What Are the Real Facts Concerning
Organic Skin Care Products?

Virtually every skin care brand using the term organic does so for marketing reasons.
There are very few genuine organic skin care companies. In skin care, "organic" relates to plants and growth method, but almost all skin care products are water based not plant based.
That's why most products are not really organic, they're water based and water has zero nutrients for your skin.
For a skin care product to really be organic, the main ingredient must be organic. While water may be natural, it's not organic. That's why when you buy a bottle of water it says "natural" spring water, never "organic" spring water.

What's really important?

What's really important is how much of a product is made of effective organic plant matter. It needs to be effective for the skin on your face, not the skin on your hands or feet. It's not the same kind of skin. You never get acne on the back of your hand or bottom of your feet. Oil and cocoa butter can be very organic, safe and great for a massage for your feet, but oils are notoriously comedogenic. Oil will clog the pores on your face and you don't want that, especially, if you already have acne or oily skin. There are non comedogenic oils, however, they are more or less a myth. Oil, regardless of what kind of oil it is, will still get into your pores, clog them and cause a micro comedone, which is the beginning of a pimple.

What are the advantages of growing plants hydroponically over soil?

In soil, bacteria have to break down the dirt into the basic elements of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as well as trace elements. The hydroponic method uses balanced plant food (the nutrient solution) dissolved directly into oxygenated water so the plant can receive perfect nutrition at all times. Soil is not able to produce as much nutrient per area as the root system is able to take up in hydroponics. Hydroponics take the desired amount of food directly to the root rather than making plant's roots look for it. Soil loses its nutritional value and is difficult to measure in terms of pH and fertility. The pH and nutritional value of the water is easily measured and maintained so plants always have enough food.

In a hydroponic system, moisture is present all the time. Soil plays host to many nasty little creatures, while hydroponic growing mediums are inert and sterile, making a very hygienic environment for the plant. Soil requires a lot more watering and has a higher occurrence of pests. Therefore, plants grow slower and need more space and constant maintenance. Hydroponics increases plant growth and yield per area, decreases pests and diseases and the need to water plants.

What is natural and organic skin care really made from?

There are effectively only three base components in natural or organic skin care: water, oil and Aloe Vera. About 90% of all these products are made from water, about 9% is made from oil and about 1% is made from aloe. Many products have aloe in them but they are not based on aloe. Effectively, all oils will clog your pores and water has no effect. You can get all you want out of the tap, so why pay for it?

Then there is simply the best thing you can put on your skin and that's Aloe. Some brands use it, but most of those brands use less than 10%. A botanical ingredient like Aloe must be first on the ingredient list to have any real positive effect. Concentrated Aloe is difficult to obtain and far too expensive to use as a base component in mass produced skin care products. Most people have used products with Aloe in them, but very few have ever used a product that is based on Aloe, especially hydroponically grown super Aloe like the kind that is found in all Gunilla of Sweden® products.

How to read an ingredient label properly.

What most people do is they look for bad ingredients, but they tend to ignore good ingredients. For example, notice the ingredient list below. The product is all natural and contains no chemicals at all. Do you think this is a good all natural product to buy?

Here are the ingredients: Water (Aqua), Cocoa butter, Aloe vera, Fragrance (Parfum), Chamomile, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Oil*

And here are the facts

• 70% Water-Not active, used as filler, does nothing.
• 15% Cocoa butter-Very comedogenic, clogs pores and should never be used on facial skin.
• 5% Aloe Vera-Active ingredient, healthy and very effective, but 5% Aloe will have no effect at all, especially plain Aloe.
• 5% Fragrance-This can be anything, usually comedogenic oil.
• 2.5% Chamomile- Rejuvenating and relaxing, a good ingredient
• 2.5% Jojoba oil soothing, chemically close to the oil in human skin, a good ingredient.

Although this example is all natural, safe and contains no chemicals, it also contains less than 10% active ingredients, meaning that 90% of this product does nothing for your skin. This example is meant to show that there is more to look for than just ingredients you don't want. You need to look for ingredients that are active or will have a positive effect on your skin.

Gunilla of Sweden® products contain the highest active ingredient content there is with a minimum of 70% (10 times the average) active ingredients. We can do this because we don't base our products on pore clogging oils or water.

Does organic skin care make a real difference?

Yes, but the product must be nutrient based. Your skin is the largest organ you have and like any organ, skin needs nutrients. For real results your skin care products must be based on nutrients. Only Gunilla of Sweden® uses hydroponically grown 100% organic Aloe as the base component in every product.

This means that even before any of the dozens of intended active ingredients like natural collagen, peptides, ceramides or alpha hydroxy come into play, your skin has already received more than 16 critical amino acids, multiple enzymes, and more than 50 vitamins like A, B, B2, B6, B12, C and 20 mineral co factors such as calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium. Plus, 20-30 unique antioxidants like tocopherols, superoxide dismutase and flavonoid compounds that promote the natural self-repair mechanisms needed to heal mature and environmentally damaged skin.

How do I know which skin care brands are worth it?

When considering organic skin care products, you should always ask to see a list of skin care professionals that use those products on their skin care clients and represent those products at their spa, medial clinic or salon. Skin care professionals won't risk their reputation on any skin care product, especially organic ones. If hundreds of skin care professionals don't use those products on their clients why should you? Read what skin care professionals say about Gunilla of Sweden® products-Click Here for "expert reviews".

Over 10,000 dermatologists, estheticians and skin care professionals have trusted in Gunilla of Sweden® for over 23 years. There are many skin care products on the market today but less that 2% of them are actually used by skin care professionals who have their reputations on the line. Gunilla of Sweden® spends years developing each and every product we make. This fact has gained the respect of the professional skin care community and is the reason so many of them choose Gunilla of Sweden® High-Content Organic™ skin care products for their spas, salons and medical clinics.

Since there is no government control over organic skin care and the term "organic" can be defined in a dozen ways, you really have to know who to trust. If a brand has only a few products and is not used or sold by spas or medical clinics, you are most likely buying water or oil based products from a "home operation" or a marketing company that will sell anything to make a buck, like onion choppers and blankets with arms.
Your skin deserves real nutrient based hydro-organic skin care.

Laws of chemistry

Active botanical ingredients cannot defy the laws of chemistry. They begin auto-oxidation to some degree when manufactured, so all genuine organic, herbal or botanical products must contain stabilizers and a antimicrobial or botanically based skin care will rot. Some products have a minimum of preservatives because they're oil based. Just like your olive oil at home, these products can last a long time. Using oil based products on your body is OK, however, oil is the last thing you want on your face.

Safe standards make all the difference with organic botanicals

Botanical extracts are much more susceptible to quality variation than synthetic products. In order to be the highest quality, a plant must be healthy and disease free. Plants are affected by harvest time, care during transport, storage, growing conditions of the plant and the method of extraction of active ingredients. Since we grow our plants hydroponically in a temperature controlled greenhouse, there are no toxins, no disease issues and we can maintain the most consistent nutrient rich ingredients and products possible.

Extracting the Most Nutrients Possible

Carbon filtering (standard method) eliminates the Aloin that the FDA ruled as an unsafe laxative in 2002, only this filtering removes nutrients as well. Using our proprietary method, our hydroponically grown 100% organic aloe is TRUE whole leaf, not a carbon-filtered shell of itself that's void of most the nutrients that the plant originally had. Only Gunilla of Sweden's® proprietary methods remove Aloin without removing nutrients.