pretty bad infection or even worse. There have been cases where people have gone blind from cosmetics that haven’t been properly preserved. So luckily, there are certain preservatives in the market that are safe on the skin and naturally derived, so there is a good solution, but we do need preservatives in our skincare to keep it safe for us. Bacteria, yeast, and mold are actually more dangerous than a natural preservative would ever be, so we want them in our skincare. We just have to know which ones to use and that’s why people like me are here to study that for you and put those things together in natural plant-based skincare.

Lindsey: Exactly, and actually we put together a list of preservatives for another video. I’ll put a link below so you can actually see preservatives are going to be found in your ingredients, but we can tell you the ones that are okay.

Camila: Yeah, perfect.

Lindsey: So we’re onto our 6th and final myth. Myth No 6 – If I avoid synthetics in my skincare then I’ll be avoiding them altogether. That’s a myth.

Camila: Very much so. A lot of the ingredients and preservatives that are used in cosmetics have actually been used in the food industry forever, so if you actually read the labels of the food that you’re eating then you’re going to see a lot of the common ingredients that are used in cosmetics, I would say in about 90% of the food and drinks that we consume.
There was actually a study found in the New York area that 90% of what was being consumed had the same synthetics that you find in cosmetics. So if you really want to avoid synthetics, then read the labels on your food and drinks.

Lindsey: Yes, read the labels altogether. The whole point of all these videos is we just want you to be aware of what’s going on your skin and in your body.

So those are the 6 skincare myths. Some of them are surprising to me. I hope that educated you guys a little bit more on the myths that might be floating out there in the skincare world. I want to thank Camila for coming on, I really appreciate it, and sharing it with our audience and our viewers.

All right guys, if you have any questions or any clarifications, please put those in the comments below. We’ll be happy to answer them. Again I have a link to the preservatives that are safe for you to use there in the video as well. If you liked it, give it a thumbs up, share it with somebody. We love to hear comments, we love our fans.

Everybody have a good one and we’ll see you next time. Bye!





The conversation starts with you!
