What is the difference between natural and synthetic ingredients?
A. The FDA Consumer Magazine explained it this way in August, 2000: The term “natural” is not regulated by the U.S. FDA, so cosmetics companies can use it to mean basically whatever they want. There are no restrictions on when a company can call its products natural. The FDA tried to enact legislative regulations for such terms as natural, but the proposed regulations were overturned by the courts. Some proponents of all-natural skincare products claim that natural substances are always more effective than synthetic substances and that all synthetic substances are toxic. But reality is more complex. In theory, the biological effects of a substance are the same whether that substance is derived from natural sources or synthesized in a lab. In reality, a substance may contain different contaminants depending on whether that substance was derived from a natural source chemicals, but they do sometimes occur in natural substances as well. So using all-natural ingredients reduces but does no