It all started with an article I had to write for the newspaper. As I have said, I wouldn’t buy this particular newspaper even if it gave a free villa in the
But this doesn’t mean I don’t research my articles, even for publications that are meant for glass cleaning instead of reading. The article was about ingredients that go into cosmetics: from mainstream cosmetics, to really expensive ones, to ones that claim to be “natural” (ha), and finally to those you only find in health shops and have sometimes been approved by several organizations.
Let me jump to the moment I finished the article and went in the bathroom to wash my hair. I don’t know how many minutes I stood there, looking at all the bottles, feeling that every time I wash my hair, a little toxic bomb explodes on my head.
What I decided to do from now on is to take my list of dangerous toxics with me every time I go shopping . I thought, if I am to suffer from degenerative diseases in the future, it might as well be from all the pollutants I breathe daily, or because I smoke (I don’t) or take drugs (I don’t), and not because I want to have clean hair and use deodorant.
I also don’t trust anybody, because all companies are in the business to make money, even green ones. That’s why I was not surprised when a well known (in Greece) “green” brand, the kind you only find in health shops, the kind that charges 15 Euros for a bottle of shampoo (that was the price for 250 ml) listed “Formaldehyde” in the ingredients. Formaldehyde is a cheap preservative that goes into cosmetics and you can do your own research on what it may or may not do to you.
Finally, I want to explain that I am a big fan of chemistry. Everything that surrounds us is chemistry. Chemical is not opposite to natural, which anyway, does not exist and is a fantasy word like “unicorn”. But because I am a fan of chemistry, I want the people who know how to work chemical wonders, to make a shampoo that won’t kill off my brain cells and a shower gel that won’t alter my DNA beyond recognition.
At a time when we are worrying about the side effects that necessary, life-saving drugs may have on us, it is a bit silly to ignore the side effects of lipstick.
Some interesting links
This is a list of suspicious ingredients. There are more lists out there.
This is a relevant Greenpeace report.(pdf)
This is a WWF report (pdf). If you don’t have time for all of it go to page 19.
These are websites that let you know more about toxic ingredients in cosmetics:
http://www.notjustaprettyface.org/
Here is a database to find out about particular products that you may be using
Here is an interview with Stacy Malkan, author of the book Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry. By the way Sprig is a nice site anyway.
November 19th, 2007 at 1:19 am
It’s easy to start panicking when reading the labels but I’m sure the reports are more allarming than they should be. Yes, everything we use is toxic in some way, you can’t find a single washing product that doesn’t have sodium laureth sulfate, but I think if we use things in moderation it won’t be that bad.
I stopped using a lot of things when I read about that, especially conditioners with silicon and lotions with parafin and oil…who would want to put petrol over their skin? Disgusting but we put it without knowing.
Here’s another site with lots of products and their index of toxity:
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php?nothanks=1
November 19th, 2007 at 3:52 am
arrghh! I’m a bit worried about what I’ve been using after checking out your links!
November 19th, 2007 at 4:50 am
On the basis of your checklist, I just checked my Tigi shampoo bottle for ingredients.
It might be time to reach out for a bar of green soap.
November 19th, 2007 at 5:58 am
I think many of those websites are guilty of scaremongering by omission and often sell products. The main problem with them is they state that chemicals are harmful or toxic without specifying amounts required to be dangerous. Another big problem is that chemicals that are harmful are often made inert when used in combination with other chemicals. Take hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide – one is highly acidic and the other is highly caustic. If used in very dilute forms neither is harmful. If mixed together you get water and salt. Many of the chemicals in the lists fall into this category. As you point out there are many natural substances that are also harmful.
There are also lots of natural substances that are only harmful in the right doses, like nutmeg, or brazil nuts, or bergamot oil from oranges, and the same goes for chemicals. The EU regulations, such as REACH, are extremely strict as to the chemicals allowed into cosmetics and at what amounts are acceptable to public health. They’re extremely strict. There’s also been a lot of scares about cosmetics such as lead in lipstick – that have turned out to be false. Where there has been genuine contamination of cosmetics it has been picked up because of the strict regulation, a recent example being contaminated toothpaste from China.
