HERE'S THE PROBLEM: Millions of consumers using personal care products, from toenail varnish to toothpaste, every day, translates into lots and lots of loverly money being spent across the globe. So why wouldn't companies big and small pull out all the stops to secure a nice slice of that market?

Many enterprises have the means to make their offerings appear very attractive, no matter what the real benefits (or otherwise) of their products may prove to be.

Advertising makes for familiarity and done right, this alone can have amazing results - think of Coca Cola which is no more than coloured and flavoured water. Who would be so brave as to claim Coke was a truly healthy drink - yet it fills the role of a magical and universal comforter for uncountable numbers of people.

A few personal care and cosmetics firms have supplied the global demand to the extent that these companies appear impregnable. They have been around a long time - we perhaps grew up with them - and we may oft times buy their products without thinking twice... or even once.

ENTER THE NEW PUSH: As millions start to think 'natural' and 'organic', a whole new paradigm kicks into play. Unfortunately 'natural' (or even 'organic') isn't automatically the answer, because after all it's only a word. And words are pretty cheap - especially when that loverly money is at stake.

So we started to look into the whole question, and as usually happens, found that as we delved a little deeper it wasn't quite so simple as is sometimes made out. Eventually we decided that better information could help consumers (that's a rather formal word meaning you and me). The result was...

a FREE e-book: "How to choose natural beauty products"

HOW did we make our way through the natural beauty products maze and choose Sensa-skin? Download our free e-book & discover the secrets of how to choose natural beauty products that work for you.

In brief: we avoided products that claimed to be natural but still used harsh, sometimes toxic chemicals. Such unsafe ingredients often have the dubious benefit of being dirt cheap, although they are frequently disguised in fancy (and pricey) packaging.

Packaging also influenced our choice; we favoured recyclable /biodegradable materials and simple design criteria that gave more value to the product itself.

We weren't terribly surprised to find that some lower quality products employed the word 'natural' to disguise less-than high standards. A few items even posed health risks due to inadequate preservation practices.

It was a pleasure to find the affordable Sensa-skin range, which offered the best balance of modern technique and traditional knowledge.