We all want to make sure the products we use are healthy and safe, and this should include our personal care products. You may have already read about the issues surrounding triclosan and formaldehyde, but what about hydroquinone? Find out what it is and the 9 other personal care ingredients you should be informed about:
GOOD Magazine recently published an article by Alexandra Spunt, one of the two authors of No More Dirty Looks: The Truth about Your Beauty Products—and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics. Disturbingly, the FDA currently has no authority to regular what goes into cosmetics and personal care products before they hit the market. In fact, 89% of all ingredients in cosmetics have not been evaluated for safety by any publicly accountable institution.
According to Spunt, the top ingredients, contaminants, and byproducts dirtying up your face routine are:
1 Petrolatum and Related Petrochemicals: Often seen as mineral oil or paraffin, not only are these bad for the environment, but they actually create a coating on the skin that interferes with perspiration.
2 Lead Tainted Lipstick: In 2009 the FDA discovered that of 20 lipsticks it tested, all 20 were contaminated with lead.
3 Formaldehyde Preservatives: Not only in nail polish, this chemical also shows up in preservatives such as quaternium-15, DMDM-hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, and diazolidinyl urea.
4 Fragrance: Laboratory tests commissioned by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and evaluated by the Environmental Working Group state that many artificial fragrances can be hormone disrupters when used in large quantities.
5 Parabens: A very popular preservative used in over 10,000 products, there has been concern in the past that parabens contain endocrine disrupters.
6 Chemical Sunscreens: One popular chemical sunscreen ingredient oxybenzone is a suspected hormone disruptor.
7 Hydroquinone This skin-lightning ingredient is banned in Europe due to its categorization as a suspected carcinogen.
8 Nano Particles: According to Dr. Michael DiBartolomeis, a toxicologist and the chief of the California Safe Cosmetics Program, a nano may be able to "get into places it shouldn’t get into—like cells or DNA." We simply don't know enough about it yet to use it so freely.
Add sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulphate (SLES) to the mix (both potential irritants), and you've got a lot to think about.
Read the full article at GOOD.
(Image: GOOD)
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I'm glad I stopped using SLS based shampoos. It caused really bad build up and irritated my scalp to the point I once used zinc based dandruff shampoo. Not anymore. Real soap shampoos make my skin feel so good.
I can't find stuff without SLS in the grocery store, for shampoo. Can anyone help me out with what they've found?
i'm allergic to sls in toothpaste--you'd be shocked how many toothpastes have it. i now use jason toothpaste, which is considerably more expensive than, say, colgate. but $3 is worth not getting open sores bored into my mouth from the foaming detergents.
I use the LUSH brand solid shampoo, sls free! You can order it online if there's no store near by. It works so well and lasts forever. It also smells great. Lastly, by being in solid form it has a much smaller footprint than something in a plastic bottle.
herms--what shampoo do you use? I have an SLES and SLS free shampoo but it still irritates my scalp.
Try using Dr. Bronner's liquid soap in a foaming dispenser. I find it works beautifully to create gorgeous lather for my hair and my body. Dilute it by adding about a volume of 25% water to the soap (IE: 1 cup soap, add 1/4 cup water) so it doesn't clog your dispenser. The foamer also means you don't have to look at that weird and wacky packaging every morning! You can find Dr Bronners at most Targets now, too, so easier availability than most SLS free items.
If you miss the pretty smells (like I did), add a few drops of essential oils to the foamer. Lemon-mint has been lovely this summer, but as the weather is turning I'm going back to my winter vanilla-orange.
Burt's Bees has lots of SLS free products, and they can even be found at Wal*Mart.