Trust Your Skin Care Routine? Take A Closer Look At Those Labels
“Natural” is one of the most important buzzwords in beauty, but how clean is your skin care routine? You may be surprised. A significant number of supposedly natural skin care products actually contain hazardous ingredients if you know how to read the labels properly. Look out for these 4 ingredients and swap them out for safer products in your daily routine.
Parabens – Preservative Or Poison?
No one likes it when their beauty products go rancid on the shelf, which is why many beauty product manufacturers add parabens to their products. Parabens are a kind of preservative used in soaps, lotions, and various kinds of makeup, but in addition to keeping products fresh, parabens are endocrine disruptors that mimic estrogen. Furthermore, they may even cause breast cancer. Rather than choosing products containing parabens, opt for oils or beeswax balms, or choose products with natural preservatives like honey or certain essential oils.
Sulfates – Not Just Cleansing
When you apply a facial cleanser, you generally expect it to foam as you lather it into your skin, but the reason these products foam is typically because of the presence of sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). In fact, SLS is in everything from shampoo and hand soap to toothpaste to bath salts, and it can cause a range of symptoms: skin and eye irritation, neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption, and ecological damage.
So, what should you swap out SLS-containing products for instead? At least when it comes to cleansers, your best option may be to use a natural oil product like prickly pear seed mixed with rose water. According to Sunia K. cosmetiques authentiques, prickly pear seed oil has antibacterial properties that fight acne, while its high vitamin E oil hydrates skin for lasting moisture and you only need a tiny bit to get all the benefits.
Essential Oils – Natural But Irritating
Just because something is natural doesn’t automatically mean that it’s safe. Take tea tree oil, for example. Tea tree oil is great for fighting infection, which can make it ideal for those with acne, unless of course they have sensitive skin. That’s because tea tree oil is relatively harsh and even when it’s diluted, it’s one of the leading causes of contact dermatitis. If you regularly find that your skin is red or itchy after washing or moisturizing with natural products, it could be that you’re having a mild allergic reaction to one of the additives.
Mineral Makeup – High In Heavy Metals
If you think that natural, mineral makeups are the best way to polish your look, you could be looking at a big problem. In particular, because mineral-based makeup products contain fewer artificial ingredients, they’re actually more likely to be high in heavy metals. Many also contain talc, which may be contaminated with asbestos, which has potential links to ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. While you shouldn’t necessarily avoid all mineral-based makeups, look for reputable companies that use only the highest quality, safely mined materials.
It shouldn’t be hard to pick a safe, natural beauty product, but that’s exactly what a lot of brands are counting on – that you’ll believe their minimally regulated claims and that they’ll sell more products. Stay alert and read all the labels before you buy because it’s easy to fall for superficial claims, only to wind up with a shelf full of toxic beauty products.
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