Unmasking the Toxic Ingredients in Mainstream Cosmetics
There is Stacy Malkan's book, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, which was published in 2007, that exposes the toxic ingredients in the most popular and leading brands of cosmetics. Click here to check out the table of contents, index, or first pages of the book.
Now, in paperback, there is another book newly published entitled "No More Dirty Looks: The Truth about Your Beauty Products--and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics" by Siobhan O'Connor and Alexandra Spunt.
It started when the two journalists went and got their hair straightened, only to find that the "secret" straightening ingredient is formaldehyde, a proven carcinogen.
After doing more research, O'Connor and Spunt were dismayed to discover that the cosmetic industry was more toxic and less regulated than they ever suspected. The book they wrote reveals ingredients in major brands of cosmetics that contain chemicals proven to be hormone disruptors, that are mutagenic, carcinogenic, and that are neurotoxins.
The authors' advice:
1) For hair care, check the ingredient list for sulfates and preservatives like parabens. Both are potential hormone disruptors. Seek organic shampoos and conditioners. They recommend John Masters' organic line, or make your own with baking soda and mayo.
2) For eye makeup, mascara contents may include mercury, a neurotoxin, and coal tar, a carcinogen; eye shadow can be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, a chemical linked to cancer. The authors write that activated charcoal can sub for conventional eye makeup.
3) For skin care, popular brands of moisturizers have parabens and other preservatives. Sunscreens contain oxybenzone, a hormone disruptor. They recommend using extra-virgin olive oil as a moisturizer and Soleo Organics makes an all-natural sunscreen. This sunscreen is top rated by the Environmental Working Group and has the following ingredients: Active ingredient: zinc oxide (22.3%). Inactive ingredients: vitis vinifera seed oil (grapeseed), helianthus annus seed oil (sunflower), capric/caprylic riglyceride, vegetable oils, candelilla cera, cera alba (beeswax), macadamia ternifolia seed oil, theobroma grandiflorum seed butter, camillia sinensis leaf extract (green tea), anthemis nobilis flower extract (roman chamomile), lecithin, carthamus tinctorius seed oil (safflower), cucumis sativus fruit extract (cucumber), natural vitamin E oil.
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