5 Necessary Steps You Should Take When Choosing Your Cosmetics
And Personal Care Products
What you put on your skin is as important as the food you eat.
Chemicals that come in contact with your skin can be absorbed
into your bloodstream. Many of the ingredients used in cosmetics
and personal care products are toxic, even though they may not
cause any reaction on the skin. Some cause cancer. Some of the
most commonly used ingredients combine with other ingredients to
form cancer-causing substances. Here's a list to help you choose
safer and healthier cosmetics and personal care products:
1. Read the List of Ingredients
Most products are labeled to "sell" rather than provide accurate
information about the product. The sales pitch on the label
doesn't tell you anything about the safety and quality of the
ingredients in the product. You need to read the ingredients
list rather than the label for more accurate information about
the product.
The ingredient list may not be easy to find and it may be so
tiny you need a magnifying glass to read it because that's not
what the manufacturer wants you to see. The ingredients are
required by law to be listed on the product label in order of
quantity. The ingredient present in the largest quantity is
listed first, the ingredient in the smallest quantity is listed
last.
2. Check the Ingredients for Safety
The cosmetics and personal care industry is very poorly
regulated. There are more than 12,000 ingredients that can be
used in cosmetics and personal care products and most of them
have not been adequately tested, many not tested at all. The
manufacturers are not required to prove the claims they make
about their products or to test them for safety. Many products
contain cancer-causing ingredients along with ingredients that
enhance absorption of the product through the skin into the
bloodstream. To make sure the products you're buying are safe,
check the ingredients against a reliable safety list.
3. Beware of Words That Are Used to Sell Rather Than Provide
Accurate Information
Many of the words manufacturers use on labels to promote their
products do not have "official definitions" so they can be used
to mean anything that the manufacturer wants. These terms are
very often misleading.
Some words to watch out for include: Natural - may contain all
natural ingredients, a few or none at all Hypoallergenic - may
be tested or based upon manufacturer belief; no proof is
required Fragrance free - means no detectable odor; fragrance
ingredients may still be added
4. More is Not Better
Choose products with fewer ingredients, not more. Besides the
fact that most ingredients have not been adequately tested,
those that have been tested have only been tested individually,
not in combination with other ingredients. Nobody knows the
effects of the many different ingredients used in thousands of
different combinations, the effects of using numerous different
products, one on top of the other, or the effects of repeated
use of ingredients or products over time.
5. Buy From Companies Truly Committed to Healthy Products
As consumers are becoming more conscious of using safer and
healthier products, many manufacturers are tapping into that
consciousness and producing pseudo-healthy products. The label
looks like the product is natural and healthy, but if you read
the ingredients, that's not the case. On the other hand there
are companies dedicated to producing safe and natural cosmetics
and personal care products. Many of these are small companies
that were started because of the lack of availability of healthy
products and some of them use organic and food grade ingredients.
We live in a toxic world and there are some things that we have
no control over, like air pollution. However, we do have control
over what we put into our bodies and what we put on our bodies -
if we just take the time to educate ourselves and make safe and
healthy choices. With the increasing number of chemicals in
everything these days, it's important for everyone to become
health conscious. Taking control over what you put into your
body and on your body will affect your quality of life and may
just be a matter of life and death!