Which Cosmetics Are Safe To Use?

When we talk about cleaning products that people use in their homes and how we are working to change that, we often discuss how maid services, even austin maid services that claim to be green, non toxic or safe, often are using products that are harmful to your health. We don’t usually get into the topic of skin care and beauty products, but it’s still a big issue that deserves some time – we at Nature Maid are committed to your health, and not just through maid service products! This is the first part of a section I’ll be writing exclusively about products we use on our skin.

The problem of cosmetics being directly linked to breast cancer and other serious diseases has been known for some time, but cosmetic companies still persist in using chemicals such as 1,4-dioxane, a carcinogen linked to organ toxicity which can be found in more than 20% of cosmetics products, WHICH IS NOT EVEN LISTED on the ingredient labels of your favorite beauty products.

Proven links to organ-system toxicity and endocrine disruption resulted in the EU prohibiting the preservative Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)  from cosmetics – but these substances are still widely used by cosmetics manufacturs outside of Europe, including the good ol’ USA.

Some gals may say to themselves (I used to do this) “Well it’s only a tiny bit, I’m sure it’s ok!” – but that tiny bit applied to your skin adds up to enough toxins to potentially be hazardous to your health. It’s just not worth the risk, especially when there are products on the market that are conscientious about producing their beauty products using ingredients that won’t harm their customers. You’d think that more companies would follow suit. After all, what good is it if your customers stop buying your products because they get sick (or worse)!

When I was at the drug store the other day, I decided to try out the Environmental Working Group’s new app, Skin Deep. It still needs more products added to the database, but it worked great and should be installed on everybody’s phone, man or woman. With this handy dandy app, you can simply scan the bar code of the product you are looking to purchase and its toxicity rating will pop right up on your screen. Warning – you may not like what you find. We tell our Austin maid service customers all the time “be careful because companies are marketing their products as organic, safe or non toxic when they are clearly not.” They are skeptical sometimes. I mean, who would do such an evil thing? The sad and scary truth is – most of them.

Take Neutrogena for example. They are widely thought of as the “doctor’s preferred brand” – because that’s how they have marketed their products for as long as I’ve known the brand. Their tag line touted on their website is “Skin Care Products for Healthier Skin.” Sounds great, right? I used to buy a ton of Neutrogena products because I care about keeping my skin and body healthy, so I figured it was a good product to test out my new app.

Here’s the product I scanned – Neutrogena’s “Healthy Skin Compact Makeup” – this is from their “Healthy Skin” line. I wasn’t expecting a 1 rating (1 is the best rating awarded by EWG and is only given to products deemed safe to use by their rigorous standards) because I’ve wisened up about these sorts of advertising claims, but I certainly wasn’t expecting the 7 rating I found on EWG:

Yes, you saw that correctly – the “Healthy Skin Compact Makeup” has received a HIGH HEALTH HAZARD RATING. Here’s the listing on the EWG full website.

In short – certainly not something I would choose to put on my face.

This brief experience has inspired me to blog for a bit about beauty products that are safer to use than most of the products you’ll find on the market. Check back in as I report my findings! If you want to find out about a certain type of product, let me know and I’ll put it on the top of my research list.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a maid service you know where to find maid service Austin to help clean your Austin area home naturally and without toxic chemicals – right here! Us! Nature Maid!

Happy Cleaning