Why You Need To Read The Labels On Cosmetics And Skin Care Products

Despite the known dangers associated with manyThe only way to ensure you get 100% synthetic
of the ingredients in cosmetics, skin care andchemical and toxic free products is to look for the
personal care products, some manufacturersrecognized Certified Organic logos.
continue to use them. This is because they areIn order to be Certified Organic, products must
inexpensive and can be used to produce itemscontain at least 95% organically produced
that can be marketed successfully at huge profits.agricultural ingredients (excluding water and salt).
Health doesn't appear to be an issue.The remaining 5% can be non agricultural
You can of course check the safety data ofsubstances or non organically produced agricultural
products as Federal regulations require ingredientsingredients with strict processing criteria, e.g. NO
to be listed on labels in descending order byGMO's and absolutely NO SYNTHETIC
quantity. Usually if you break the list into thirds,CHEMICALS.
the top third will be 90 - 95% of the product, theOrganic products only have to contain at least
middle will be 5 - 8% and the bottom will be 170% organically produced agricultural ingredients
-3%.(excluding water and salt) but again the remaining
You can check the safety data sheets on all30% have to follow the same strict processing
ingredients but problems occur when thecriteria, e.g. NO GMO's and absolutely NO
manufacturers do not list the recognised INCISYNTHETIC CHEMICALS.
(International Names of Cosmetic Ingredients).However, currently, body care products are not
Instead they use either made up names orrequired to comply with the stringent organic food
complex chemical trade names making it verystandards maintained by International certification
difficult for the average consumer to look up.bodies such as the BFA and NASAA in Australia
The list of potentially harmful ingredients is long.and the USDA in America.
The best advice is to read the labels on yourAs a result many so called "organic" body care
toothpaste, shampoo, moisturizer, deodorant andproducts are on the market. Since water is the
cosmetics. If you can't pronounce them - don'tprimary ingredient in many cosmetics, some
use them!manufacturers claim to use organic hydrosols, or
Of course the safest course of action is to seekfloral water, to green wash their products. They
out natural and organic products but even herethen make organic label claims whilst still using
you have to beware. Some unscrupuloussynthetic toxic ingredients that would NEVER be
manufacturers mislead their customers with falseallowed in organic food products.
labels. The industry's definitions (whilst legal) areFortunately one company produces an entire
not the same as those in the dictionary and whichrange of skin, personal and body care products
the majority of consumers would expect.which are entirely genuinely "organic". Most of their
For instance the chemical definition of "organic" isitems are Certified Organic to Food Standards
'a compound that contains a carbon atom'. Sincewhich means you could even eat them and they
carbon is found in anything that has ever lived,wouldn't do you any harm although this is not a
certain cosmetic companies use syntheticrecommendation.
chemicals derived from petroleum products andThey are the only company on the planet to
describe them as "organic preservatives".have submitted their products for third party
Also you will find descriptions of "derived fromindependent certification so their integrity is
(some sort of natural ingredient)" which lulls youassured. Also you can actually pronounce all the
into a false sense of security. You see it means abeneficial active ingredients listed.
chemical process has taken place and it is noIf you care for your health I recommend you
longer "natural".read the labels.