Look out at the Cosmetics Counter!

When you’re at the cosmetics counter its easy to get persuaded by the gorgeous girl at the counter who answers all of your questions just as she knows you want to hear them…

    ”Yes of course its all natural, all our products are!”

But then you look at the ingredients list and ask,

    “What’s Paraben?”

And she says

    “Just a preservative, all cosmetics have them so they have a longer use by date”

NO NO NO NO NO! Parabens are extremely harmful, often interfering with your hormone levels, and yes, while lots of products do contain them, not all do. You should be looking at ones that don’t! But how are you supposed to know what to look out for? Well here is a starter list of ingredients to avoid when buying beauty and skin care products.

Ingredients to avoid:

DMD Hydantion and Imidazolidinyl urea- common preservatives used with Paraben in cosmetics. The effects of these ingredients have been proven to cause cancer, due to their toxic nature. 

Synthetic Fragrances- look out for synthetic fragrances, 95% of the chemicals in perfume are synthetic compounds derived from petroleum These fragrances can cause allergic reactions, cancer and can slowly eat away at your nervous system.  That being said essential oil fragrances or natural fragrances are a different story and are safe.

Methylchloroisothiazolinone and Methylisothiazolinone-

Use-Again a preservative in skin care and cosmetics.

Effects- it has been largely removed from cosmetics products because of its irritating nature to both skin and membranes, in some cases chemical burns. However it still is used in products that do not have a long skin contact duration, such as rinse off products.

PEG and Eth-

Use- used as a thickener in many products,  that you would use several times a day such as toothpaste!

Effects- It is carcinogenic, neurotoxic and causes mutation of DNA

Sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate (SLS, SLES)-

Use-Scarily this chemical is also used in heavy duty cleaning products, and is used in clinical tests on skin healing, not in a good way though, it is the product they use to harm the skin in the first place! 

Effects-It causes skin irritation and because of its ability to penetrate, the skin absorbs it very easily!

Triclosan and triclocarban-

Use-Found in soaps and other personal hygiene products as an anti bacterial ingredient.

Effects-Triclocarban disrupts reproductive hormone activity and triclosan interferes with cell signaling that occurs in the brain and heart. It is especially dangerous for Thyroid problems.

Triethanolamine (TEA) –

Use-used as a pH balancer in various beauty products, including face and body moisturizers. 

Effects-It is an irritant, especially to the eyes, ironic seeing as its frequently used in mascara, it is also known to have carcinogenic effects, although the studies have been in conclusive.

Sorry it’s such a long list, but really its just the surface of the harmful ingredients out there! but familiarize yourself with these ingredients for starters, as they are the basics you should look out for! 


For a more extensive list log onto www.rawpolish.com

Good Luck, and if you have any questions feel free to ask, either through the Blog or via our facebook page

P.S Next week I am going to talk about Nano technology, one of the scariest technologies used in your skin care and make up, what’s even scarier is it doesn’t even have to be listed, even though it has the potential to change your DNA! It’s so complicated it needs a whole post to itself, but I just thought I would give you a heads up now!

Love

 Raw Polish

Nanotechnology

This is a pretty complicate topic, but I am going to try to keep it as simple as possible. I promise it wont read like a scientific manual!

So what is Nanotechnology well, according to a scientific report in April 2009 Nanotechnology is…

…actually no that definition was like 10 pages long. I am going to give you my own definition, it wont be quite as scientific, but it might actually make sense! Nanotechnology, in the cosmetics industry is the way that we absorb things through our skin.

For example, you know when you rub sunscreen into your skin, and it just sits on the top, making this ugly white, greasy layer, well that is because the particles that make up the sunscreen are too big. That’s where Nanotechnology comes in, it is a scientific way of making the particles smaller, and so the sunscreen soaks into the skin, making you look less like a pale ghost.

Ok….so how is this bad, you might ask, Well, here is the catch; The particles can become so small that they don’t just soak into the first layer of your skin, they can keep going, and we have no way of knowing (yet) where they actually stop. The nano-particles are so small there is a huge risk of these nano-particles integrating into your blood stream and cell structure, potentially playing havoc with your DNA! Eek!

A European study, showed that 5% of cosmetic companies are already using this technology and even promoting its benefits, but without the proper scientific research on its long-term effects, we don’t really know what it is doing to us.

Again, its the beauty industry self-regulating, for maximum profit, they really do do things backwards, until a ingredient or in this case technology proves to be harmful, it can stay on the market, and doesn’t even have to be stated on the pack! Frighteningly (there is always one of these), A UK-based consumer group, published a report titled “Small Wonder? Nanotechnology and Cosmetics” in November 2008. In this they contacted a number of cosmetics companies about their use of nanotechnology. Only eight companies agreed to give details of their product! Hello does that not scream “DO NOT USE NANOTECHNOLOGY!”

The SCCP (EU Scientific Committee on Consumer Products) have called for changes to be made to legislation, with more research and nano-particles being listed as an ingredient mandatory, however this will not come into effect until 2012, so until then, be very careful!

Companies known to be using nanotechnology:

Boots,

Avon,

The Body Shop,

L’Oréal,

Nivea

Unilever.

for brands with real natural content log onto www.rawpolish.com, and check out what we have rated as the best natural products.

See even cosmetics companies you though were safe, like the Body Shop aren’t, because not everything is as it appears; the Body Shop is owned by L’oreal, so of course they are sharing ingredients and technologies.

Hope this article made sense! I'll keep you posted

Love,

    Raw Polish

An Introduction!

Welcome to the first Raw Polish Post. So excited to finally be here!

First we thought we should share with you a little information on what exactly Raw Polish is, and does.

We are four Final Year Uni students who are passionate about natural beauty and skin care products. While there are a lot of so-called ‘natural’ products out there, because the beauty industry is self-regulated, it is hard to know what’s what , in the beauty world. Just because a product claims to be ‘natural’ doesn’t actually mean it is. Beauty brands can claim something is natural with only 5% natural ingredients! Same goes for Organic ingredients, you have to look out for the Certified Organic Symbol, because the term Organic gets thrown around quite a lot in the beauty world.

So how is one supposed to know what to look out for when buying ‘natural’ beauty and skin care products?! Well that is where the Raw Polish Blog comes in!

This blog will aim to educate you on what to look out for, good and bad, when buying ‘natural’ beauty and skin care products. The Blog will keep you up to date on new developments in the beauty industry, new products available, and current issues.

Look out next week for a basic cosmetics guide: ingredients to look out for! And remember dont trust claims like 'dermatologically' tested, 'organic' and the most misused of all 'natural'! Look at the ingredients list to see what really in it! next week's post will help with knowing what to be on the look out for.

And if you are looking for more specific information on a brand or even an individual product, go to www.rawpolish.com. where we rate the naturalness  as well as the product's quality, so don't worry. You'll never have to sacrifice quality for natural ingredients again! The site also includes stockists, prices and a full ingredients list.

Love,

Raw Polish