Clean Beauty (What’s in a product)

Are we someone who reads ingredient labels?  Do we pay attention to ingredients?  Do we have time to pay attention to ingredients?  I have been reading labels since way back both on food and skin products.  I think it is very important to know what you are consuming both topically and internally.  Everything you use on your body and everything you consume affects your internal dialogue.  Some people do not realize that your skin is the largest organ of your body.  What does that mean?  Whatever you put on your skin penetrates directly into your body and can absorb into your bloodstream within minutes. The product on your skin will absorb in some form into your systems faster than food.

Why? For example, food has to first work with the saliva in your mouth, then passes through the acids in your stomach, then small intestine where it works with the bile from your liver to start sending out and absorbing the nutrients you need to nourish the body.  Your skin however,  absorbs ingredients with determining factors, such as how your skin pH is upon application, how large the molecules of product are, fatty lipids in product verses water substance, product formulation and the condition of you skin upon application.  Just note that the skin does get penetrated by what ingredients you put on it and absorbs (ingredient makes it into your bloodstream) a percentage of everything you put on your skin.

One thing I like to do is have an toxic score app or website that I can use to check the brand of the products and the name of the exact product I am considering purchasing to check for toxicity.  This gives me some piece of mind if something has a low toxicity score.  Here are some websites/apps that you can use to test and score products before you consider purchasing them.  Some also test food and household cleansers.

Clean Beauty Websites/Apps

• https://www.ewg.org/
• https://yuka.io/en/
• https://www.thinkdirtyapp.com/
• https://apps.apple.com/us/app/purecheck-scan-food-cosmetic/id1662348653

One of my main go to sites I have been using for years is the Environmental Working Group with Skindeep https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ for my skincare and beauty products.  I love that they give products a score from 0 to 10.  You can go on the site or app and look up almost any brand and any product your considering to buy and find a score to see how toxic a product is.  You  can also see an ingredient breakdown and what the potential harmful effects of a particular ingredient has on the body.

Product Ingredients and Fillers

Now that you have a resource to check the chemical make up of your products that you are using or are considering to purchase I am going to share with you a few basic ingredients out there that have been my No No’s for years, once I realized what they were.  The biggest NO for me is PARABENS, SODIUM LAURYL SULFATE, AND MINERAL OIL.

1. To me the easiest to explain a paraben is that it is a filler.  It is not necessary in a product.  Parabens can be considered a filler or a preservative.  If you look at a container for a product, say for example a shampoo bottle and you see the thick creamy white product.  Over half of that bottle could be filled with a paraben which is basically a substance to fill the bottle.  The main parabens you can see on a label are methylparaben, propylparaben and isopropyl paraben.  Whenever I read an ingredient label and the product has a paraben in it I put the product back.  Why would I spend my money on a filler to “fill” the bottle per se and what could possibly make the product that effective for use on my hair or skin?
2. Another huge No No for me has been sodium lauryl sulfate or sodium laureth sulfate.  Basically this is a surfactant or aka an emulsifier.  What that translates to is that it is a degreaser. (Product has been known for use to degrease automobile engines)  It is one of the first ingredients in shampoo as it will lather up your hair and give you that nice lather soapy deep clean feeling.  However, there are other more natural ingredients that when blended properly can have the same emulsifying effect but not be so harsh and damaging to the pores of your skin.
3. A third ingredient that is a No No is mineral oil.  I cannot tell you how many products they put this ingredient into.  You can find a lot of baby oils and sunscreens (the worst) that have this ingredient.  Number one easy way to explain why mineral oil is not good for the skin is that the molecule is to big for the skin to absorb and its a petroleum or petroleum derivative.  Usually this means that the product is cheaply manufactured.  More importantly than the manufacturing process is that mineral oil is a petroleum distillate or derivative.  I always like to use this visual for anything petroleum based. Imagine an oil spill in the ocean, now imagine your body is the ocean and imagine that petroleum or oil on your skin.  Can you see it?  Your full of oil and nothing is penetrating through especially sun or oxygen.  How can you survive without sun or oxygen and yet this petroleum based product is sitting on your skin. The question or answer as to why manufacturers are putting that ingredient in baby oil is mind blowing. Consumers aren’t always educated on what certain ingredients are and what/how they affect the skin of the body.

Quick Process for Label Reading

So to make label reading for skin products easy I will usually read a product label and quickly scan for any form of these three ingredients  If I see any of these ingredients in a product its an instant NO.  If I don’t see any of my 3 major No No’s I’ll usually take out my phone and look a product up after that to see if its in a product testing database and what score it has received.  Sometimes I’ll research at home before I go out to see if I like a companies ingredients.  You can always start with a companies website and find the actual ingredient list to know if you are interested in the products.  This process makes it easier to decide on a purchase and how “clean” it is for the body.

I’ve also learned in my training throughout the years with different product lines that it is good to know where ingredients are derived from.  Meaning are they derived from a scientific lab or are they derived from “nature” by either extracting the ingredients directly from a plant, tree, or root in nature.  Reason being the body will almost always absorb and thrive on any ingredients that are derived from nature which in my opinion makes the product more effective to achieve results over a lab produced ingredient.

I will get into the breakdown of the derivatives of ingredients used in products in another post.  As for now I just wanted to give you a little idea of how a product formulation can have an effect on both your body and your wallet.  If your buying something with fillers and harmful ingredients that wont even penetrate into your skin but sit on the surface of your skin are you really getting any value from that product? If your purchasing a product that is clean and will work with the natural cells of your body doesn’t that seem more effective?  Hopefully you can feel motivated to check your ingredient labels if you are someone who hasn’t been a label reader. If you are a label reader but want more information about what is in a product and how it affects the skin/body I hope using one of the apps or websites mentioned will  help you to start checking the status of a products ingredients and feel confident in making a “clean” purchase for yourself or your loved ones.  If you have any other instant “NO” ingredients you see in a skincare product let me know in the comments.