Toxins Hiding in Your Skincare Products
The last time you read the label of your soap, shampoo, or facial moisturizer, could you actually pronounce any of the ingredients? Let alone know what they do. The skincare industry has become riddled with ingredients that may cause issues such as hormone disruption, reproductive damage and even cancer. This article will overview three of the most common chemicals in skincare that are likely harmful rather than helpful.
Phthalates Are a plasticizer found in many soaps and shampoos as well as a myriad of other products. In soap they are used to bind ingredients together and to make fragrances hold their scent. Common phthalates in soap are DBP, or di-n-butylphthalate, DEP, or diethylphthalate, DMP, or dimethyl phthalate, BzBP, or benzylbutyl phthalate. Phthalates can also be in fragrances, and companies don’t have to tell you because it is considered a trade secret. Phthalates have been shown to cause hormone disruption, long term exposure to this can cause issues with organ function and can detrimentally affect the development of children during pregnancy (National Institute of Health [NIH]). If phthalates are proven to be such an issue, how are they allowed at all, let alone a product that you put on skin? They were grandfathered into use under the (Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976) solely for the reason that they are in such wide use, not because they are safe.
Parabens Are a preservative that are found in many cosmetics. The U.N. environment program has classified two parabens as being hormone disrupters, and parabens as a group to being potential hormone disrupters. Parabens can mimic estrogen, disrupting male and female hormone and reproductive systems. Parabens can also cause issues in reproductive development, fertility, and the endocrine (hormone) system as a whole (ewg.org). Parabens are found under the names Propylparaben, Isopropylparaben, Butylparaben, Isobutylparaben. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) rates all of these as a seven or higher on their EWG’s Skin Deep® database with seven or higher being a high hazard. Finally, NIH suggests there may even be a link between parabens and cancer. “Paraben as one of the contaminants of perfumes, colognes and deodorants, has been found in human breast tumors; so, it may play a role in increasing the incidence of breast cancer. There is a significant relationship between malignant ovarian tumor tissues and increased exposure to high paraben concentrations (NIH).”
Fragrances EWG classifies fragrance as “The word "fragrance" or "parfum" on the product label represents an undisclosed mixture of various scent chemicals and ingredients used as fragrance dispersants such as diethyl phthalate (ewg.org)” EWG’s Skin Deep® database ranks fragrances as an eight, with seven or higher being a high hazard. In the skincare industry, companies do not have to disclose what is used in their fragrances, as it is considered a trade secret. This means chemicals such as parabens, phthalates and a host of other compounds can be hiding in fragrances and you have no way of knowing.
Conclusion. Modern skincare has failed us. Products have become filled with lab made chemicals we can’t understand or even pronounce. These chemicals are completely unnecessary and do not need to be in the products they are being put in. If you’re tired of shelves being stocked with products that have ingredient lists you can’t even read, like we are, there is a solution. Vote with your dollars by supporting companies that make products that do not use these toxic chemicals. It’s time that all-natural skincare made a comeback.