Every day, we use soaps and body washes, creams, lotions, makeup and other products, one on top of the other, to make ourselves look prettier (or more handsome), younger, erase blemishes, smell better, feel sexier and to attract, or keep, the perfect partner. Looking well-groomed and attractive is important. It’s good for your self esteem too. But not all the ingredients in the products that make you beautiful and sexier are good for your health.
The cosmetic and personal care product industry is a multi-billion dollar a year industry … and growing. New products are coming onto the market every day. Manufacturers play to your emotions in their advertising and packaging, frequently misrepresenting products as healthy which really are NOT.
With the fast growing interest in natural and organic skin and body care products, companies that typically manufacture the mainstream products containing synthetic ingredients and chemical preservatives, are coming onboard the organic bandwagon.
Natural and organic standards that were once noticeably absent now abound. Instead of no certifying agencies for cosmetics and skin care products, there are currently several. But not all organic certifying organizations abide by the same organic standards. Mainstream companies, trying to get their piece of the organic pie have developed their own lower organic standards, allowing synthetic chemicals and preservatives, not allowed by the true organic standards.
Talk about confusing! If you were confused before, you may be even more bewildered now.
Are you concerned about cancer-causing chemicals in your cosmetics and skin care products … but hate to read labels?
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I know you want to use safe and healthy, natural and organic skin care and body care products because you’re reading this page.
Choosing the safest and healthiest products just got easier.
You may be among the many people who are frustrated with reading ingredients lists, or just choose not to. Or maybe you just want a little easier way to pick your products.
Now you don’t have to read ingredients lists when you want to buy natural or organic products for your skin care. You don’t have to wonder any more if the products contain cancer-causing contaminants. That work has already been done for you.
Dying To Look Good “Best Brands“ lists the safest and healthiest natural and organic cosmetics, skin care, body care and personal care products on the market. They have been thoroughly researched to make sure their ingredients are truly pure, natural, safe and healthy.
It’s a 3-month membership program. You’ll receive weekly product lists, every week for 12 weeks. Each week, you’ll also get information on one company whose entire product line is exceptional. In fact, there are more than 12 companies that have been identified as having superior healthy and safe products. So, there will be bonus “Company Spotlights” coming to you every once in a while, between your regular weekly product lists.
Many companies in this program are offering discounts to Dying To Look Good “Best Brands” members. And the best part, many of the discounts can be used more than once and some will even be in effect after your membership expires.
Learn more about how you can make choosing healthy, organic and natural skin care products for yourself and your family quicker and easier, and how you can save money in the process.
Why it’s important to choose your natural cosmetics and skin care products carefully
I’ve been researching the safety of ingredients in food, cosmetics and skin care products since 1991. My research turned to identifying healthy, natural and organic cosmetics and skin care brands in about 1999.
While some of my research has been done in stores, copying ingredients from product labels, most has been done online. The reason, frankly, is because most of the best products are available only online and some products that are potentially good are not available in stores in my area.
That said, another factor to take into consideration, which I’ve mentioned many times before, but which was just blatantly demonstrated to me yesterday, is to make sure you buy from companies committed to producing safe and healthy products.
There are a number of companies on the market who are committed to the ultimate in purity and safety. A great many of them are USDA certified organic. There are some who are just as committed who don’t have the certification. These are the companies I search out.
There are other companies, probably most of them, who are in it for the profit. They claim to be natural and organic and some even get marginal organic certifications even though they don’t really qualify to be certified organic by “true” organic standards.
So, what happened yesterday?
I got an e-mail from a DyingToLookGood.com member who had just purchased Zuzu Luxe mascara, which is a brand I recommended in Dying To Look Good. I just finished researching mascara for the new Dying To Look Good Best Brands project that I’m working on right now. I checked the Zuzu Luxe ingredients online just the other day. They were perfectly fine, so it was my intention to include them in the new program.
However, I was asked by this member about the ingredients in this product because the ingredients label on the product she bought contained titanium dioxide, which I do not recommend.
I asked her to send me the list of ingredients on the label for the Zuzu Luxe mascara she bought…
It looked like two totally different products.
