What's really in your everyday skincare products?

Do you have any idea what ingredients are in your everyday products? The ones you smear on your face? Underarms? Down near your privates? I’m going to bet that the majority of you don’t regularly (or never) check the ingredients list on the products you buy. I know I certainly never used to! The front label and the price tag (or an instagram influencer's paid story saying how good the product is) was enough to convince me to add it to my trolley or shopping cart.

I began the low-tox switch with my cleaning products a few years ago, but it wasn’t until recently that I actually started diving into what ingredients were in my everyday beauty and skincare products, and what effect this might be having on my body. I’m not going to lie, what I found was and still is quite shocking. I'm forever learning more and more, but the small bits I first learnt were enough for me to ditch my expensive skincare products, and start from scratch making my own. Initially I was a bit reluctant, as I have sensitive skin and had not long recovered from over a year of cystic acne caused by coming off the contraceptive pill. I just knew it was something I needed to do, so I did it. And I’ve never looked back.

“Sometimes it is the smallest decisions that can change your life forever”

— Keri Russell

If you’re not sure if you’re ready to make the switch, that is totally fine! It has to be something you WANT to do. To give you some insight into why I chose to make the switch, I will list some of the main nasty ingredients that are commonly in your everyday skincare products:

• Phthalates: these are the compounds that are used to make fragrance (or parfum) last longer. Ever wonder why sometimes you get that nasty headache when something smells too strong? Chances are it’s your body reacting negatively to phthalates. Fortunately our bodies tend to get rid of them quite quickly (thank god, because fragrance is in pretty much everything!), but ditching fragrance may be hard for some people, however the body will reap the benefits super quickly! Phthalates damage the body by repeated exposure over time and can cause low sperm count, asthma, changes in male babies’ testes and penis size, increased incidence of breast cancer and tumours and much more.

• Parabens: parabens can actually mimic oestrogen! Weird hey? They’ve been found in breast tissue, and although the studies haven’t been conclusive, it could suggest a possible link between parabens found in cosmetics and cancer.

• Phenoxyethanol: here come the ones that we can’t pronounce. The Dow Chemical safety data sheet cites animal studies (yuck!) where repeated exposure affected the red blood cells, kidney, liver, thyroid gland and respiratory tract.

• Resourcinol: this one is a hormone disruptor and is found in hair dyes, face & beauty products to help break tough, scaly skin.

• Benzophinone: this is another one where animal trials have showed that it is a hormone disruptor. It is used to protect things from UV light, so it is found in sunscreens, lipsticks, nail polishes, sunglasses, and even food packaging. Recent studies and news stories are now suggesting there is a link between this toxin in sunscreen and cancer! Sunscreen, something that we use to prevent skin cancer, potentially causing cancer? *throws all store bought sunscreen in bin*.

• Triphenyl phosphate: this is found mostly in nail polishes and is an endocrine disruptor. Research shows that constant exposure can lead to reproductive changes and weight gain. No thank you!

• Sodium laureth sulfate: this one is a skin irritant and a suspected carcinogen, and one I seem to be seeing so much of lately! Fact: seeing ‘-eth’ in an ingredient is a clue that it could be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, which is deemed by the EPA a likely carcinogen based on extensive animal studies.

• Triclosan: found in antibacterial products like hand washes and acne cleansers. It damages the thyroid and good bacteria and was even banned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2016. This wasn’t a worldwide ban so keep an eye out for this one.

• Benzoic acid, sodium benzoate: these are common causes of skin irritations such as eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis & hives.

• Butoxyethanol: this is a member of the glycol ether family and it is a butyl ether of ethylene glycol, which in layman's terms, is used as a car coolant… mmmm car coolant on my face, perfect!

• Micro beads: these are praised as being the gods of exfoliation, but really they’re just plastic that contains phthalates & BPA. There can be as many as 350,000 micro beads in a single tube, going on your face, and accidentally in your mouth/ears/nose/eyes. And to make it even more yuck, they are then washed down the drain, into the waterways, into the ocean, into the fish, then onto our plates to be ingested again! I don’t know about you but I prefer my fish without the plastic.
  

Have I made you feel sick yet? Or just angry? Both are perfectly acceptable after reading the amount of total CRAP that companies put into our products, all the while telling us that it’ll fix our acne or skin irritation, or make us smell beautiful… possibly, but at what cost?

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I challenge you to do some of your own research and get an even further understanding of what you’re putting on your skin every single day. If you still don’t want to swap any of your products, that is totally ok and I thank you for even reading this. If it inspires you to start making your own DIY skincare products like I do, YOU GO GLEN COCO! And if you can’t be bothered going to the effort of trialling different oils and making your own products and want to buy it off someone you can trust and who has done all the hard work, well, that’s where I come in.