6 common beauty products you didn’t know were toxic
If you’re worried that certain beauty products are doing more harm than good, then you need to read about these seven common ones that are actually toxic. Ingredients in some cosmetic products – even those described as “natural” – are regulated as industrial chemicals under the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act, 1989.
Unfortunately, we never really know what we are putting on our faces. Your “organic coffee coconut scrub” may actually be made up of horrible chemicals that can build toxicity over time.
If you’re worried about what creams, make-ups and deodorant in your bathroom vanity, read on for some of the more common beauty products that you need to bin now.
1. “Natural” products
Not all organic and natural products have been created equally. Always check the ingredient list and don’t be fooled by buzzwords like raw and botanical. These words often give the illusion of natural ingredients but aren’t necessarily.
2. Permanent and semi-permanent hair dyes
Over time you could build up a tolerance to the chemicals in hair dye and eventually suffer from an allergic reaction, even if you’ve been using the same product for years.
3. Eye shadows and eyeliner
The offending chemical here is aluminium powder. According to the environmental working group, aluminium powder has been linked to neurotoxicity and cancer. In fact, during the filming of the Wizard of Oz, Buddy Ebsen, who played the Tin Man, reportedly suffered a reaction to the aluminium powder make-up. The powder had coated his lungs, and nine days later, the actor was hospitalised.
4. Vitamin A in sunscreen
There’s sometimes a reason that some creams specify if you should use them at night or during the day – an ingredient called retinyl palmitate, or vitamin A palmitate (used in over half of sunscreens available on the market) has been linked to causing cancer on skin exposed to sunlight.
5. Hair straightening creams
Even if a label claims a keratin product is “formaldehyde-free,” many keratin-based hair straighteners were actually found to still contain substantial amounts of the cancer-causing chemical.
6. Antiperspirant deodorants
High doses of the same aluminium salts used in antiperspirants have had devastatingly detrimental effects in mice, including ovarian lesions and reproductive failure.
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