Food & Drink
12 years cancer free
Johann Ilgenfritz launches new book ‘that could change your health for ever’.
8 May 2025
This article first appeared in our Organic September 2025 issue of My Green Pod Magazine. Click here to subscribe to our digital edition and get each issue delivered straight to your inbox
When Saskia van der Molen developed health problems, she was quick to connect them to the chemicals in the cosmetics she was using as a model and makeup artist.
‘I developed eczema on my left hand, the area I would always test a colour before putting it on my client’s face’, Saskia remembers. ‘Then the skin on my face became irritated, red and bumpy, because I had to wear foundation a lot. The next thing I noticed was that I had a lump in my left breast that was roughly the size of a 2 euro coin.’
Saskia took matters into her own hands and began detoxing her body using herbal cleanses, juice fasting and a 100% whole-food, plant-based diet.
‘I was able to get rid of the lump in six weeks’, she tells us, ‘but after returning to work, the lump came back.’
The only thing that had changed was that Saskia was once again working with regular cosmetics.
‘I started to investigate what was in cosmetics’, she tells us, ‘and found links to carcinogens, allergens and hormone disruptors.’
Saskia spent two years compiling a list of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ ingredients; ‘I threw out all my makeup and personal care products and went to the health food stores in search of products without bad ingredients’, she says – ‘but I couldn’t find them.’
After casting a global net, Saskia finally found handmade products – from companies in the UK and USA – that she felt were 100% safe, and she went back to work. The lump did not return.
Saskia’s overhauled makeup kit became a conversation-starter in a celebrity circle that included the likes of Tom Cruise and Lady Gaga.
‘Some of the celebrities I worked with had problems with their skin, bowels and weight due to the products they were using and the food they were eating’, Saskia shares. ‘I tried to tell them how to improve their health while I was doing their makeup, but there is so much to tell and not enough time during a photoshoot or TV recording.’
Saskia decided to put all the information on a website, and launched HeelNatuurlijk.com – ‘Heal Naturally’ – in 2003. The goal was to inform people about the benefits of detoxing and the possible health impacts of using some cosmetic products.
The launch of the information-sharing website resulted in a deluge of calls and emails from people who wanted to buy clean and safe products, so Saskia added an online shop to make clean shopping easier.
‘The list of good and bad ingredients is published on our website for everyone to print out and use when shopping for safe products’, Saskia shares.
Products sold on HeelNatuurlijk.com must meet very strict criteria: they have to be absolutely free from harmful ingredients and allergens and safe for people and the Earth.
That means no nano particles, chemical preservatives, sulfates, petrochemicals, microplastics, GMOs or chemical colourings or aromas.
‘They must also have a short ingredients list’, Saskia tells us; ‘the shorter the list, the less chance of skin irritation. Less is more!’
When it comes to products we probably just shouldn’t be using, Saskia says nail polish is a prime candidate.
‘There is no such thing as a 100% natural nail polish’, she tells us, ‘so we do not sell it. I want our clients to be able to buy products without having to check them for safety. There are brands that create water-based nail polish that contains fewer chemicals, but that is not the same as 100% natural. There is also no way to bleach your hair without chemicals, so blonde hair dye – to make dark hair turn blonde – always contains chemicals.’
Affordability has always been a key concern for Saskia, as she wants natural products – and the health benefits they bring – to be accessible to everyone.
‘We have a lot of single mums on welfare who buy our products because they have a child with skin allergies’, Saskia says. ‘I want them to be affordable.’
This is why many of the products available on HeelNatuurlijk.com lack organic certification; while Saskia acknowledges that organic would, ‘in a perfect world’, be the best option for food, makeup and personal care, the cost means certification isn’t always realistic – especially for smaller companies.
‘Certification is cheap and easy for multinationals, but relatively expensive for small companies, so they often refrain from getting their products certified’, Saskia shares. ‘I would rather buy from a small company that did not have their products certified organic than from a large company with all the certifications, but most of the time also the added preservatives. Synthetic preservatives are allowed in certified organic cosmetic products.’
The expense of certification is felt by customers as well as businesses; ‘If you buy only certified organic raw materials to make your products and get an organic certification for the end product as well, that is double the price for certification – and the end consumer pays the price’, Saskia explains. ‘The raw materials in HeelNatuurlijk.com products do have organic certification, but we chose not to get a certification for the end product because it would raise our consumer price – and we want to keep our prices as low as possible.’
Even when costs and margins are kept low, natural beauty is by no means cheap – and many would say a completely natural lifestyle is prohibitively expensive during our current cost-of-living crisis.
Yet there are many inexpensive things that are completely natural.
‘Pure Aleppo soap is inexpensive and you can use it for everything – washing your skin, hair, clothes and even brushing your teeth’, Saskia shares. ‘Also, a bottle of good virgin oil, like coconut, olive, jojoba or sweet almond oil, can be used as a moisturiser for your face and body, as baby oil and for you hair, so there are affordable multi-purpose products out there if you want truly natural skincare that is not expensive.’
The natural beauty market has grown exponentially since Saskia changed her own lifestyle in the ‘90s, yet she doesn’t feel the market’s newfound trendiness has led to overall improvements.
‘If a brand is growing, it becomes very convenient to add more preservatives and synthetic ingredients’, Saskia says. ‘Fresh products without preservatives have a short shelf life, and fresh raw materials are sometimes hard to get. Synthetic ingredients can always be made in a lab, so you never run out.’
‘It’s only possible to stay pure and clean if that’s your goal as a brand, and you don’t have dollar signs in your eyes’, Saskia continues. ‘Chemical ingredients are far more affordable than natural ingredients, so more chemicals means more profit. We do not play that game; I know what it is like to get sick from cosmetics, so I will never add chemicals to our products or sell anything that could make you sick.’
If Saskia could recommend one change for maximum impact? ‘Read ingredients and educate yourself’, she advises. ‘Most people trust that all the products sold in shops are safe, but they often have no idea about what is in those products or the concentration of exposure when you combine all the chemicals used per day. Also, how do all these chemicals interact? Those are things that are often not being researched.’
There is a lot that we can’t control; modern life is full of things that may be a threat to our health, but we are in charge of what we put in our mouth and on our skin.
‘I want to keep informing people about natural health and the power of detoxing’, Saskia tells us. ‘We have seen thousands of people heal from all sorts of health problems (even severe ones) with detoxing and changing to a natural lifestyle. It has always been my mission to tell as many people as possible that it is possible to be get your health back the natural way, if only you are willing to change.’
INGREDIENTS TO WATCH OUT FOR
Saskia advises readers to avoid these ingredients at all costs.
- Chemical preservatives such as parabens and phenoxyethanol.
- Coal tar colourings in hair dye, even some natural brands.
- Nano particles.
- PFAs – a forever chemical added to lipgloss, foundations and even tap water.
- Fluoride – a waste product from the aluminium industry, added to UK tap water so always purify before drinking.
- Petrochemicals such as petrolatum, mineral oil and paraffin.
- Aluminum compounds – found in deodorant, toothpaste and sunscreen.
- Formaldehyde – often added indirectly through formaldehyde-releasing preservatives, or ‘formaldehyde releasers’.
- GMO in food and cosmetics.
- Perfume – use only natural scents from essential oils.
- PPD – a chemical found in hair dye.
- Sulfates such as SLS – found in most shampoos (even natural ones).
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