How safe are your skin care products.

Reduce your cancer risk by cutting toxin exposure in your home and on your body.

Remember- what you put on your skin is the same as eating it!  Our bodies absorb very effectively through our skin!

It might make you mad to know that you are a guinea pig for the effects of carcinogen exposure and its effects on the human body. You would be shocked to learn how many known – and suspected – carcinogens are you are using in your home and on your body!

A five-year EPA study of over 600 households revealed that contaminant levels in the average home are up to 70 times higher than those found outdoors!

The Environmental Working Group, a public interest research and advocacy organization, has revealed that more than one third of all personal care products contain at least one known carcinogen. The average woman is exposed to approximately 126 such chemicals on a daily basis. In combination, these products are even worse; some “penetration enhancing” skin care products, for example, allow harmful ingredients to be drawn further into the body.

Penetration enhancers have been used to effectively deliver patch drugs deeper and faster through the skin and into the blood vessels. Although rarely added to cosmetics for the purpose of enhancing penetration, many ingredients used in cosmetics are found to have penetration-enhancing properties. The concern with penetration enhancers in cosmetics lies not in the toxicity of the enhancer itself but in the fact that the enhancers open the skin to greater absorption of carcinogens, toxins, and other harmful chemicals that the product may contain.

.EveryDay Minerals –  Great powders, average packaging.  GREAT prices!!  And free samples, so you can try them.  They let you order FIVE generous samples in different colors so you can find a match.  I loved the three colors of powders and the two blushes I tried.

Evans Garden–  ineffective cleansers and chalky powders, but GREAT moisturizers.

Burt’s Bees has the best lip gloss with color and Lip Balm I’ve ever found.

Aubrey Organics has wonderful Rosa Mosqueta Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner. They are awesome for permed or colored hair.  Their Rosa Mosqueta body lotion is the most luxurious and wonderful body lotion I have ever used!  However a VERY close second is Burt’s Bees Carrot Moisturizer Lotion (the smell is a heavenly vanilla scent!)

Toms of Maine are wonderful non-toxic toothpastes.   But then so is baking soda!

UVNaturals is the only sunscreen I have found that I am willing to put on my skin!  I can even wear it under makeup.  recent medical research is indicating that certain sunscreen ingredients are in fact having a detrimental effect through cumulative use.

These ingredients can mimic oestrogen, create free radicals, or accelerate the production of free radicals in the body. The can also damage DNA within the cells.

Sunscreens are divided up into two groups: Chemical (toxic) and Physical (safe).

The Chemical sunscreens work by absorbing the UV radiation – this process creates extremely dangerous and active free radicals.  The Physical sunscreen work by reflecting the UV light.

Zinc and Titanium are classed as the only Physical sunscreens, in fact, Titanium only reflects 30% of UV light and ABSORBS 70%.  It functions more as a Chemical sunscreen rather than a Physical one. So it should not be grouped with Zinc at all.  Titanium also acts as a “photoactivator” meaning, that in the presence of light, it will activate (catalyse) free radical activity and production, including cancerous and precancerous activity.

So next time you see a natural sunscreen labeled “safe and natural for your Baby” have a close look at the ingredients.

When you go read the label on most of the personal care products that you are probably using, you will find parabens and phthalates. These chemicals have been definitively linked to breast cancer.  Here are two excellent articles on the subject. 

Cosmetics, Parabens, and Breast Cancer

Here is a direct link to EWG’s page that will let you see what products are highest in toxic chemicals.