So I’m really not bothered about using the latest conditioner or shampoo because of what’s going on behind the scenes to ensure its safety. It’s researched. It’s peer reviewed. It’s heavily regulated. I’m more worried about using products that aren’t subject to regulation because there’s no guarantee of the chemicals involved, no guarantee of whether it works, and no easy legal recourse if it makes me sick. If anything the worst thing cosmetics companies are responsible for is making false claims and charging extortionate amounts of money for things that won’t work as well as the advertising implies.
I know you talk about this sort of thing because you care for people, but there’s also a who industry of people that make money by hyping risks ;).
November 19th, 2007 at 9:20 am
Devil Mood
I’ve found a shampoo and a shower gel without sodium laureth sulfate. See
http://www.naturaleurope.com/ne/S-41058.html?id=jxeCizB6
They are not that common but they exist. How can you wash hair in moderation? I wash my hair every day (too oily).
Etchen
We can’t stop using products, but we can stop using some of the products. Do we really need body scrub for example? Or 3 different types of moisturizer?
Fuff
green soap makes hair look awful! There must be a couple of nicer ones in Boots. In fact nect time i am there i am going to search a bit.
Jack
true, many sites in fact sell products. However, not the ones I am suggesting here.
There was that hoax email about lead in lipsticks that was going around, but this does not mean there is no lead in some lipsticks. The email was bogus, telling you how to find out if your lipstick is contaminated which is ridiculous. Still, lead in some lipsticks is not fantasy.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/12/news/companies/lipstick_lead/
I know it might be in miniscule amounts, but i want the packaging to let me know it exists, so that it’s my decision whether I want to have that miniscule amount on my lips.
REACH only became strickter after consumer groups pressed hard. Still, it is not as strict as it could be. And let’s not forget that in the States there is not a REACH regulation, and american consumers are in more danger than europeans.
But i agree with you on the point you make about products that are not regulated. The other day I was telling M that it would make a great difference if i knew how all the fabric that we come in contact with had a little label saying how it was processed and dyed. Maybe that would make a difference on the price of clothes. Maybe what we consider high fashion now, wouldn’t be so fashionable after all.
November 19th, 2007 at 9:22 am
Would you use Korres? And Lush? Just wondering..
November 19th, 2007 at 9:31 am
i don’t know Lush. I know Korres. No I wouldn’t. I’ve read the ingredients on some of the products i used. What infuriates me about some companies is that they promote the fact that they are “natural” which is ridiculous. Not even the apple straight from the tree is natural.
November 19th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Korres products aren’t that ‘natural’ after all, although the body milks seem to be ok. Body shop isn’t that innocent either, I’ve just cheched and realized that I’ve consumed quite a lot of moderately hazardous rasberry lip balm over the years
November 19th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Chloe, the list of suspicious ingredients you suggest has a a list of products for sale on the left hand side. It is extremely rare to find a site that is so alarmist that does not sell products also. The less toxic guide claims not to be a commercial venture but it’s clear whose products they recommend (it’s who they’re funded by):
http://www.lesstoxicguide.ca/index.asp?fetch=personal#bodya
The health-care without harm campaign, and the WWF campaign are principally concerned with the manufacture of cosmetics rather than their use. The Greenpeace piece is superficially alarmist but now I’ve read it I realise it’s actually quite nuanced about the risks, unlike many of the list sites. Although Greenpeace, the WWF have clearly gone for headline grabbing. It’s their job.
If you’re worried about the risks of small amounts of lead in lipstick I won’t go into how many other things, including foods (organic included) contain similarly small traces of far more poisonous substances. But aren’t listed in the ingredients, and even if they were listed in the ingredients would be nothing to worry about.
I know a few professional chemists and I can get them to come here and comment if you want, but I don’t know if they’d remain civil because they get sent questions about this sort of stuff all the time :).
