Breast Cancer Fund: Safe Cosmetics and Skin Cream – AVOID toxic chemicals.
Read the labels. Many lotions and cosmetics contain chemicals like Parabens and PEG 100 – you’ll even find some in Trader Joe’s products.
Olive oil, coconut oil and shea butter is great for your body (and olive oil is even doctor recommended for personal lubrication.
Breast Cancer Fund:
Use Fewer Products with Simpler Ingredients
Some beauty products contain carcinogens and endocrine-disrupting chemicals that increase breast cancer risk. Each product you cut from your beauty ritual decreases the number and quantity of chemicals to which you’re exposed.
Avoid “Fragrance”
What are all those chemicals on the ingredient label? Find out which ones are linked to breast cancer.
Although it’s just one little word on the ingredient label, “fragrance” can contain dozens, even hundreds, of chemicals—including hormone-disrupting phthalates, synthetic musks, and ethylene oxide. Fragrance manufacturers claim the formulas are confidential business information. So, until we change the law so consumers have the right to know what’s in our products, it’s best to avoid synthetic fragrance and opt for products that are fragrance-free or that contain natural fragrances like essential oils.
Read the Label to Avoid Synthetic Ingredients
Good: words that you’ve heard before, like aloe or lavender. Bad: words you can’t even pronounce. Chemicals sound like chemicals. Avoid products with DMDM hydantoin and imidazolidinyl urea; parabens or any word ending in “-paraben”; “PEG” compounds and words ending in “-eth”; triclosan and triclocarban; triethanolamine (TEA); hydroquinone and oxybenzone. You also want to avoid synthetic fragrance, which can contain hundreds of chemicals, including toxic phthalates.
Follow Your Nose When Choosing a Nail Salon
If you go for a mani-pedi, select a nail salon that stocks only nail polishes free of the toxic trio (formaldehyde, toluene—which can be contaminated with benzene—and dibutyl phthalate). Also look for a nail salon that has good ventilation for the entire shop. Choosing a nail salon that engages in these safety practices can help protect your health and the health of the workers who are there every day.
- The toxic trio—and brands that have gone “three-free
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Don’t Sweat Over Your Antiperspirant
A possible source of aluminum in breast tissue may be the use of underarm antiperspirants, so try to find an aluminum-free formula.
Read the full story here: http://www.breastcancerfund.org/reduce-your-risk/tips/choose-safe-cosmetics/
This is a great post. We have started our cosmetic company with the company motto of “non-toxic, safe in pregnancy”. This safety translates into safety in all cosmetics, and avoiding all artificial preservatives that are byproducts of lead, and other skin irritants. Skin absorption is a phenomenon that is very important and what you put on your skin will end up in your body. Bioaccumulation is the term used with most toxic chemicals, lead, parabens, phthalates…its daily dose in cosmetics may be very very small, however because these chemicals are not excreted, but stored, their full effect occurs years later when the “load” reaches a toxic threshold in humans. We don’t know exactly when that load is reached, or what that number is, but just guess based on animals. The best strategy is to avoid them altogether. We started our company VSacharMD(dot)com to give pregnant women a safe alternative for their cosmetic needs, but everyone can use safe, non-toxic makeup. Visit us at www(dot)VSacharMD(dot)com for more medical information about parabens, and bioaccumulation and lead etc.