Know Everything About 5 Necessary Steps You Should Take When Choosing
Your Cosmetics And Personal Care Products
What you put
on your skin is as important as the food you eat. Chemicals that come
in contact with your skin can be absorbed into your bloodstream. Many
of the ingredients used in designer cosmetics and personal care
products are toxic, even though they may not cause any reaction on
the skin. Some cause cancer. Some of the most commonly used
ingredients combine with other ingredients to form cancer-causing
substances. Here's a list to help you choose safer and healthier
cosmetics and personal care products:
1. Read the
List of Ingredients
Most products
are labeled to "sell" rather than provide accurate
information about the product. The sales pitch on the label doesn't
tell you anything about the safety and quality of the ingredients in
the product. You need to read the ingredients list rather than the
label for more accurate information about the product.
The ingredient
list may not be easy to find and it may be so tiny you need a
magnifying glass to read it because that's not what the manufacturer
wants you to see. The ingredients are required by law to be listed on
the product label in order of quantity. The ingredient present in the
largest quantity is listed first, the ingredient in the smallest
quantity is listed last.
2. Check the
Ingredients for Safety
The cosmetics
and personal care industry is very poorly regulated. There are more
than 12,000 ingredients that can be used in cosmetics and personal
care products and most of them have not been adequately tested, many
not tested at all. The manufacturers are not required to prove the
claims they make about their products or to test them for safety.
Many products contain cancer-causing ingredients along with
ingredients that enhance absorption of the product through the skin
into the bloodstream. To make sure the products you're buying are
safe, check the ingredients against a reliable safety list.
3. Beware of
Words That Are Used to Sell Rather Than Provide Accurate Information
Many of the
words manufacturers use on labels to promote their products do not
have "official definitions" so they can be used to mean
anything that the manufacturer wants. These terms are very often misleading.
Some words to
watch out for include:
Natural - may
contain all natural ingredients, a few or none at all
Hypoallergenic
- may be tested or based upon manufacturer belief; no proof is required
Fragrance free
- means no detectable odor; fragrance ingredients may still be added
4. More is Not Better
Choose designer
costmetic products with fewer ingredients, not more. Besides the
fact that most ingredients have not been adequately tested, those
that have been tested have only been tested individually, not in
combination with other ingredients. Nobody knows the effects of the
many different ingredients used in thousands of different
combinations, the effects of using numerous different products, one
on top of the other, or the effects of repeated use of ingredients or
products over time.
5. Buy From
Companies Truly Committed to Healthy Products
As consumers
are becoming more conscious of using safer and healthier products,
many manufacturers are tapping into that consciousness and producing
pseudo-healthy products. The label looks like the product is natural
and healthy, but if you read the ingredients, that's not the case. On
the other hand there are companies dedicated to producing safe and natural
cosmetics and personal
care products. Many of these are small companies that were
started because of the lack of availability of healthy products and
some of them use organic and food grade ingredients.
We live in a
toxic world and there are some things that we have no control over,
like air pollution. However, we do have control over what we put into
our bodies and what we put on our bodies - if we just take the time
to educate ourselves and make safe and healthy
choices. With the increasing number of chemicals in everything
these days, it's important for everyone to become health conscious.
Taking control over what you put into your body and on your body will
affect your quality of life and may just be a matter of life and death! |