Here’s the list of ingredients that were on the actual label:
Whether you know what these ingredients mean or not, I’m sure you’ll agree that these two sets of ingredients don’t look like they are for the same product.
Bottom line. Know the companies that you purchase products from. Make sure they are truly committed to producing safe and healthy products AND they operate with honesty and integrity. The mainstream companies starting to create organic lines to get a piece of the organic pie are NOT going to give you the quality of product that the truly committed companies will.
I’ve been chastised by some for being too strict about the way I check ingredients and evaluate products. However, not only does this experience confirm my committment to the best, safest and healthiest natural skin care products and ingredients, I may just tighten the reigns a bit more here.
Zuzu Luxe, you are OUT!
Yours in health,
Christine H. Farlow, D.C.
The Ingredients Investigator
Protecting you from harmful ingredients www.dyingtolookgood.com
It’s vitally important to use the purest organic and natural skin care products on your babies and children because they are more susceptible to harm from dangerous ingredients in their skin care products than adults.
“Through its review of 23 peer-reviewed studies of cancer incidence from the past 50 years, EPA has determined that infants up to age two are, on average, ten times more vulnerable to carcinogenic chemicals than adults, and for some cancer-causing agents are up to 65 times more vulnerable. The Agency also found that children from age two to 15 are three times more vulnerable to carcinogens than adults.”
In addition, “…the new risk assessment methods show that children accumulate up to 50 percent of their lifetime cancer risk by their second birthday.” Source: Environmental Working Group.
With the increasing incidence of childhood cancers, it’s very wise to make sure you’re doing everything possible to protect your young ones from unnecessary exposure to cancer-causing chemicals.
This month Miessence is making your shopping for the best certified organic and natural skin care for your babies and children easy. Just purchase one Mother and Baby Range Pack, you will get one complete pack FREE. A Pack includes one of each baby product Miessence offers.
To make sure you get your FREE pack, remember to enter the special babypromo code when you check out.
You can find descriptions for each of the products here.
Product Review – Victoria’s Secret Pink Body Natural, Organic Skin and Body Care Products
If you recall in post #46, I commented on the challenging time I was having obtaining the ingredients for Victoria’s Secret new Pink Body line of natural and organic skin and body care products. Well, I finally made it to the mall so I could actually read the ingredients list on the product labels. What I found is that the ingredients were not listed on the back of the product. They were on a tiny stick-on label attached to the bottom of the product in a print so tiny it was almost unreadable.
I did manage to write the ingredients for three products while the sales clerk kept walking by and asking me if I needed help.
These products are advertised as green, natural, organic and 100% vegan.
The ingredients lists are very long, so I’ll just list the ingredients for one product here. The most objectionable ingredients are in red with a number after them. The numbers at the bottom of the post explain why these ingredients are undesirable in natural and organic skin and body care products.
2. Possible source of cancer-causing contaminant 1,4-dioxane.
3. Manufacturers not required to disclose ingredients; potential source of hazardous chemicals.
4. Irritant, allergen, possible immunotoxin, neurotoxin.
5. Non-organic corn, soy, canola, cotton ingredients may be genetically engineered.
While this product contains some natural ingredients, it contains many ingredients that are prohibited under the Natural Products Association Natural Standard for Personal Care Products. In addition, it is advertised as natural and organic. However, none of the ingredients were identified as organic on the ingredients list.
Do you know how to determine if the ingredients in your natural and organic skin care products are safe?
Here are two valuable resources you can use to make sure the skin care and personal care products you buy contain only healthy ingredients.
The Environmental Working Group has developed the Skin Deep database to help you choose safe and healthy products. But you have to know how to use it properly to get accurate information.
If you search for safety information for organic and natural skin care products and their ingredients in the Skin Deep database and you’re not taking into consideration all the information on the page, you may be making assumptions of safety that just aren’t there.
For example, just looking at the number rating without understanding what the number means, you may very well be assuming certain ingredients are safe or pose a low hazard, when in fact there’s not enough information to actually determine the safety of the ingredient.
