Do you believe in magic? Advertisers do.

If you are older than 5, you probably don’t believe that unicorns actually exist.

If you find an ingredient list that mentions “nature derived” then, unless you are under 5, you should say “of course it is nature derived, so what?!”.

We live in a world where everything is derived from nature. From water to chickens to soap, everything is nature derived. So, please, don’t add those words to a list of ingredients to a skin care product where everything, except for water, has been made in a laboratory following methods designed by a very human chemist.

If you want to distinguish between natural chemicals and chemicals made in a laboratory, this may make sense to some people. For example, some plastics cannot be degraded easily so they will accumulate in the ocean and become a nasty problem. But even those plastics, are nature derived. Where else would they come from?

A more useful qualification would be “biodegradable” because it does have a useful meaning: microorganisms can decompose these chemicals and will cause less or no damage to the environment. It matters how long it will take for them to be degraded in the environment, though, and whether, until they are, they may cause you or the rest of nature a problem.

How about plant-derived? We are in the same territory. You can make long lasting, (so far) non biodegradable plastics using plants. After all, petroleum is derived from plants that existed (in nature!) long ago. Same carbon, same hydrogen. So, again, don’t list ingredients in s skin care product saying “plant-derived”.

Those who insult our intelligence by using terms like honest, green, plant-derived, nature-derived, etc, should not get away with it. In any case, it is not like natural is always good, as we often find out the hard way.

Incidentally, I always have a unicorn around when I am sick; they say that unicorns help with healing. Mine is a pillow and has reversible sequins. And it is nature derived.