How to communicate ingredients, benefits, and routines in natural cosmetics without sounding like a doctor

Natural cosmetics work, they have multiple benefits for skin health… but they are not medicine per se.

I understand this sentence may seem obvious if you are in the business of selling these products, but many people struggle to tell the difference between pharmaceutical and natural cosmetics.

As transparency should be one of the principles of any business, especially when customer’s health is involved, we have put together this post explaining how your communication should avoid making you look like a doctor, while still maintaining the necessary authority.

Of course, we will include some interesting and inspiring examples that can serve as references when planning changes to your own online store.

So I recommend that you do not miss this post.

I understand it might be tempting sometimes, but there are enough reasons to avoid it. Here are the most important ones, at least in our opinion:

So, here you have a solid set of reasons to consider communicating ingredients, benefits, and routines… without using medical language.

Alright, with the concepts clear, let’s look at some scenarios, each paired with a real-life example.

As we always do, we recommend spending a few minutes browsing the stores we are going to mention. Do not just stick with the example we selected for you, explore, interact, and draw even more useful insights.

This is a great tip, create a narrative that centers on the benefit from the perspective of what it makes you feel, rather than what it does to your body in technical terms. You will see your copy become more persuasive and your product more desirable.

You can use many resources, but what matters most is how you craft the product sheet. Let me show you an example from the British brand Pai.

Take a look at this product sheet and I will tell you why I think it works:

First, look at the description, I will translate it for convenience:

It makes very smart use of language. The metaphor “featherlight” can almost be felt on our skin, it is a truly powerful simile.

They also overlay some text on the images that, like annotations, summarize the benefits in a more direct and synthetic way.

It highlights the main function: Soothe, and then, in bullet points, adds other benefits like softening or strengthening the skin barrier.

Last, I have to mention something I think is brilliant, though not directly related to the theme of this post: the use of before-and-after images. A way to demonstrate the effectiveness of the treatment far better than any technical dossier listing benefits.

In the end, this is all about trust and transparency, because make no mistake: in cosmetics (natural or not), achieving a balance between authority, clarity, and education is critically important.

Explaining a cosmetic’s ingredients must be done carefully,  especially being objective about the expected effects and the benefits they offer.

For any consumer with a bit of common sense, miracle products that promise overnight skin transformation sound fishy, or very fishy.

But beyond realism, benefits must also be accessible to the broadest audience. That is why using medical terminology does not help. Be clear about the benefit: hydrates, removes dark circles, reduces wrinkles, soothes irritation...

Let’s look at an example from the American brand Herbivore, which is a really good one. It stands out for design, user experience, and accessibility on all levels (including for people with sensory challenges—but that is another story). Their texts are clear, specific, and provide context for the product.

As we saw in Pai’s commerce, they use images as support and enrich them with the key product benefits. In this case, we see they’ve overlaid one of the photos with ingredients and their key qualities clearly explained in summary:

What I love most is how they have thought of users who need or want more information. For that, a longer and more detailed description is included.

Cosmetic products in general, and natural ones in particular, have a strong lifestyle component.

If you really want to make your communication more effective in eCommerce, I recommend putting effort into this area. Do not be afraid to be more poetic in your copy, because even when talking about ingredients, you will create a more favorable purchase mindset.

I know this sounds a bit vague when explained in theory, but luckily we have some examples. Specifically, this online store called Rowse.

It starts by saying “the spirit of summer in your hands”, just with that, it is clear this is not a doctor’s speech. Then it lists the ingredients, followed by the benefits: “soothes, refreshes, and restores,” and finally, the instructions or usage tips.

Additionally, four key advantages are highlighted:

But as you can see, they always prioritize the inspirational aspect, something also evident in the types of images they use in their product sheets. They prefer to combine more neutral photos with others that show the product in a more aesthetic, almost artistic context.