Cosmetic products: enhancing our beauty or causing us harm?
This is one of my favorite topics to talk to people about. Are our cosmetic products helping or harming us?
If you anything like me, I want to be able to go to a store, find the product I want, buy it, have it work exactly how I want it, and BOOM everything is great in the world. That is so far from the actual experience I get when I walk into the beauty section at my local Target.
In the past few years, I have become interested in the ingredient labels on the products I use. I became interested in this when I was diagnosed with Rosacea, where my face gets super red, is sensitive to EVERYTHING, and very acne prone. I wanted to buy products that were going to be more gentle on my skin and would help me, not hurt me. Because my face has a tendency to have dry patches while becoming super oily throughout the day (yes, super confusing), I found a thicker lotion called AmLactin Ultra that I could use at night to help my dry, overly sensitive skin. I loved it, and it worked great. That is, until I realized what was in the ingredient list.
At the time, I was working on a research project that was looking into how parabens affect a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. Parabens are a type of chemical that are used in all kinds of products we use: shampoos, cleaners, makeup, etc. When parabens enter a woman’s body, they have the ability to attach to the estrogen receptor that is usually only bound by estrogen. Estrogen is a naturally produced hormone that plays a role in reproductive development and normal processes in women. When parabens bind to the receptor, like a key connects with a lock, estrogen cannot bind anymore, so the normal processes are altered or changed. Basically, parabens are chemicals that can bind the estrogen receptor which blocks and prevents estrogen from binding its receptor and causes the body to undergo different processes than it normally would - not good!
Back to my lotion story. I looked at the back of the label, and there it was: ‘propylparaben’. Here I am, a scientist/researcher studying endocrine disruptors, specifically parabens, and I was putting a product all over my face that actually contained what I was studying. *forehead slap*
This led to a deep dive into all of my beauty products to see which ones had harmful chemicals in them. I had at least 5 items that had parabens in them, including my detangler that I was using for my hair called It’s a 10 Miracle Leave in Product. I was talking to my family about this revelation I had and had no idea how many products contained these harmful chemicals in them. I was honestly saddened by this experience, and that drove me to look into this more and start spreading the word.
Another chemical that I came across in products that is extremely toxic but companies are still allowed to include is something called “Fragrance” or “Parfum”. This is a loophole in the cosmetic world. This is a way that companies can include toxic chemicals but call the formulation “proprietary” so they do not have to disclose the actual chemicals that make up their “Fragrance” formula. Currently, there is a push for legislation to make companies disclose what is actually in their “Fragrance” formulations, but it is still in the works.
Who can you trust?
One of the most amazing groups I have come in contact with is called the Environmental Working Group. They are a nonprofit that does research on TONS of products to assess how harmful they are to us. (No, this is not a sponsor. I just love them). Best of all, they have an entire database called Skin Deep that you can search by name or scan the barcode of your products to see if and how harmful they are. They don’t have all the products in the world on there, but they are working on adding to their list every day and have a ‘submit a product’ section, too.
Here is the EWG analysis on my It’s a 10 detangler that I discussed above:
So, what do we do?
Here are my tips and suggestions for how we handle this beauty crisis:
Check your products on the EWG Skin Deep website or in the app in the App Store. If they don’t have your product, read the back of the label and look for the obvious ones (parabens, phthalates, fragrance/parfum, etc.). You can also search each chemical on our product label in the EWG database. This can be slightly annoying and a pain in the butt, but it all depends on how much effort you feel like putting in.
Buy from clean companies. Do your research on who you are buying from! This is super important, because some companies can say they are “clean” but their definition of “clean” may not be what you are looking for. The EWG has “EWG verified” companies and products on their website that they have determined safe for use. One of my personal favorites is the Honest Company, which is where I got my new face moisturizer that I absolutely love!
Watch for products that say “paraben-free”, “phthalate-free”, “natural”, etc. There is no regulation in the cosmetic industry for what “natural” means, so there is a lot of grey area there and companies can use this to their advantage. For example (see picture above), a company can say “naturally derived fragrance”. What on earth do they actually mean? There are no essential oils in their ingredient list, so this is definitely a red flag.
Try to minimize your product use or the number of products you use as much as possible. I know this seems like a large undertaking, but consider how many items you use in 1 day to get ready: tooth paste, shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, moisturizer, body wash, etc. By minimizing the amount of products, you may be able to reduce your exposure overall.
Try to make your highest use products the “cleanest”. I would suggest to try to get “clean” items for the ones you use every day or multiple times a day. By doing this, you can also try to minimize your overall exposure to bad chemicals.
Price can be a major roadblock. Like all industries, accessibility is always an issue. Often, the idea is that the rich get the better products. Interestingly, that is not always true with the beauty industry. I have seen some very pricey face creams and makeups from larger, reputable beauty companies that contain more toxic chemicals than smaller brand items. You really have to adopt a trial-and-error process when researching products.
The most important thing to remember with all of this is that no one is perfect. You can try your best to be as smart or responsible as you can with your products, but it is going to be extremely hard to be 100% risk-free in the world we live in today. It is absolutely up to you and what products you want to use, but I feel that it is my role and responsibility to at least shed some light on a topic that even I didn’t know was so clouded and confusing.
Stay safe and stay humble.
- Emily