Let’s look at carrageenan as an example. Carrageenan is sometimes found in organic and natural skin care and body care productsas well as mainstream personal care products. Many people assume it’s safe because it’s derived from seaweed.
Here are several of the listings for carrageenan that come up in ewg’s Skin Care database:
If you look at just the number scores indicating a low hazard, you may believe the ingredient is safe and doesn’t impose any risk. However, you’re not getting the whole picture. You must also look at the data gap. It tells you how much is actually known about the safety of the ingredient. The concerns tell you possible safety issues you should take into consideration in making your decision to use the products with these ingredients.
A low hazard of 0 with a 100% data gap means there is no information about the ingredient. So, a 0 rating for such an ingredient has no meaning because the safety is totally unknown. The concerns for this ingredient are the lack of information.
A low hazard of 1 with an 85% data gap means there is very little known about this ingredient. The concern that cancer may be a safety factor is important to take note of and factor into your decision to purchase the product.
A low hazard of 2 with a 76% data gap indicates that there is not much known about the ingredient. The concerns of cancer, contamination, organ system toxicity, neurotoxicity, data gaps are important to pay attention to when deciding to purchase a product with this ingredient.
The ewg, on the Skin Deep site explains that “…some ingredients may appear to have low hazards, but this may be due to the fact that they have not have been studied or assessed completely. Other ingredients may appear to have low hazards and have been thoroughly studied or assessed. This score helps differentiate between ingredients and products that have been studied to different degrees.”
So, when using the Skin Deep database, it’s important to pay attention to all the information for each ingredient because just looking at the hazard number can be very misleading and cause you to believe that an ingredient is safe when there are serious concerns and a great lack of information about safety.
Another excellent source of ingredient safety information for natural, organic and all your skin care products is the book, Dying To Look Good. It rates ingredients a little differently than in the Skin Deep database. The rating system, in a nutshell, is:
S – no known toxicity, the additive appears to be safe
A – may cause allergic reactions
C – caution advised, may be unsafe, poorly tested or used in too many products we use on a regular basis
X – unsafe or very poorly tested.
Carrageenan is rated C with the explanation that it is extracted from red seaweed with powerful alkali solvents; possible carcinogen; native or undegraded carrageenan is IARC Group 3; degraded carrageenan is IARC Group 2B; not adequately tested.
IARC Group 2B means it is a possible carcinogen.
IARC Group 3 means it cannot be determined to be carcinogenic to humans. This can be for various reasons. In this case, it’s because the research hasn’t been done to make the determination.
IARC is the International Agency for Research on Cancer. They review studies that have been done to determine the carcinogenic status of different chemicals. They don’t do the research themselves. The IARC classifications are explained in Dying To Look Good.
Dying To Look Good also has a website, DyingToLookGood.com, that supplements the information in the book.
Both ewg’s Skin Deep database and Dying To Look Good are valuable resources to have in determining the safety of products and ingredients in the organic and natural skin care products, or any personal care products you buy.
The skin Deep database is a computer program with a huge amount of information that is formatted to fit the program. It provides a tremendous amount of valuable information. However, you need to be certain to take into consideration all the important information presented to make sure you’re making an accurate assessment of the safety of the ingredient or the product.
Dying To Look Good is not computerized. Every ingredient is hand researched and hand entered into the book. Important points and explanations about individual ingredients are added when it is a significant aspect to be taken into consideration when you’re deciding if you want to use a product with that particular ingredient. In addition, the book is an easy-to-use quick reference that’s convenient to carry with you when you shop.
The Skin Deep database and Dying To Look Good are some of the best tools you can use to protect yourself from harmful ingredients in not only natural and organic skincare and body care products, but all cosmetics and personal care items, for all members of your family.
Can you feel secure about the safety of the ingredients in the natural skin care products you buy from companies that sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics?
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is a good idea. It creates an awareness of the lack of regulation of cosmetic, personal care and skin care products in the U.S. However, it’s not perfect. Companies may sign the “Compact” and still produce organic and natural skin care products that contain harmful ingredients.
