FRESH PERSPECTIVE

CHEMICALS in SKIN CARE

QUICK FACTS:

• Chemicals are the basic building blocks of every known matter in the universe. Only light, sound waves, electricity and empty space are void of chemicals.

• All skin care ingredients, natural or synthetic, are chemicals. Aloe vera, for instance, contains aloin, glycoprotein, amino acids, salicylic acid, glucomannans, and many other chemicals that give aloe its skin healing and anti-inflammatory properties.

• “Chemical-free” products give consumers a false sense of safety. Chemical- free claims imply that synthetic ingredients are potentially harmful and that all natural ingredients are safe.  In fact, nature is the biggest producer of chemicals and some are highly toxic. The term also fuels phobias rather than encourages intelligent discussions that may lead to better safety measures.

• Some skin care ingredients are toxic and should be avoided. But they may not be the ones you’ve heard the most about.  The infamous “dirty dozen” is a list of purportedly toxic chemicals you should avoid at all cost.  The list includes parabens, triclosan, urea, propylene glycol, diethanolamine (DEA), dioxane, mineral oil, petroleum distillates,  and few others. Unfortunately, this list is neither complete nor accurate.

Do your own investigation. CIR (Cosmetic Ingredient Review), an independent panel of toxicologists, dermatologists and other scientists, has reviewed 1420 ingredients commonly used in skin care formulations and categorized them by their level of safety (http://www.cir-safety.org/staff_files/pdf4.pdf). 

Skin Deep, an Environmental Working Group, has launched a comprehensive online safety guide for cosmetics and personal products.  Its database contains detailed reviews of over 50,000 products and more than 8000 ingredients (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/about.php). 

You may find that many of the chemicals you thought were toxic are comparatively safe and some of the ingredients in your “chemical- free” products are, in effect, potentially harmful.

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