The skincare industry is full of chemical-slinging salesmen trying to pawn off pretty jars full of toxic chemicals as the next beauty miracle. They see women as suckers who they can convince to buy anything so long as they put their cheap chemical fillers in attractive bottles and get teenage supermodels to advertise them. Their ads build up and then prey upon insecurities in women — and it works.
The promise of beautiful, glowing and ageless skin is so intoxicating that a lot of women worldwide are willing to put rational thought aside in the vain hope that they may look a bit more like that teenage supermodel, and therefore have more value as a woman. After all, the message being sent is simple: a woman’s sexual value is her only intrinsic value (yet another reason why we need feminism!)
Here’s where the buck stops: Chemicals can’t permanently reverse aging. The best they can do is irritate the deeper layers of your skin so you get a temporary smoothing effect. As you may guess, this is temporary and not at all good for your skin in the long run. The only thing that can actually affect skin cells in an anti-aging way is plants and a healthy lifestyle. The true anti-agers don’t come in fancy $50 jars. They are: organic essential oils, a plant-based and low-glycemic diet, avoiding the sun, and regular exercise.
Research has shown that while none of the popular drugstore or department-store skincare products are able to deliver on any of their anti-aging promises, what’s certain is that they can be very harmful in the long run. Sure, short-term ill effects might include rashes and allergies, which you can immediately address. However, there are certain ingredients and contaminants in skincare products that manufacturers fail to tell us about — and most of them cause us to exhibit ill effects that don’t manifest until after years or decades of use, or when there’s no turning back.
In fact, there are thousands of chemicals in your products, most of which are being absorbed into your body. These companies have cart blanche to use any ingredient or raw material without government review or approval. That’s why it’s so important to always check your products in the Cosmetics Database and the GoodGuide, both of which rate beauty and consumer products based on toxicity.
This industry is highly unregulated. There is no pre-product approval before a product hits the market and enters your home. Since the FDA’s inception in 1930, the FDA has only banned 11 cosmetics ingredients. In contrast, in the same amount of time, the European Union has banned 1378 cosmetics ingredients. Many of the synthetic chemicals in your products are skin irritants, skin penetrators, endocrine disruptors and are carcinogenic.
Here’s an enlightening (and very share-worthy) short video about how the skincare industry works:
Here are a few of the most common and harmful types of ingredients you should watch out for the next time you snap a skincare product off the shelves. This is by no means a complete list, as 80% of ingredients in consumer products (cosmetics, skincare, cleaning) remain untested, and the complete list of proven toxic ingredients that are in your products (yes, yours!) is much, much longer. Watch out for these ingredients with every skincare product you consider and, remember, don’t be fooled by high price tags. Higher price tags don’t usually mean higher quality – just more marketing.
Hormone Disruptors
Dibutyl Phthalate, also called DBP or butyl ester, is a very common ingredient in skincare products whose function is to help the skin absorb the products better and achieve desired results faster. What is alarming, however, is that DBP has been classified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a probable human carcinogen, meaning, it can cause cancer. It has also been shown to lower sperm count in men, and cause unborn males to have smaller penis’ and other testicular issues. The health problems resulting from DBP-containing products was raised years ago, but most skincare products in department stores still contain this ingredient, unlisted on the label. It’s illegal in virtually every modern country except the USA.
Foaming Agents
Washing your face with what could be an industrial degreaser could lead to more harm than good, so it’s best to read the fine print and labels before getting sold on a product. Sodium Lauryl Sulphate is the main ingredient in most facial washes, as its effect is to strip the layer of oil off the skin to make it look “fresh and clean.” What many don’t know, however, is that sodium lauryl sulfate is also the main ingredient in garage floor cleaners and other degreasing agents. Sure, it can get rid of that oil layer, but it leaves the skin vulnerable, pitted and rough. Take note that the skin needs a considerable layer of oil to stay nourished and healthy.
Cocoamide, also called diethylalomine, is what makes moisturizers and shampoos bubble. While bubbling looks and feels nice, studies have shown that DEA blocks your body’s natural choline absorption, which is necessary for proper brain development and function. It can also lead to skin breakouts, rashes and allergies in the short term. In the long term, the consequences are likely to be far more serious.
Synthetic Perfumes
Sometimes, it is the bad things that are disguised in nice-smelling packages. Just because your facial wash or lotion smells wonderful, it doesn’t always mean your body is rejoicing in it. Synthetic or chemical-based perfumes are high in aldehydes (air pollutants) and benzene derivatives, which can lead to dizziness, headaches and other similar toxic reactions. Skincare manufacturers often take to synthetic perfumes because the cost of making natural-based fragrances is high, thereby allowing them to sell their products cheap.
On top of it, the word “Fragrance” on an ingredients label is deemed a “trade secret”, and therefore companies don’t have to disclose the contents of this concoction. Many companies hide the most harmful ingredients under the cloak of “Fragrance”.
Preservatives
Your mainstream skincare products almost certainly contain parabens and other nasty preservatives. Parabens possess estrogen-mimicking properties that are associated with increased risk of breast cancer. These chemicals are absorbed through the skin and have been identified in biopsy samples from breast tumors.