November 19th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
lol No, we can’t wash our hair and bathe with moderation…But, as lipstick was mentioned, can you imagine the amount of lipstick we eat? Probably more than half of the tube, yack! I’m addicted to lip balm, how can I quit? ;P
Body Shop is a joke, the ingredients are worse than products from the supermarket. But we never know the actual quantities they use, so we’re in the dark. If we assume that all products are bad in one way or another, that’s a good starting point. Then we have to define some priorities: animal testing, environmental protection, toxicity, … and live with ourselves.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:03 am
look in the archives at motherearthnews.com for natural health and body care. i have used products from tom’s of maine for 30 years.
November 20th, 2007 at 1:00 am
WOW. Thank you, and I’m still reeling from all this info on chemicals.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Years ago, I started wondering why some cosmetics were so expensive, if our money really bought quality ingredients. I found Paula Begoun, who really knows her stuff — a chemist, a cosmetics expert, inventor of cosmetics with simple, hypo-allergenic ingredients that she explains. And yes, they’re inexpensive.
She publishes books, also inexpensive and full of explanations about each ingredient and what it actually does, not what PR says it does.
She has a Web site, and her newsletters are free.
http://www.cosmeticscop.com if anyone is interested.
I’ve learned a lot from her and I use some of her products as well.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Oh by the way, we use homemade soap and shampoo bars made by a woman in California who uses basic ingredients from her farm. No bottle in the landfill, biodegrable ingredients in the water, no residue or toxins on our body or in our hair.
My fiance was skeptical at first, but we’ve been using them for 6 months now and thrown away nothing. They’re also cheaper. We paid 1.89 US dollars per bar; lasts 1 month for the both of us using it daily.
P.S. Love the new look of the site
November 20th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I just scrolled down to the post where you made all those lovely hand-made gifts. You are so talented Chloe! And I am so jealous (still luv ya tho)!
November 20th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I’m pretty sure I’m going to get cancer or some other disease no matter what I do but thanks for sharing all that info!
November 20th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Jack
i talked to chemists for that article i wrote. they were civil enough.
ultimately, it’s how all this makes us feel. I feel i don’t want to risk anything at all for cosmetics. Plus, i have been using lipsticks makeup etc daily since i was 14. Some substances are flushed away from our system but some stay there and little by little they may be dangerous.
I had found this site that is concerned primarily with air pollutants, which are usually met in large quantities but it has a search box and you can type the name of the substance and it tells you what it does. Again, in large amounts, but as i said, i don’t want the small amounts either.
I know there is lead in some candy and in other foods. However, just because i cannot do everything (and i don’t WANT to do everything, because i’ll become an eco-nazi)it doesn’t mean i cannot do anything. Cosmetics are not worth any danger, however minimal, although the level of danger remains to be proven in the future.
The site i was telling you about
http://www.scorecard.org/chemical-profiles/
Rudder and Kat
thank you, i’ll give them a try. x
November 20th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
I totally recommend and dig Kat’s recommendation above of Paula Beguon’s site. For instance her articles about DEA (Diethanolamine) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (more here about ingredients). Compare what she said about those chemicals to the information available on those websites proclaiming their toxicity. There’s also a great bit that backs up what you say about natural vs. artificial too.
Ultimately, you’re correct, it’s about personal choice. But risk does need to be put in context.
November 20th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
how strange, I could have sworn I left a comment here earlier, but it’s gone… did I imagine it?
November 20th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Edvard
it arrived in my mailbox but i never saw it here. maybe wordpress has kept it for moderation. sometimes it has a mind of its own.
November 20th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Could be an Askimet problem, may be worth checking because mine has picked up legitimate comments loads of times.
November 27th, 2007 at 5:54 am
you know what??? it always so refreshing that no matter how long I have been away that when I come back you are still true to who you are.!!
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Almost everything we have now has some form of risks… If we care too much about the little details, we will only worry ourselves endless, don’t you think? With that said, it’s always better to go for safer products…