Transparency, safety, and the strange little ecosystem inside a jar of cream.
One of the oddest things about modern skincare is that consumers are often caught between two competing fears: bad microbes and harmful preservatives/chemicals.
The result is a marketplace where people are sometimes encouraged to distrust perfectly reasonable formulations while accidentally placing enormous trust in products that may not even be microbiologically stable.
At Mad Scientist Goods, we think customers deserve something better than fear-driven marketing. They deserve clarity and peace of mind.
Why Cosmetic Labels Sound So Scientific
Have you ever looked at a skincare label and wondered whether you bought a moisturiser or accidentally summoned an ancient curse?
You pick up a product and suddenly find:
Mangifera indica
Melaleuca alternifolia
Simmondsia chinensis
Tocopherol
It can feel intimidating at first glance. But these names exist for a reason.
Most cosmetic labels use standardised ingredient naming called INCI: International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients.
These standardised names help create consistency across manufacturers, suppliers, countries, and regulations.
For example:
- Mangiferi Indica is also called Mango. You might see it as Mango Seed Butter in some of our stuff.
- Melaleuca alternifolia is also known as Tea Tree.
- Simmondsia Chinensis is usually found as Jojoba oil, which is a liquid-at-room-temperature plant wax.
- Tocopherol is vitamin E.
Without standardised names, labels would quickly become confusing chaos:
organic mint essence
peppermint extract
fresh herbal mint oil
cooling botanical infusion
Meanwhile, someone with a sensitivity or allergy is left trying to determine whether all four products contain the same plant. It might seem obvious, but someone may have an allergy to peppermint, but not react to lemon balm or spearmint, even though they are all related plants and often found in similar products. Standardised naming helps customers identify ingredients reliably and compare products more intelligently.
Ingredient Search Tools Can Be Surprisingly Helpful
One resource many people use is the EWG Skin Deep® Ingredient Database.
Whether or not someone agrees with every conclusion, scoring method, or even political stance of EWG, ingredient databases like theirs are still extremely useful educational tools. There are other ones, but this one is quite well done, in our opinion.
Sometimes customers simply want to know:
What is this ingredient?
Why is it here?
Is it plant-derived?
What role does it serve in the formula?
That curiosity is healthy. Understanding ingredients is far more useful than simply reacting to whether a name sounds “natural” or “chemical.”
Long Ingredient Names Are Not Automatically Dangerous
This is where internet skincare culture sometimes turns into a game of linguistic roulette.
A complicated scientific name does not automatically mean toxic, synthetic, or harsh.
And a simple or natural-sounding ingredient does not automatically mean that the product is gentle, non-irritating, safe for everyone, or even microbiologically stable.
Poison ivy is natural. Mold is natural. Many bacterial toxins are natural.
Meanwhile, sodium chloride is just common table salt, and citric acid exists naturally in almost every living cell.
The name itself is not the real issue. The formulation is.
The Preservative Conversation
Preservatives are probably one of the most misunderstood parts of skincare formulation. People are often told that preservatives are inherently bad, unnecessary, or something only “big companies” use.
But water-based products without proper preservation can become breeding grounds for bacteria, yeast, and mould, which can make one very sick!
Creams, lotions, sprays, hydrosols, gels, and emulsions all contain water. Once water enters a formula, microbial stability becomes a serious consideration.
And contamination is not always visible.
A cream can smell normal, look normal, feel perfectly normal… while still containing microbial growth. Unlike spoiled food, skincare contamination does not always announce itself dramatically.
“Natural Preservatives” and Common Myths
One of the biggest misconceptions online is the idea that certain trendy ingredients can fully replace proper preservation systems.
For example: vitamin E, rosemary extract, grapefruit seed extract, and essential oils alone. These ingredients may absolutely have useful roles in formulation.
But most are not reliable broad-spectrum preservatives for water-containing products. As it is, The Mad Scientist and I had to work very hard to come up with a preservation method that doesn’t use the most common of all broad-spectrum preservatives (Sodium Benzoate + Gluconolactone, found in Geogard). It took us numerous attempts and using a three-part system to cross the threshold for our emulsified creams to be worthy of hitting our shop table. We can’t use Geogard, or any household or food products that contain benzoates because of severe family allergies, but even if we didn’t have those allergies, we would probably still avoid using it.
Another very common misunderstanding we’ve found is the idea that one can preserve an emulsified (oil + water) cream with Vitamin E.
Vitamin E is an antioxidant. It helps slow oil oxidation and rancidity. That is valuable. But it does not adequately protect a lotion from bacterial contamination. Those are two completely different jobs.
Think about it this way. If you go out and buy yoghurt, milk, or cream from the supermarket, these things do not usually have any preservatives. Yet, they must be refrigerated, and usually they have to be consumed within a few days.
Our Philosophy at Mad Scientist Goods
We do not believe in fear-based formulation. We believe in thoughtful formulation.
That means we use preservatives where they are genuinely needed. We avoid unnecessary additives where possible. We are very intentional with our choice of ingredients. We understand formulation chemistry. We maintain reasonable hygiene and manufacturing practices. All our products are clearly labelled.
We would rather explain why an ingredient exists than pretend science itself is suspicious. Where we do question the wider record, we test, and test, and test again. We wait over a year because, to us, good skincare formulation is not really about chasing “chemical-free” fantasies.
At the end of the day, everything is chemistry, honestly. Water is chemistry. Tea is chemistry. The lavender in a field and the vitamin E in a jar both obey chemistry whether we notice or not. Baking in my kitchen is still… just chemistry. Everything God made in the natural world is enveloped in chemistry.
The real goal is wisdom, balance, and transparency in our formulations.
A little apothecary. A little laboratory. A little herbalism… and a healthy respect for the tiny, invisible ecosystems that would very much like to move into your face cream if given the opportunity.
Thanks for reading!
~The Mad Herbalist
P.S If you are curious, the image shown. The batch is at least 6 months past what we would sell at!