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Scan the beauty department of your favorite department store or
go-to beauty boutique. Chances are, more than half of labels on the
shelves read “natural,” “pure” and even “organic.” But because the
personal care industry is completely unregulated, unless the label
reads “certified organic” (a food term regulated by the FDA), these beauty products still can be chock-full of chemicals dangerous to your health.
We EcoStilettoistas love Stacy Malkan’s amazing book “Not Just A Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry,” are up to date on research from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and call out the baddies on our Big List of Things That Suck,
but it’s just not that easy to get wi-fi in your local drugstore. So
print out and pocket this cheat sheet of what to look for on labels.
Then seek out some amazing brands that are leading the pack in
eschewing chemicals for truly natural alternatives.
Petroleum—and its derivatives petrolatum, mineral oil and
paraffin—is the old-school go-to for an ingredient that softens skin.
Unfortunately, it’s also derived from fossil fuels. Why worry about the
fuel consumption of your car only to turn around and slap the stuff on
your skin? And in addition to beauty products, softeners ethylene
glycol and propylene glycol are also found in brake fluid and
antifreeze, respectively—the latter being linked to kidney damage and
liver abnormalities. We prefer softeners derived from fruits and
vegetables, like the sustainably sourced shea butter in One with Nature’s amazing Dead Sea Mud line. We don’t know if it’s the vegetable and shea butter
base or the heavy mineral content of the Dead Sea mud, which has been
used in skin care regimens since Cleopatra’s time, but these soaps,
body washes and lotions hydrate like nothing we’ve ever seen—without a
drop of petroleum in sight.
And on that note, the petrochemically derived butylene glycol is
used to keep products from drying out. Unfortunately, it’s also linked
to respiratory failure, kidney failure, coma and death and is not in
the FDA’s GRAS (“generally recognized as safe”) list. The naturopathic
line WAI HOPE Organic Skincare
has found alternatives in plant-based humectants like Brazilian
mandacaru cactus extract, and saguaro and agave cactus extracts from
California and Arizona—natural moisture binders that can retain as much
as 4,000 times their weight in water.
Although it’s classified by the EPA as a human and animal
carcinogen, 1,4-dioxane, a nasty byproduct of processing harsh
chemicals with ethylene oxide to make them less harsh, is prevalent on
beauty shelves. Got sodium lauryl sulfate? Ethyoxylate it and you get
sodium laureth—the “eth” indicates the process. Unfortunately you also
get 1,4-dioxane, most commonly found in things that bubble. A better
(and biodegradable) bubble can be found in products made with coconut-
or sugar-derived decyl glucoside, sodium coco-sulfate or cocamidopropyl
betaine, or castille-based safe sudsors that can be found in body
lathers from Blooming Lotus.
Look for nail polishes
that are free of dibutyl phthalate or DBP, a reproductive toxin that’s
banned in Europe because of links to birth defects, toluene (or
butylated hydroxyl toluene, as it’s labeled in skincare products),
which affects the central nervous system and can cause headaches, and
formaldehyde, a known carcinogen that’s also responsible for turning
your nails yellow when you take off the polish. Even big box brands are
now “big three free,” but if your favorite nail salon is still using
toxic polish, just remember to BYOB! And speaking of formaldehyde, many
common chemical preservatives release the stuff over time, so also
avoid the words quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, urea and (imidazolidinyl
and diazolidinyl) on your labels. Many organic essential oils like
thyme, eucalyptus and rosemary are natural preservatives and
antiseptics. We’ve recently taken to toting Desert Essence’s Tea Tree Relief Spray,
created with essential oils harvested from the foremost ecologically
sensitive plantation in Australia, and spritzing it on post mani/pedi
to fight off fungi that might be lurking in the bowl. Ick.
In 2006, the FDA proposed a ban on hydroquinone, a chemical