Many other preservative chemicals, like methylisothiazolinone, are actually banned in Europe from being included in leave-in products – like the cream you keep on your face all day, but are still allowed in products sold in the USA. Another red flag for this nasty chemical is that, in lab tests, brain cells were altered after regular application, signifying that this ingredient is likely a neurotoxin!
Petrochemicals & Other Nasty / Toxic Chemicals
Mainstream skincare products contain many petroleum-based ingredients …and for some reason we all thought that was okay. However, research has shown that using products that contain petrochemicals can result in kidney problems, nerve and brain damage and cancer in the long run. They say beauty is pain, but they probably didn’t mean like this!
There are so many toxic chemicals in skincare and cosmetics nowadays that it would seriously take a university course to get up to speed.
The Solution
I never shop at drugstores or department stores — only at organic-focused health food stores. I use the simplest organic products I can (here’s my Pinterest board with natural beauty brands), and I make a lot of my own skincare creams and oils myself. I take my makeup off with 100% organic coconut oil and I make my own oil or shea butter + essential oil face and body creams (it’s easy!). I use Raspberry Cider Vinegar (it’s like Apple Cider Vinegar, but smells better) as a toner and skin probiotic. I use natural soaps like Dr. Bronner’s bar soap for my hands and body. I stick to organic products with as few ingredients as possible – and only ingredients I understand.
Wondering if you should toss the products in your cabinet? Check the ingredients in the Cosmetics Database (aka. Skin Deep / EWG) and the GoodGuide, both of which rate beauty and consumer products based on toxicity. Skin Deep and GoodGuide both have apps you can download on your phone, to scan a barcode for fast checking in-store. GoodGuide also has an Internet browser toolbar that slides up from the bottom of your window, to subtly warn you when you’re shopping for a potentially toxic / harmful product (based on selected criteria you care about), and suggests similar options you might like that fit your criteria better.
The best part? The natural glow that comes from a combination of natural products coupled with serenity in knowing that you’re not poisoning your body.
Let’s face it, we all grow old and, frankly, the true secret to beauty inside and out is happiness, contentment and a positive attitude. It sounds cheesy, but it’s a genuine smile, along with a healthy body and outlook that will ensure we live beyond the life expectancy statistics — while aging gracefully.
Read more about toxins in products you use:
The Cosmetics Database site is very helpful. You can’t really expect all women to know about every bit of ingredient that is harmful. We all know how scientific product ingredients can get. It’s great that smartass people have invented a database that pretty much has everything you need to know about every product out there in the market. As a skincare and cosmetics hoarder and lover, it’s so hard to distinguish the okay with the not okay. It’s quite baffling that even famous brands have secrets hidden in their ingredient list (or not even included!).
I’m hard headed so, I think I’ll keep using my favorite perfumes. Just maybe– a little less.
Being safe than sorry is a good thing to think about when you read this article. The effects aren’t immediate, so a lot people might say “hey, I don’t feel anything?” Well that’s because the effects aren’t going to manifest immediately.
There are a lot of better alternatives to products that contain these ingredients. Like natural antioxidants in food, natural scents that aren’t synthetic, natural options to keep your hair and body clean. Just by thinking of it, people back in the old days didn’t seem to mind missing all these before. In fact, just because these products were advertised by celebrities or socialites, it has become a cult favorite and it gained a reputation. It’s not because it was made with an extraordinary ingredient that can turn back time and make you look 20 years younger, or make your hair softer and longer in just one wash, or whatever claims it had.
I’ve seen a couple of those alternatives online… Like those avocado masks or hair masks…
I just finished reading this: https://urbanette.urbanette.com/instant-face-masks-from-the-kitchen/ Very helpful!
Wow, maybe this is the reason why we get dizzy when someone’s perfume is too strong? Like it just won’t get off of our noses kind of smell! I didn’t think there’s any difference between aerosol sprays with CFCs that were labelled bad for the ozone layer and our health with these synthetic fragrances.
Will I be a mood-killer if I say we should just eat healthy and not use cosmetics to hide it all? ?
I may have gone through that phase in my life where I didn’t want to get old and I became super conscious of every wrinkle I had. I had to research a lot of products that can help my aging skin and I have gone through tubes and bottles of serums and creams that had anti-aging on it. But when I couldn’t find my holy grail, I just started to realize that beauty on the outside isn’t something that you can have all your life. Everyone gets old and we can’t have all the beauty in the world once you’re on your 30’s onwards. It’s just something you have to deal with emotionally. You can always be beautiful on the inside.
What’s sad is that it’s not even surprising that these ingredients can be dangerous to our health. Live your life as simple as it can get, with that you can getaway from all the toxicity of these things.
Before I purchase any products, whether if it’s for home use or personal use, I do a bit of a somewhat extensive research. It’s hard to distinguish the good from the bad, especially when high-end brands are just as bad as cheaper brands.
We’re used to using shampoos and soaps that bubble. We even think that the more bubbles it produces, the cleaner our hair and body gets. If this post is saying that the ingredient that makes shampoos and soaps foam up is dangerous, I don’t think it’s going to be easy to emit these products into our daily lives. Probably half of the things invented through technology isn’t safe at all, but going through every day without using shampoo, soap, or whatever cosmetics that were branded unsafe? I don’t think that’s a realistic thing to do. We’re all used to using these things, whether it’s unsafe in the long run probably won’t even matter. There are just some things in life you can’t just remove even with the danger that comes along with it.