Natural and organic skincare products offer people the chance to go beyond the skin-deep benefits offered by the celebrity-endorsed, chemical-infused, mass-marketed offerings found on the high-street, because natural and organic skincare products avoid the long list of dubious man made chemicals and parabens, meaning that when you use them on your skin you can be sure that you are pampering your whole body.

The organic, and slow, food movement has been born out of people's concern and skepticism over food products that contain synthetic ingredients and chemical preservatives. Despite the fact that skincare products, which are, after all, just as intimate to the body as the food we eat (the skin absorbs the products we place on it), this desire to shun the synthetic in favour of the organic has taken longer to sink into the consciousness of skincare consumers.

Now sales of natural and organic skincare products are growing exponentially - and even the male demographic of the skincare industry, which accounts for $57 million of the overall cosmetic industry each year, is adapting to the shifting attitudes regarding what we rub into our skin and into our bodies.

For women skincare products are one aspect of our lifestyle that should be analysed and, if necessary, altered during the planning of a pregnancy.

A recent study by scientists at Edinburgh University has given women another reason to use organic and natural skin care products during their pregnancy. The researchers found that there might be a link between synthetic perfumes used in skin creams and the healthy development of the foetus.

The researchers found that the chemicals used to scent non organic and natural skincare products may have implications for healthy fertility levels of the foetus later on in life.

Talking to BBC Scotland (31st August 2008) one of the scientists responsible for the study, which was conducted on rats, said that, "There are lots of compounds in perfumes that we know in higher concentrations have the potential to have biological effects, so it is just being ultra safe to say that by avoiding using them your baby isn't at risk.

"If you are planning to become pregnant you should change your lifestyle. Those lifestyle things don't necessarily mean that you are going to cause terrible harm to your baby, but by avoiding them you are going to have a positive effect.

"We would recommend you avoid exposure to chemicals that are present in cosmetics, anything that you put on your body that might then get through your body into your developing baby.

"It is not because we have evidence that these chemicals categorically cause harm to babies, it is only based on experimental studies on animals that suggest it is a possibility."

Despite this qualification mothers to be might still want to read the scientist's findings in relation to the other information out there that suggests that the benefits of natural and organic skincare products are especially great during a pregnancy. Of course, natural and organic skincare products can smell nice without recourse to chemicals and synthetics - those that contain essential oils are especially good in this regard.