Times are changing, but everyone still wants to be beautiful. Every woman wants to look young and striking. Men just like women are also taking care of themselves. That’s why everyone is buying cosmetics. All of us are using more or less make-up and body care products.
So, it’s the right time to have discussion about natural cosmetics. Word “cosmetics” includes skin, hair, nails and teeth care products. Nowadays cosmetics industry is using term “natural”, but is this “natural” really natural, safe and useful for us?
Let’s make one simple experiment. Take some of your cosmetics which are called “natural” and read place where ingredients are declared. Most likely you will find a lot of interesting and mysterious chemical words. How can it be so if product is natural?
This aspect shows that word “natural” not always means truly natural and is only nice advertisement for manufacturing company. In fact they also include a multitude of synthetic ingredients. We must always check our cosmetic products if they don’t contain any of carcinogens,cancer-causing agents,toxins, irritants, contaminants or potentially harmful ingredients.
In our daily life there are tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals. Here is list of some mostly used ingredient:
1,4-dioxane2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol (Bronopol)
Alcohol, Isopropyl (SD-40)
Ammonium Laureth Sulfate (ALES)
Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate (ALS)
Anionic Surfactants
Benzalkonium Chloride
Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA)
Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT)
Cationic surfactants
Cetalkonium chloride
Cetrimonium chloride
Chloromethylisothiazolinone
Isothiazolinone
Cocoamidopropyl Betaine
Cocoyl Sarcosine
Cyclomethicone
DEA (diethanolamine), MEA (Monoethanolamine), & TEA (triethanolamine)
Diazolidinyl urea
Dimethicone
Dimethicone Copolyol
Disodium Dioctyl Sulfosuccinate
Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate
Disodium Oleamide Sulfosuccinate
DMDM Hydantoin
Ethoxylated surfactants
FD&C Colour Pigments
Formaldehyde
Fragrance
Hydrolysed Animal Protein
Imidazolidinyl urea
Imidazolidinyl Urea
Isopropyl Palmitate
Lanolin
Lauryl dimonium hydrolysed collagen
Lauryl or Cocoyl Sarcosine
Lauryl Sarcosine
Liquidum Paraffinum
MEA compounds
Methylisothiazolinone and Methylchloroisothiazolinone
Mineral Oil
Nitrosating Agents
Paraben preservatives (methyl, propyl, butyl, and ethyl)
Paraffin wax/oil
Phthalates
Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) compounds
Potassium Coco Hydrolysed Collagen
Propylene/Butylene Glycol
PVP/VA Copolymer
Quaternium-7, 15, 31, 60, etc
Rancid Natural Emollients
Silicone derived emollients
Sodium Cocoyl Sarcosinate
Sodium Hydroxide
Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) Ammonium Laureth Sulfate (ALES)
Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate (ALS)
Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate
Stearalkonium Chloride
Talc
TEA (Triethanolamine) Laureth Sulfate
TEA compounds
Toluene
We are living in a very polluted atmosphere and yet we are still empoisoning our bodies with cosmetics. As we all know our body absorbs what we put on our skin. If you really care about your health, make a little research on your cosmetics products in website www.hazard.com/msds. There you will find the true nature of your “natural” cosmetics product.
There are some ways of recognizing if cosmetics are really natural. First thing what you can do before buying a product is reading ingredients list on cover and checking amount of chemical ingredients. If the list is somewhat long it’s up to you to decide whether to buy it or try and find something not so synthetic.
Some companies are trying to tell you that they don’t test their products on animals, thus their products are natural. But be careful! It can be just a smart disguise. Perhaps they didn’t make any direct tests with animals, but you should be aware, that all synthetic chemicals (which are used as ingredients) were most likely tested on animals. And some more food for thought – about 50% of them have died…
One more tip how to recognize natural product is expiration date. Natural products without chemical ingredients have shorter expiration time, lasting about 6 months. Natural products usually must be stored in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.
If you want to buy really natural cosmetics, check products characteristics which show real nature of product: plant-derived ingredients; no alcohol; no artificial dyes; no thickeners; not animal tested; no petroleum products; no cheap filler ingredients; no synthetic fragrances.
Natural cosmetic are using essential and fragrance oils, oils from fruits and nuts, aloe vera and tea tree oil, extracts and juice, seed oils, seafood, amino acids, phospholipids.
Materials are natural and no chemical processing is used on them. Since cold purification process is used, materials avoid any thermal processing thus keeping all valuable characteristics.
Visit page http://www.safecosmetics.org/companies/signers.cfm ant there you will find the signers of the compact for global production of safe health & beauty products.
