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