10091 Health and Beauty Products

Modern cosmetics contain a host of dubious ingredients which would be more at home in a test tube than on our faces. These synthetic ingredients are inexpensive, stable and have a long shelf-life. Manufacturers love them, but the results from long-term use could be deadly. The same poisons that pollute the environment, from dioxins to petrochemicals, can be found in the average bathroom cabinet. Many cosmetic ingredients have been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. — Kim Erickson, “Drop Dead Gorgeous”

Your skin is the largest organ of your body and does an excellent job of protecting you from hazards outside the body. The skin is not impervious. It is porous. It can soak up substances splashed, dashed, washed, or rubbed on your body. Just as we are cautious about what we put in our bodies, we should be careful regarding what we put on our bodies.

Let’s take nail polish as an example. Underneath your nails are numerous blood vessels. Since your finger and toe nails are porous, nail polish finds an easy direct route into your body for whatever the polish contains. Alas, many nail polishes on the market today contain formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate (DPH).

The Environmental Working Groups Cosmetics Database describes toluene as —

A volatile petrochemical solvent and paint thinner, toluene is a potent neurotoxicant that acts as an irritant, impairs breathing, and causes nausea. Mother’s exposure to toluene vapors during pregnancy may cause developmental damage in the fetus. In human epidemiological studies and in animal studies toluene has been also associated with toxicity to the immune system and a possible link to blood cancer such as malignant lymphoma.

About Dibutyl Phthalate, it says:

The State of California and other authoritative bodies have classified dibutyl phthalate (DBP) as a reproductive and developmental toxicant, and the European Union banned the use of this ingredient in cosmetics and personal care products. In animal studies, exposure to DBP during gestation causes infertility, cryptorchidism and problems in sperm development, adverse effects similar to human testicular dysgenesis syndrome. Prenatal exposure to DBP has been associated with anatomical changes in the reproductive system development in baby boys. In adult men, DBP has been correlated with changes in serum hormone levels, lower sperm concentration and motility, and decreased fertility

Formaldehyde:

Formaldehyde is a carcinogenic impurity released by a number of cosmetic preservatives, including diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea, DMDM hydantoin, quaternium-15, 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol, and sodium hydroxylmethylglycinate. . . The International Agency for Research on Carcinogens (IARC) has classified formaldehyde as 'carcinogenic to humans,' and the U.S. National Toxicology Program has classified it as 'reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen,' based on emerging evidence in humans and robust evidence in animals (IARC 2004; NTP 2005). Occupational exposures to formaldehyde gas are linked to nasal and nasopharyngeal cancers (IARC 2004; NTP 2005). Animal studies confirm this link, and also suggest an association between formaldehyde in drinking water and stomach and gastrointestinal cancer and leukemia (NTP 2005).

This information is from Skin Deep: The Environmental Working Group’s Database on Cosmetics, found online at http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/. See the EWG’s database on sun screen products, at http://breakingnews.ewg.org/2012sunscreen/.

The important take-away is that no one should operate on some kind of nebulous faith that somewhere, someone is watching out for your safety and personal health when it comes to these products. According to the Environmental Working Growth, present public health laws allow:

Almost any chemical as an ingredient in personal care products.
Misleading and incomplete labeling of ingredients.
Unsubstantiated claims about product benefits.
No required safety testing of products or ingredients.

Therefore, the best practice is to carefully scrutinize the ingredient list of every product you use on your body. “Every product” certainly means “every product without exception.”

If there is no ingredient list, find another product. Check public databases like those of the Environmental Working Group for information about each ingredient. Google and other internet search programs are your friends.

Before you go to an appointment at a spa or salon, get a list of the ingredients of all the products they will use on your hair or skin. Fact check those ingredients and if you find something you don’t like, tell the spa or salon people you need another less toxic option. Don’t accept assurances of safety from employees of these establishments. While they mean well, their uninformed and self-interested comments are no substitute for your independent research.

The average woman uses 12 health and beauty products every day containing 168 different ingredients, many of which are hard to pronounce.

The average man uses six products daily with about 85 different ingredients, many of which are hard to pronounce.

The Environmental Working Group tested five women. The women each tested positive for between 25 and 45 different industrial chemicals in their bodies.

It is your body. Don’t contaminate it needlessly.

Consider using natural alternatives to expensive and possibly toxic commercial health and beauty preparations.

