A certified organic ingredients stamp decorates my shampoo bottle, but when flipped over, its contents include methylparaben, propylparaben, methylisothiazolinone, and methylchloroisothiazolinone. I know I'm not the only one tricked by the 'natural' or 'organic' marketing with chemicals lurking in countless eco-beauty products.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics calls it
'greenwashing,' where companies produce a supposedly eco-beauty product that still contains chemicals not considered natural or organic and can negatively impact our health.
WHY CHEMICALS ARE STILL IN ECO-BEAUTY PRODUCTS
Sometimes, harsh chemicals in eco-beauty products sit at the end of the ingredient list, but when these chemicals are boggled down by actual natural and/or organic ingredients, do they still pose a risk?
Apparently, yes. On a regular basis, the average person uses around ten beauty products from hairspray to deodorant, so all these chemicals are being absorbed into the body in multiple amounts.
Methylparaben and propylparaben, for example, belong in a group called parabens, which act as preservatives with preventing bad bacteria. But, according to the
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, parabens are absorbed into the skin, blood, and digestive system and have been found in cancerous tumors and urine samples.
Parabens, fragrances, and triclosan are just a few chemicals suspected of hurting our health yet remain in the majority of beauty products because they usually prolong the shelf life.
MAIN CHEMICALS TO AVOID:
Source: Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database.
CHECKING FOR EASY CODE WORDS
Fragrance seems to be the one of the worst chemical ingredients with so many synonyms in the
Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. One of my lotions boasted its vitamins and amino acids but failed to mention both fragrance and diazolidinyl urea meant the same thing without the details.
Terms like diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea, ceteareth, and polyethylene glycol are classic code words for fragrance, which all can contain a concoction of chemicals that are usually not expressed on the back of the product.
Spotting chemicals with the methyl- prefix or -paraben suffix can be relatively easy with common ingredients like methylparaben since they have moderate hazardous rankings under the database.
LIMITED INGREDIENTS COULD BE KEY
Like with natural and organic foods, look for eco-beauty products with shorter ingredient lists and read those lists because sometimes fewer ingredients means they could all be labeled natural, organic, or harmless.
Check out this
quick tip sheet to see how t
o detect the bad chemicals in eco-beauty products.
