IB Woman
Issue No. 46 - April/May 2009
Science with passion
by Penelope Herbert
Partnerships can be fraught with difficulty but shared values often foster strong and innovative businesses.
So when passion partners with science to take on some of the world’s biggest brands, innovation and education soon enter the mix.
Three Adelaide entrepreneurs are working towards a healthy change in beauty industry thinking.
“Do you have any idea the variety of harmful chemicals that leach through the skin everyday?” asks Rose Bradshaw, who has been formulating chemicalfree products for 20 years.
“The skin ingests toxic chemicals, such as those found in many hand and face creams and body lotions.
These chemicals can pass quickly into the bloodstream and accumulate in the lymph, liver, bladder, and brain, or breast milk.”
Rose shares her passion with business partners, Barbara Gare and Colleen Marshall. They have created the Y-natural range of 100% Australian Certified Organic skin and hair products now competing with the world’s most luxurious brands. Becoming an industry front-runner is a compelling reason to be in business, but there’s a further motivation. Y-natural runs educational seminars to tell consumers what ‘natural’ really means and how to avoid potentially deadly, carcinogenic chemicals.
Rose, Barbara and Colleen warn about parabens, preservatives used in most skincare products, and phthalates, used as emulsifiers. Both are linked to illness in mothers and babies.
“Parabens and phthalates have been specifically targeted by the French Government as its first step to eradicating chemicals in skin and hair care products,” says Barbara.
“Tests show unborn babies have on average 200 toxic chemicals in their blood passed from their mothers.
Everyone is so concerned that the mother not drink alcohol, not smoke, not eat soft cheese, but few people think about the chemicals in their favourite moisturiser or bubble bath ending up in their unborn baby’s bloodstream.
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