Shampoo

This product became popular only in the early 20th century. For centuries people simply used soap to wash their hair. As city water purification systems multiplied in the 20th century, water supplies became more alkaline (what we call “hard water”) so soap didn’t get as sudsy. Shampoo was first presented as a way to get suds in hard water. It is a detergent, like dish washing or laundry detergent. Modern shampoos have lots of ingredients with unpronounceable names, which is not a good sign. It comes packaged in plastic, also not good. It can be surprisingly expensive for what you get. Washing with shampoo strips your hair of its essential protective oils. That requires the use of a conditioner, with ingredients with unpronounceable names, packaged in plastic, and surprisingly expensive.

The natural alternative is simple. Mix one tablespoon of baking soda with one cup of water. Put it in a jar. Screw on the lid. Give it a good shake to dissolve. Get your hair wet with water and pour on some of the baking soda mix. Massage into your scalp and hair and rinse. Some people make a paste in their hand with 1 tablespoon of baking soda and a little water and rub that into their scalp and hair. Always follow the baking soda solution with a clear water rinse.

Next is another natural treatment: rinse your hair with a weak mixture of apple cider vinegar in water. This untangles the hair follicles, seals the cuticle, and balances the pH of your hair. All you need is about one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a cup of water. Pour it on your hair. Let it rest a few moments and rinse your hair. No, the apple cider vinegar doesn’t make your hair smell like vinegar. Once its washed out, there’s no smell.

If you haven’t deplasticized your life, you could put the water and baking soda solution in an old shampoo bottle and the apple cider vinegar solution in an old conditioner bottle.

See http://simplemom.net/how-to-clean-your-hair-without-shampoo/ for more information about her “no-poo” methods of hair care.

http://babyslime.livejournal.com/174054.html has a wealth of information about the problems of shampoo and natural alternatives, including information on natural trouble-shooting problems like dandruff, greasy, itchy hair. She lists herbs good for hair care. To treat your hair with herbs, make a tea with the herb. Let it cool. Use it like a rinse. You can add a drop or two of scented essential oils to the apple cider vinegar/water rinse.

The longer you use this kind of hair wash, the less you will eventually need to wash your hair.

Soaps

Soaps sold in supermarkets are cheap and you get what you pay for. They disappear quickly when used. They may have extra non-pronounceable ingredients, which is rarely a good sign. Fortunately, most areas now have artisan soap makers with a wide variety of better quality natural soaps available. Even though the retail price of these soaps is more than supermarket soaps, “a little bit goes a long way.” In other words, even at a higher retail price, the “cost per wash” is less from the local artisan than the supermarket bar, because the local soaps last so much longer, even if used every day. Ingredient lists are simple, easy to understand, and natural. Buying them supports local companies, not international corporations. People are naturally cynical about such claims, but the superiority of locally made — or home-made — soaps is easily proven.

Making your own soap is easier than you may think. The About.com website about soap-making is a good introduction — http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapmakingbasics/a/How-To-Make-Soap.htm.

Makeup, lotions, and other body care products.

When it comes to makeup, as with other body care products, accurate knowledge about the ingredients is critical. There are many recipes for home-made body care and makeup products which don’t have unpronounceable ingredients. Google and other search indices are your friends in this matter. For example:

Homemade body care products

http://pinterest.com/gracedukes/homemade-bodycare-products/

How to make body care products

http://www.green-blog.org/2011/01/09/how-to-make-body%20care-products/

Six natural skin recipes

http://www.organicauthority.com/delicious-beauty/body-care-6-homemade-natural-skin-care-recipes.html

Homemade beauty products (including deodorant and mosquito repellent

http://ourlifesimplified.com/house/other-recipes/beauty-products/

Take control of your life.

In this area as with everything else concerning iPermie, our goal is to help you take control and ownership of your life away from the default system design of gluttony and selfishness. Understanding your options, and acting in accordance with beneficial design principles, empowers you to increase the quality of your life and to resist the structures of subjugation and domination that keep us under control.

When it comes to beauty, the essential issue ultimately is psychological. No one needs makeup or other commercial products in order to look or feel beautiful. The idea that they are essential, or that without them, we are somehow less than who we really can be, is a delusion fostered by decades of advertising brainwash. It has nothing to do with beauty and everything to do with protecting the profits of transnational health and beauty product corporations. Use them if you enjoy them but use them because you enjoy them, not because you think they are somehow essential to beauty. Use safe cosmetics and beauty products. Don’t risk cancer for the sake of a certain “look.”