For example, if you take a look at the list of companies named in the lawsuit by Dr. Bronners and the Organic Consumer’s Association for the presence of the carcinogenic contaminant, 1,4-dioxane, you’ll find that six of the eight companies have actually signed the “Compact for Safe Cosmetics.” They are:
* Avalon Organics
* Jason Pure, Natural & Organic
* Nature’s Gate Organics
* Kiss My Face Obsessively Organic
* Giovanni Organic Cosmetics
* Head Organics
Some notable companies proclaiming to produce natural skin care products that are missing from the list of signers include:
Most of these companies do manufacture their products with ingredients that are better left out of products we feed our skin, in spite of the fact that they claim to be natural, organic and healthy. Pink Body makes it so difficult to find a list of their ingredients that I can only assume that they are hiding something. I’ll check them out the next time I go to the mall.
Now, not signing the Compact for Safe Cosmetics does not absolutely mean that the products are unsafe. In many cases, it is an indication that some companies are not willing to go the mile to produce healthy skin care products, even though they proclaim that they do so, but that is not always the case.
So, the bottom line, as always, is to read the ingredients list for every natural skin care product you buy, every time you buy.
Christine H. Farlow, D.C.
The Ingredients Investigator
Protecting You From Harmful Ingredients…
www.dyingtolookgood.com
www.dyingtolookgoodbook.com
Finding the ingredients lists for natural skin care products
Beware of natural skin care product lines that don’t list all their ingredients on their website. If a skin care product line that claims to be natural or organic lists only “key” ingredients or only names a few natural or herbal ingredients, then it’s very likely that theyhave something to hide.
Most truly natural skin care companies, who really believe that all their ingredients are safe and healthy, will provide the complete ingredients list on their website.
At worst, at least until today, an e-mail to the company will generally get the ingredients list or a link to where it can be found.
However, I was sent on a wild goose chase yesterday and today when I tried to get the ingredients in the new “Pink Body” line by Victoria’s Secret. They claim the ingredients in their new skin care products are natural, organic and 100% vegan. If you try to locate the ingredients on their website, all you will find is two or three ingredients listed in a brief description of each product.
When I see a skin care company that claims such high standards for the ingredients in their supposedly natural and organic skin care products on top of alleging they are also “green,” I want to check them out!
Because I didn’t find complete ingredients lists on their website, I did the usual and sent them an e-mail. The response I got back mentioned the same few ingredients they list on their website and they directed me back to the website. When I replied and said I wanted the COMPLETE ingredients lists for their products, they sent me the phone number for the lab that does their MSDS’s (manufacturers safety data sheets). I called and spoke with a very helpful gentleman who then told me that the MSDS’s don’t contain ALL the ingredients in each product. He then gave me the corporate phone number for Victoria’s Secret and a lab that actually manufactures some of the products.
I wasn’t about to waste any more time trying to chase down all the ingredients in these supposedly organic, natural and vegan skin care products. If they put that much effort into making the ingredients unavailable to the consumer, I can only assume that they have something to hide.
Now it is up to Victoria’s Secret to come forward with full disclosure! I dare them!
In the meantime, make sure you can read the entire ingredients list and all the ingredients are safe for any skin care product you intend to buy. Dying To Look Good will help you decipher the safety of ingredients you find on the labels when you shop.
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All natural skin care tips for normal/combination skin
A good cleansing, conditioning and moisturizing program is just as important for normal skin as it is for oily and sensitive skin.
Cleanse with 100% organic and natural skin care products to eliminate the dead cells, perspiration and pollution from the top layer of skin and help keep your skin fresh and healthy looking. It will give you a vibrant complexion.
Use a natural, organic skin care exfoliant a few times a week to clear congestion from dead cell build up and to get a glowing healthy look. Don’t exfoliate if you have blemishes.
Deep cleanse your skin twice a week with an all natural and organic skin care mineral mask to draw out toxins within the skin that cannot be washed away with a cleanser or exfoliant. This is especially beneficial in helping clear up blemishes. Be sure to condition and moisturize after using the mineral mask.
