Fennel and sea sea minerals...

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I was having my shower this morning, when for some reason I decided to look at my shower gel bottle.

Apparently it is a blend of natural herbs, something that the company in question has been doing since 1908. Fennel and sea minerals. Great. I think. :tongue:

So what does this fennel and sea minerals actually do for me? And who comes up with this wonderful idea. Is it years of scientific (hush hush of course) research that determine the best blend, or do the formulators pop down to Tesco at lunch, to see what's on offer.....

Look Geff, Fennel leaves are on offer today. Shall we stick a few in the vat today? Hmm. What could we mix it with....Salt is always cheap, and we could call it sea minerals.....sorted!

No. I'm sure this isn't how it happened. It does say that this blend will wake me up in the morning. It must be true then. Smashin'.

So what herbal, or otherwise, infusion woke you up this morning? Did it work? Do you care? Or did you just buy that one as it was in a 2 for 1 offer! :blush:
 
Location
Edinburgh
The stuff in the shower magically appears when the previous bottle runs out. Currently we have the Costco variant on TRESemme. Same size and colour bottles, but different branding.
 
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User169

Guest
Fennel is sometimes held to be a galactagogue. I hope that helps.
 

Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
Quick snack I was introduced to by a lovely Italian woman (sigh) many years ago... slice up a fennel bulb... bit of olive oil on the top... black pepper... bread... yum :tongue:

We never tried it in the shower though (the food, that is ;))
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Er... *cough* sorry to tell you that there isn't much fennel or sea minerals in that shower gel. Those fancy extracts are only there for the aesthetic benefits. Basically the extracts are a maceration of the plant material in water and propylene glycol which is then filtered and a preservative added to prevent bacterial spoilage. The extract is then added to your shower gel or shampoo at a very tiny dosage, something like 0.2%, to justify the label claims. There may be some homeopathic benefit but the main benefit is in your mind. A fragrance is added to cover the fatty base odour and reinforce the marketing concept while smelling nice on your skin or hair for an hour or two.
 
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magnatom

Guest
Globalti said:
Er... *cough* sorry to tell you that there isn't much fennel or sea minerals in that shower gel. Those fancy extracts are only there for the aesthetic benefits. Basically the extracts are a maceration of the plant material in water and propylene glycol which is then filtered and a preservative added to prevent bacterial spoilage. The extract is then added to your shower gel or shampoo at a very tiny dosage, something like 0.2%, to justify the label claims. There may be some homeopathic benefit but the main benefit is in your mind. A fragrance is added to cover the fatty base odour and reinforce the marketing concept while smelling nice on your skin or hair for an hour or two.


Indeed. That was what I was hinting at in my original post! ;)

I'll need to look out the correspondence I had with Clarins a while back. They claimed they had a face cream that could repel artificial RF. Apparently artificial RF resulted in aging. This concerned me a great deal as I work in MRI (lots of RF!!). Very amusing! :tongue:
 
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magnatom

Guest
Ah yes. Here is an e-mail I sent to Clarins back in 2007. ;)

[SIZE=-1]I am writing to you as a concerned Clinical Physicist in the UK. I work
with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners in a hospital, and I have
recently read some product information for one of your new products
which concerns me. Below I quote some the literature that you supply
with your product Clarins Expertise 3P.

'If electromagnetic waves can penetrate walls, imagine what they can do
to your skin. Today, electromagnetic waves generated by a host of modern
day electronic devices join a list of well known pollutants which can
damage skin. For the first time, Clarins Research reveals the link
between exposure to artificial electromagnetic waves and accelerated
skin aging.'

There is also the following text on one of your websites
(http://uk.clarins.com/main.cfm?prodID=826);

'An ultra-sheer screen mist containing a pioneering combination of plant
extracts capable of protecting the skin from the accelerated-ageing
effects of all indoor and outdoor air pollution but most significantly,
the effects of Artificial Electromagnetic Waves.'

This concerns me for a number of reasons. Firstly, MRI scanners use a
combination of strong magnetic fields and radio frequency
electromagnetic (RFEM) waves to produce clinical useful images which are
important for diagnosis of a number of medical conditions. If your
product, as you say in your literature, is capable of modulating the
effects or indeed the amplitude of these electromagnetic waves in the
human this is likely to have an effect on the signal from the MRI
scanner. This could result in poor diagnostic information, possibly
resulting in increased patient morbidity or mortality. Can you please
explain exactly what effects of RFEM waves this product blocks so that I
can assess the problem. It is possible that you would have to change
your product literature to reflect the issue with wearing it when going
for an MRI scan.

The other concern I have is for the effects of artificial
electromagnetic waves that you discuss in your literature. It is well
known in our field that by exposing a patient to large amounts of RFEM
waves over the course of a scan can lead to tissue heating and possible
patient burns. We avoid this by designing the scanning procedures in
such a way to limit the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of the RFEM waves
over the course of the scans.

However, in normal everyday life a person will not be exposed to RFEM
waves anywhere near to the levels that would result in significant
tissue heating. I am therefore concerned that you have information on a
new and otherwise unknown effect of RFEM which as your literature
suggests could lead to tissue damage/aging. Please could you pass me on
the relevant literature in your possession, as I am sure my colleagues
and I who work in areas where there are significantly raised RFEM waves
every day, would be keen to read this literature. In fact I am sure the
MRI community as a whole would be very keen to have information on the
aging effects of RFEM waves as we may be unintentionally aging both
ourself and our patients.

I look forward to your speedy reply so that I can write to the relevant
authorities and so that speedy corrective action can be taken. I will be
out of my office from tomorrow until Monday the 19th February.
Therefore, until this time e-mail is the best method for contacting me.

Yours sincerely[/SIZE]
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Tee hee! Did they ever reply? I see they are still flogging "Expertise 3P". What a racket.
 
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magnatom

Guest
Here is the reply! ;)

Dear Sir,


Further to your mail dated February 14th, you will find here below, some information on our observations during our studies and the role of our product.
Ø We work on keratinocytes cell cultures.
Ø These cells have been irradiated at 900 MHz during 6 hours, at 2 W/kg.
Ø This treatment revealed : - Increase in free radicals
- Decrease of the mitotic index
- Modification of presence of some epidermis
(loricrine, β defensive involved in the cell differentiation)
All these researches and results will be published, around the end of March in a scientific magazine.
Obviously the product does not claim to “block” the electromagnetic waves, and by this very fact it cannot modulate the effect of the electromagnetic waves used in scanners.
What we do, and we demonstrate in our experiences in cells culture, is when we add active ingredients in the medium, we strongly limited the modifications of the parameters identified after exposure without active ingredients.
My opinion is that, to day, electromagnetic waves are in our environment, they are useful to our life. It is not our purpose to present them as diabolic, but our studies are serious enough to identify their role as an additive factor to the aging process (as is the sun exposure). By the way the possibility to reinforce the cells in front of this aggression seems something rather positive.

I hope that these information will answer your questions and stay at your disposal.
Best regards.


Lionel DE BENETTI​
GROUPE CLARINS​

I'm convinced! LOL! :tongue:
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Bogus science, eh? Everybody does it, even climate scientists.

When customers' technical staff ask us for supporting data so as to cover their arses when a decision has to be made, it is only too easy to conduct a quick panel then arrange the results to give them what they need.
 
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