Beauty Binge: PSA Read The Ingredients in Your Beauty Products
There is an abundance of beauty products on the market, anything from shampoo to a tube of sunscreen, but not all beauty products are made the same. Just like you read (or at least should) read the ingredients on your food, you should read the ingredients in your beauty routine.
In the world of beauty, not all ingredients are made the same and we should avoid certain ingredients to protect our hair and skin health. People seem to forget that you absorb your skincare products and they can enter your body, be smart when buying beauty products. I will only be touching on a few common and easy to recognize ingredients, but there are dozens of ingredients you should be wary of.
Alcohol
I have seen alcohol in a lot of hair masks, which means to be contradictory. I have recently thrown out a few hair masks because they include alcohol, which can dry out your hair and make your hair worse than before. Hair masks key ingredients should be various oils like coconut oil, olive oil or avocado oil.
If you are using a hair product that includes alcohol, don’t be quick to throw it out. See how the product reacts with your hair because some hair types can tolerate low levels of alcohol depending on your hair routine.
But alcohol isn’t just in hair products, it can also be found in skincare products, especially toners or drying products. It is a very aggressive compound on the skin and causes premature aging. If you have any skincare products with alcohol, throw them away ASAP to try to reduce the damage you already started. It can also cause your skin to become sensitive and inflamed breakouts. Even if you have oily skin it can and will dry out your skin.
Parabens, Sulfates, and Silicone
Parabens are commonly used as a preservative in most skincare and haircare. They are most talked about in the hair care community because of the damage it can cause, especially in naturally curly hair, but they exist in most beauty products. Sulfate strips the hair of necessary oils. While parabens and silicones, in hair care can cause product and cell build-up, which can leave limp and dirty hair. Parabens and silicones work best with straight hair but should be avoided in textured hair.
In skincare products, parabens and silicones are the preferred product because it is safer than natural products.
Mineral Oil
Mineral oil is in a lot of skincare products and it’s causing serious damage with your skin. Mineral oil also called paraffin oil is a petroleum distillate that creates a protective coating around the skin and hair. This may sound like a safe option and most people can handle mineral oil but mineral oil is low-grade oil that can further aid skin concerns. Mineral oil rarely causes irritation and is considered safe to use on the body or hair.
However, it is known to cause clogged pores because it does not absorb well in the skin. Most skin types that use mineral oil, the oil does not penetrate the skin and sit on top of the skin. This can cause enlarged pores and an influx of acne. Your face oils and moisturizers should absorb into your skin five minutes after you apply it and most mineral oil skincare doesn’t do that. If you are using this product in your hair care, it can cause an oily scalp and roots. You should look for beauty products that use higher quality oils to help aid your hydration.
Fragrance
I am as guilty as anyone for enjoying the smell of mysterious fragrances in my skincare. However, we don’t know what they are using for fragrances because they are not required to disclose the specifics. So in reality, you don’t know what you are getting when a product says ingredients.
Many of these products can be using toxic ingredients to add scent to their products can include any number of 4,000 products included in fragrance. The fragrance is considered a trade secret, which is why they are not required to share their full formula to scents. From the 4,000 chemicals in fragrance 1,200 have been flagged for containing concerning chemicals. So say no to the undisclosed scents.
Phthalates
Phthalates are commonly used in most beauty products and are near impossible to avoid. They can be used in everything from hair spray to nail polish. But to make it worse, it can even be food in our water and food. Phthalates are easily absorbed through the skin (or through body cavities) and quickly enter the bloodstream. Unlike the previous products, that were based on aesthetics and unproven scientific claims, phthalates are a known safety concern. It has been linked to infertility.
It is an ingredient that is hard if not impossible to escape unless you switch your whole beauty to a natural beauty routine. But keep this in mind in areas where you can switch to natural beauty.