Weather you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, or caring for a precious new baby, I’m sure you care deeply about protecting the health and well-being of your family. We all do. Would it anger you to discover that some of the cosmetics you routinely use contain chemicals with confirmed links to cancer, organ damage, contamination, allergies, and more?
I hadn’t thought much about the cosmetics we use, but a book I’m reading pointed out that the skin absorbs the products we use. Afterall, that is how topical medications work or patches for smoking and birth control. Lotions, serums, diaper creams, etc are designed to soak into the skin. Come to think about it, it does make sense to use products that are safe enough to eat, if possible. If you care about ingesting pesticides, shouldn’t you care about using chemical-laden cosmetics too?
I know that this opens up a whole can of worms, but I seem to be doing that a lot lately. I simply don’t believe that the status quo is always best. Nor do I trust government regulatory systems to protect my health. It’s hard to know who to trust really. Do you ever feel that way? But, I digress. At any rate, my common sense tells me that cosmetics that contain tried & true natural oils, extracts, etc are safer than the latest chemical concoctions.
My research led me to a fantastic website sponsored by the Environmental Working Group, http://www.cosmeticdatabase.com/. You can type any ingredient and most product names into the database to receive a report on its toxicity or safety with plenty of information regarding specific risks, studies, and alternatives. Wow! Before long I had ALL of our household cosmetics piled up on my desk. My “toss” pile was significantly larger than the “ok”. And, really, none of my products were great. Even many “natural” or “organic” skin care lines have some products that rate badly for toxicity. You really have to know your ingredients or use a site like Skin Deep (link above) to be sure you’re making a healthy, safe choice.
What made me most furious was that my Balmex diaper cream contains a key ingredient rated as “Not safe for use on infant skin” by an independent cosmetic review board. That ingredient is also restricted in Canadian and European cosmetics and prohibited from food in the USA. And I’ve been slathering this cream on my baby’s bum for how many years!?! That’s it, we need a whole new skin care line for babies at Euphoria – pronto! A new line called Earth Mama Angel Baby is due to arrive next week. And that’s good, because my Balmex diaper cream and Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Nourishing Milk Lotion are already in the trash!
Related posts:
- All about Fire-Retardants
- Safe Sunscreens for the Family
- Children and Chemicals
- Simple Habits to Keep the Toxins out of your Food
- Non-toxic, Safe Sunscreens that I love
Tags: carcinogen, cosmetics, diaper cream, healthy baby, healthy pregnancy, in real life, non-toxic
Thank you for all of your research! Once again I am enlightened, but also frustrated at the dangers of products we use every day!
Dear Rachel,
Thank you soo much for the wonderful site.Or i should say scary site!You don’t know how many things went out the window flying!And I tought I was getting the real deal!Yeah,right!I sent it to all my girlfriends!Thanks again!!
I feel the same. I started researching what went into my body care products and have switched about 90% of what I use over to natural alternatives….which has actually made my skin better anyway
There are only a few brands I feel I can buy without feeling like I have to check the label: the two I use most often being Weleda and Pangea Organics. Great blog 
My friend on Facebook shared this link with me and I’m not dissapointed that I came to your blog.
[...] can read more about checking the safety of your cosmetics and the evils of Balmex at My Cosmetic Purge. Also see Desitin – Safe or Toxic? . Comments [...]
[...] 8. Popular Diaper Creams: Diaper creams are cosmetics too and likely to carry the same concerns as the above. I list them separately because your loyalty to Desitin, Balmex, Butt Paste or the like may be so strong that you forget to evaluate it’s safey too! Check your miracle cream’s toxicity rating at http://www.CosmeticDatabase.com. Here are some case studies I’ve done: Desitin – Safe or Toxic? and My Cosmetic Purge. [...]
I’ve been recently learning about chemicals in cosmetics as well. The woman who introduced me to the product line I’m now using told me about some of the facts associated with chemicals in our products. I found out that less formaldahyde is used in the embalming process now than used to be because of how much our bodies absorb in our lifetime. That really bothered me, so I’m working to change the types of products that I expose myself to.
Hi! I’m so glad I stumbled accross this blog! I had the same experience. My 6 month old was learning to kiss–a.k.a. licking my face. It got me thinking about what she was licking. I too checked http://www.costmeticsdatabase.com and was horrified to learn my face cream (which I paid a lot of money for and thought was relatively toxin free) contained a rather high amount of lead. I immediately threw it out. I proceeded to gather any other products I could think of to see where they rated on the database and was horrified to see their high ratings. How dare cosmetic companies, and government-for that matter, allow these companies to sell these products? I started doing some research and discovered North America has no standards for what can be put into cosmetics and not really any standards for what is to be considered “organic” skin care products. Eventually, I found a line of skin care that originates from Europe (where they have some of the strictest guidelines) and are ECO-CERT certified. Ecocert is considered to be the most important organization in Europe in setting the criteria for natural and organic cosmetics. A min of 10% of the total ingredients must be certified organic. at least 95% of the ingredients must be of vegetable/plant origin and while the product may contain a max of 5% synthetic ingredients, none of these must be included on the negative list (no mineral oil and silicon, no synthetic emulsifiers like PEG, no viscosity controlling agents like carbomer, no preservatives such as formaldehyde releasers, parabens or phenoxyethanol, no synthetic perfumes or dyes, and no synthetic solvents like propylene glycol). I haven’t found a comparable children’s line, however their shea butter works great on my baby’s bottom! Childhood cancer statistics are startling, and they are just going up. The amount of indoor toxins our children are exposed to (in our own homes) is alarming. If I can at least get rid of the toxins I apply to their skin and the ones they ingest, I am happy.
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