Skin Care

When you expose your skin to chemicals, you are unnecessarily ‘playing with fire’. Many workers in the construction business found that when they handled lumber that had been treated their livers became damaged. No, they did not eat the wood, they merely touched it! This lumber was treated with arsenic and when they repeatedly touched and handled the wood it played havoc with their bodies. The largest organ of the human body is the skin. Now that we realize this, we must put this question to ourselves – “Are we safe when we repeatedly use chemical based skin care products?”

Eye makeup has mercury added to it at a rate of up to 65 parts per million. Repeatedly we hear on TV that there is mercury in canned fish and pregnant women should limit their intake of fish. However no one ever mentions anything about the effect that mercury in eye makeup may have. This deadly metal is absorbed easily through the skin and accumulates in the body.

You should avoid bronopol if possible. This is an ingredient found in mascara. When this ingredient was tested on lab animals, it caused blindness and eventually resulted in death. It will take a very high concentration of bronopol to be affected by side effects such as these, but what about the woman who uses the same brand of mascara for decades?

One chemical that is found in many different lotions and hair care products is formaldehyde. Ingredients such as imidazolidinyl urea and DMDM hydantoin are known to irritate the respiratory system, can lead to skin reactions, asthma, allergies and have even been known to trigger heart palpitations.

Exposure to formaldehyde can have various side effects such as headaches, immune dysfunction, chest pain, dizziness and even cancer. Be on your guard against trade names that include formid, aminoform and uritone. You should also be concerned about others, but this is a beginning.

Other chemicals absorbed by the skin include coal tar derivatives. Ingredients such as 1-Naphthol and 2-Naphthol are named in this group. If these ingredients are ingested orally, only 2 teaspoonfuls are fatal.

Ingredients like vitamin C and E are often added to makeup to block the toxic effects of nitrosamines in the form of lauryl sarcosine, monethanolamine (MEA), cocoyl sarcosine, diethandamne (DEA) and laureth sulphate. When you buy makeup that touts the addition of these vitamins, read the rest of the ingredients. Instead of providing something extra these vitamins may be blocking carcinogenic substances the product contains.

Makeup often contains ingredients that act as emulsifiers, moisture retainers and solvents. These ingredients also are part of the products such as antifreeze and brake fluid! One of these ingredients is propylene glycol. Due to the toxicity of this substance, the EPA states that workers must wear skin protection when working with this product. Safety Data Sheets also give the warning that if propylene glycol is absorbed through the skin, then one may suffer from abnormalities in the liver, brain and kidneys. Despite all of its ill effects, it still remains an ingredient in makeup and some stick deodorants.

Skin care products, cosmetics and lotions are regularly applied. Before you purchase a product, be sure you read the ingredients on the label. The parts per million of certain toxic ingredients may be very small, but if you use a product over a period of years, there will be a slow and steady build-up in your body. Mysterious illnesses can often be traced back to things that the patient thought had no consequences. One option for you would be to go organic. It would definitely be the kindest thing to do for your skin. Be sure that you start monitoring what you put on your skin before you apply it.

Jemma Rivera shares more reasons for choosing organic hair care on her website where you can find details on the healthy, natural products available from miessence.

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