The 5 dirtiest additives in your skincare to look out for
Hi everyone and welcome to my new website and my first ever blog! I am so excited to be live and begin my Green Beauty blogging journey with you all. This blog will be particularly interesting and feeding you with heaps of information giving some meanings to additives that I have interpreted in the simplest way. My intent is to teach you about which cosmetics ingredients to avoid and better suggestions to feel the real touch of natural beauty.
Once I made the discovery and figured out what was being put in our daily beauty products, I came across a wonderful and helpful tool, the ThinkDirty app. This app opened my eyes to a world of disbelief at first. I remember going up and down the beauty section of Priceline for about 1.5 hours if not more. The app works with a rating system 0 – 5 with 5 meaning high toxity and giving you a list of the ingredients and a Dirty meter reporting on carcinogenicity, developmental & Reproductive toxity and allergies & immunotoxities ratings.
From this I have to admit that for years late at night I would sit on my couch with my laptop while my kids and hubby were in bed and I became absorbed deep in cyber space reading what additives large corporations were putting in cosmetics, reading articles, researching meanings to chemicals and additives, looking for organic beauty products, and I immediately came to my own conclusions deciding that I had to pursue a cleaner beauty regime. I wanted better for my family and I.
Feeling empowered with all my knowledge it became my mission in life to switch to a green beauty lifestyle and fulfilling a healthier option for my family. I became adamant that I was going to avoid going back to buying the convenient and chemical infulled products.
For me there’s no looking back, this is my norm the only way I know for the future.
I believe in the saying ‘everything in moderation’ to a point however not where beauty products are concerned. Honestly making the switch is a long process and it can be expensive however I believe it’s the healthiest and safer way. Whenever I pick up a beauty product I will automatically turn to the ingredients listing and skim through to see what is in it. As soon as I see any chemical I just move on to the next. You would be surprised that many products make claims that they are organic or natural however this is not always the case. It’s a marketing ploy to trick you thinking it’s healthy. They will say that there’s no parabens, no sulphates etc., however Fragrance or Phenoxyethanol amongst other additives may still be present.
My first advice is to always look at the back at the ingredients listing and check for yourself.
I’ve become wary of many additives along the way so let’s take a look at a few of them that you may come across in conventional beauty products.
Parabens
A preservative used in cosmetics and skincare to prevent bacteria from growing. It can disrupt hormone function, cause infertility, early puberty in children, and or early menopause in women. Scientific proof has suggested that an hour after you apply products containing Parabens, it will present in your breast milk, urine and malignant tissue. Research has shown that parabens mimic oestrogen and can increase the growth of breast cancer cells. Look out for ingredients ending in paraben, such as ethylparaben, butylparaben, methylparaben, thankfully many companies have caught on and are slowly but surely eliminating this toxin from beauty products.
Although a product may say Parabens Free it doesn’t mean they’re not hidden in another chemical such as Fragrance, which leads me to my next dirty additive.
Fragrance or Parfums
A term used to class all 3,100 stock chemical ingredients. The 3,100 chemicals are not required to be listed on labels because of an FDA exemption meaning it is a cocktail of synthetic chemicals, parabens, petroleum based chemicals that may be linked to a fair few heath issues such as hormonal disruption, asthma, dermatitis, allergies and cancer.
This one baffles me the most. Sometimes in a product, you will find some beautiful ingredients like organic and natural extracts from plants and then Fragrance will also be present in the ingredient listing. I mean, couldn’t the makers just add essential oils instead to make it pure?
Phenoxyethanol
Also called Ethylene Glycol, Monophenyl Ether, Rose Ester, and Phenoxetol. This chemical is found in green tea however the type found in your beauty product was most likely created in a lab. It is known as a more natural replacement for parabens and is considered safe however I’m not too sure how this is true as it can be irritating to the skin and lungs as studies have suggested. Other side effects are vomiting, diarrhoea, kidney damage, severe organ damage from long term use and cell damage amongst others.
Sodium benzoate
It is a preservative used widely in cosmetics which inhibits the growth of fungus and bacteria in the product. It is also naturally occurring in fruit like apples and plums. The problem with this additive isn’t so much the ingredient rather it is what happens when this additive is mixed with others ingredients like ascorbic acid or vitamin c. When vitamin c and sodium benzoate meet it creates chemical called benzene. This chemical is found in plastics, dyes, rubber, and pesticides even in second hand smoke. It’s a known cancer-causing agent based on evidence on human and animal studies. Even though we’re only talking about a tiny amount that has become a by-product, it’s still there absorbing through your skin into your organs.
Sulfates
A foaming agent often contaminated with 1, 4 dioxide, a by-product of the manufacturing process (much like what happens to Sodium Benzoate) that is possibly carcinogenic to humans.
Your skin is the largest organ and a direct route into your bloodstream, it’s important that your skincare products are full of ingredients that promote healthy skin and you feel good about choosing organic or natural products that are free from parabens and sulfates.
INSTEAD try looking for products with certified organic symbols:
Look for ingredients of essential oils. The aromas of essential oils are natural, pure and healthier derived from plants. And don’t forget to have a look at the ThinkDirty app.
I hope I have given you a step up in knowledge or some inspiration to eliminate these toxins from your life.
Yours Truly