by Page Remick

© Page Remick – All Rights reserved
www.purezing.com

There is nothing beautiful about these words:
POISON! DANGER! HARMFUL OR FATAL IF SWALLOWED. HARMFUL IF INHALED OR ABSORBED THROUGH SKIN.

The hazardous waste that is being described is the most common ingredient found in make-up, hair products, lotions, after-shave, deodorants, mouthwashes, and toothpaste: propylene glycol. To the workers that handle it in the factory, it is hazardous waste, and yet they can go home, shower, shampoo and brush their teeth with it, just like the rest of us.

Wake up sleeping beauty! There are 85,000 chemicals in use. Out of the 10,500 ingredients that the FDA has documented, the cosmetic industry’s review panel has studied only 11% of them. 900 chemicals used in cosmetics are toxic.

Of the 7000 ingredients used on the skin, only 5-6 have been tested for long-term safety, and none have been tested together. Currently, 125 are strongly suspected carcinogens, 25 are connected to birth defects and 20 cause adverse nervous system reactions. One of every 13 women and one of every 23 men are exposed to ingredients that are known or probable human carcinogens every day through their use of personal care products. The average person’s morning routine puts him/her into contact with over 100-200 chemicals before breakfast. Day after day, month after month, year after year, this accumulates in your body.

Benzenes, talc, coal tar colors, mineral oil, phenylenediamine, formaldehyde, Benzalkonium Chloride, Chloromethylisothiazolinone, Cyclomethicone, Diazolidinyl urea …all present in our daily dose of beauty. It’s time to wake up Sleeping Beauty and smell the chemicals!

What’s So Natural About It?

Major manufacturers are running and jumping onto the lucrative natural and organic train. With the loose laws governing the cosmetic industry, a label touting natural or organic can look enticing to the unsuspecting public.

If you are one of the ones looking for safe ingredients, be careful of even what you get in a health food store. The chemicals can still be in the product, but with the addition of one or two ingredients that were grown organically, or the usage of a derivative of a natural plant, the manufacturer can slap on a pretty label and claim that it is ‘Pure.’ Fooled ya!

Keep It Simple And You Won’t Be Stupid

I have found that the best way to find safe products is to first make sure that I can pronounce the ingredients! Okay, so we can all pronounce coal tar and talc and they are toxic, but you know what I mean. If the ingredient list is long and words consist of unpronounceable names, even if it has the word organic or natural on the label, I put it back.

Although the USDA has set strict guidelines regulating food labeled organic, the guidelines do not apply to skin care products. Many of these products have as little as 50% organic ingredients, and some have even less—skin care products with at least one organic ingredient can be labeled "organic," regardless of the other ingredients used.
So what do I look for? Simple words like jojoba oil, shea butter, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, vitamins A, C, E, coco butter, olive oil, chamomile, essential oils, apricot kernel oil, herbs, honey, oats, lavender, rosemary, avocado oil, and rosehip.

There are natural preservatives such as Tea Tree essential oil, thyme essential oil, grapefruit seed extract and D-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (Vitamin E)

The natural soaps are lecithin, glycerin, Castile, yucca and soapwort.

The artisans of this country are producing some fabulous natural, organic, totally safe and efficacious beauty products made from ingredients that have stood the test of centuries. The simple ingredients listed above not only work beautifully, but are good for you. Keep it simple and be a safe and healthy beauty with your eyes wide open.