Toxic Beauty

Hi all,

I am sure by now most of you are aware of the hazards our beauty products pose but thought I would post this article which was published last year as it sums up the main concerns and is a good reminder which chemicals to avoid.

Once you've read this go and have a look in your bathroom cabinet and check your products, you may be surprised what you find. There are many brands which claim to be Natural etc yet you will still find toxic ingredients that really don't need to be there.


By PAT THOMAS Daily Mail:

Bath products use the same chemicals as household detergents:

Bath foam that triggers headaches. Shampoo full of cancer-causing chemicals. And shower gel that attacks your skin. As experts warn of the chemicals in our toiletries, we reveal the health hazards in your bathroom cabinet.
Pat Thomas makes sense of the often impenetrable labels, and reveals the ingredients' potentially devastating effects on our health.

Bath products

These days, most of us don't use soap in the shower or bath. Instead, we lather up with bath foams, shower gels, facial washes and scrubs, all of which rely on complex detergents — often the same ones used in heavy industry — to wash away simple dirt.
The difference between soap and detergent is like the difference between cotton and nylon. Soap and cotton are produced from natural products by relatively small modification.

Detergents and nylon are produced entirely in a chemical factory. There is no difference between the detergents in your household cleaning products and those you use in your bath. It is simply a matter of concentration.

Bubble baths, which are highly fragranced, have the greatest potential to cause skin irritation, allergic skin reactions and headaches. In the U.S., they carry a health warning alerting users to the possibility of skin irritation and urinary tract infections.

Body washes essentially contain the same basic ingredients as bubble bath. Soaking in any bath product will prolong its contact with your skin, increasing the risk that chemicals will be absorbed. Both bubble baths and shower gels have the potential to penetrate the skin and lungs.

Your bubble bath is likely to contain potentially irritating detergents like sodium laureth sulphate and cocami-dopropyl betaine (the latter is also a penetration enhancer, allowing other chemicals to be more easily absorbed); preservatives such as tetrasodium EDTA, a potential irritant; and methylchloroisothiazolinone (both potential mutagens — substances that speed up gene mutation).

If it contains cocamide EDTA (or similar compounds ending with DEA, TEA or MEA) along with formaldehyde-forming substances such as bronopol, DMDM hydantoin, diazo-lidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea and quaternium-15, it is likely to contain cancer-causing nitrosamines. Studies show up to 93 per cent of toiletries and cosmetics contain these compounds.

Healthier options

Avoid bubble baths altogether and limit your use of shower gels. Stick to plain old soap instead. Vegetable oil and glycerine soaps are best. They foam beautifully and are made from enriching oils such as coconut, hemp and olive. They are usually unfragranced or scented with essential oils (check the label).

Deodorants

Antiperspirants and deodorants typically contain moisturisers, solvents and preservatives (such as parabens, which can cause skin irritation and can be a source of weak oestrogens, which may have a detrimental effect in the long-term).
They contain synthetic perfumes and antibacterial agents such as triclosan (which can be absorbed through the skin and has caused liver damage in animal experiments).

Researchers at the University of Reading recently found traces of parabens in every single tumour sample taken from a small group of women with breast cancer.
The aluminium content of antiperspirants is also a major concern. No one knows exactly how aluminium compounds work to reduce underarm wetness. What is known, however, is that aluminium is absorbed through the skin.

The recently acknowledged link between Alzheimer's disease and aluminium has raised a furious debate over the safety of putting aluminium compounds into deodorants.
Another concern is the potential link between aluminium and breast cancer. A study looking at the incidence of breast cancer among 400 American women suggests that a combination of underarm shaving and deodorant use may allow chemicals to seep into breast tissue.
In the study, women who shaved three times a week and applied deodorant at least twice a week were almost 15 years younger when diagnosed with cancer than women who did neither.

Healthier options

Avoid aerosols, which surround you with a cloud of toxic chemicals. Switch to a solid or stick deodorant instead. This is less likely to aid the absorption of ingredients into the skin. Never apply antiperspirants or deodorants to broken or newly-shaved skin.
Many health food shops sell aluminium-free deodorants based on plant extracts or mineral salts, both of which can be very effective.

Shampoo

Cheap or expensive, modern shampoos are usually a mixture of the same handful of detergents. The choice of detergents used is usually as much to do with the final look of the product as it is with its effectiveness.
Unfortunately, rather like bubble bath, some of the common ingredients in shampoos can break down into formaldehyde during storage.

When formaldehyde-forming agents mix with some of the other emulsifying ingredients commonly found in shampoos, such as diethanolamine (DEA), triethanolamine (TEA) and monoethanolamine (MEA), they can form carcinogenic n-nitrosodi-ethanolamine, or NDELA.

This is particularly problematic in shampoos because we use them so frequently and in such great quantities.
Read labels. All shampoos need to contain some detergent, but look for one with the fewest ingredients to limit your exposure.
Use less — half the amount of shampoo you'd usually use. Always tip your head well back when rinsing to avoid getting shampoo into your eyes.

Shaving cream and foam

There are a wide variety of shaving creams and foams for men and women. They look nice, feel nice and smell nice. But they can contain some not-so-nice ingredients.
For example, triethanolamine (TEA) and lauramide DEA can mix with other chemicals during storage to form carciogenic compounds and propellants such as isobutane and propane — which have been linked to headaches, breathing difficulties, nausea, vomiting and dizziness.

Get hair thoroughly wet before shaving so you use less foam.
Try shaving soap. It'll still be a detergent - unless you buy it from a health food shop — but at least you'll avoid the solvents and propellants in shaving foam. Or try a vegetable -based shaving oil (not a mineral-based one).

At Lucy Rose we only stock organic chemical free products so if you would like to find out more go to http://www.lucyrose.biz/