Does It Matter What's in Personal Care Products?

by WiredBerries Editors — October 16, 2007

What many women don't know is that no one regulates what goes into beauty and personal care products (with only a few exceptions such as sunscreen and anti-dandruff shampoo, which are somewhat regulated by the FDA). A product could be full of ingredients that would be illegal for consumption but still end up in your lipstick, which then easily finds its way into our mouths and bodies.

Topical makeup and lotions can have toxic ingredients that are absorbed into the body through the skin. If you don't think ingredients can easily get through skin, then just consider how birth control patches work. You put them on your skin, and the ingredients still end up inside your body. Men and women need to look out for themselves by understanding that ingredients that go ON your face or body often end up INSIDE your body.

According to Dr. Devra Davis, director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, "The FDA has no authority to tell us whether or not products are safe and as a consequence there are ingredients in cosmetics that are used very widely that have not been tested."

The US is notorious for it's liberal concept of safety. The European Union (EU), for example, has banned more than 1000 ingredients linked to possible health risks, while the FDA has outlawed only 8. In fact, most cosmetic ingredients have never been publicly assessed for safety at all, according to a senior scientist at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports. With no safety testing required, cosmetics companies can pretty much go for the cheapest, most available ingredients regardless of potential risk.

In general, products from trusted organic brands tend to have higher-quality, safer, and more natural ingredients. Even so, you'll still want to read the labels and know what it is you're putting on your face or body, as not every brand is created equal. Also, just because an ingredient has a long, strange sounding name doesn't necessarily mean it's bad for you, nor are all natural ingredients completely risk-free. However, in general, organic brands tend to be more sensitive to their health-conscious customer's concerns by avoiding dodgy, questionable ingredients altogether by choosing safer alternatives.