Is Your Anti-Aging Cream Doing More Harm than Good?

When you consider how many health and beauty products you use daily – from toothpaste to deodorant, it’s easy to understand the importance of reading labels and using only the highest quality, chemical free products.  After all, whatever you put ON your body ends up IN your body, and according to the Environmental Working Group’s Shoppers Guide to Safe Cosmetics, cosmetic companies are not required to do any safety testing, so they can use almost any chemical they want.

For example, the EWG suggests that we should avoid using the following products:

  • Anti-aging creams with lactic, glycolic, AHA, and BHA acids
  • Hair dyes with ammonia, peroxide, p-phe- nylenediamine, diaminobenzene; all dark permanent hair dyes
  • Liquid hand soaps with triclosan
  • Nail polish and removers with formaldehyde
  • Skin lighteners with hydroquinone

And we should downright avoid products that contain these ingredients:

  • DMDM hydantoin and Imidazolidinyl urea toxic contaminants
  • Fragrance and dyes
  • Methylchloroisothiazolinone and Methylisothiazolinone
  • Parabens or “-paraben”
  • “PEG” and “-eth”
  • Sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate
  • Triclosan and triclocarban
  • Triethanolamine (TEA)

If you’re concerned about the health and beauty products you’re using, visit the EWG’s Cosmetics Database.  I found, for example, that Almay’s Pure Blends line of makeup has a “moderate hazard” rating of 3 or 4 – not too bad but I would have expected a “low hazard” rating of 1 or 2 for a product that is billed as 97.4% “natural.”  On the other hand, Almay’s Anti-Aging Cream earned a “health hazard” score of 7.

Last year, The EWG added a database for sunscreens, including lip balms and daily moisturizers. Before buying more of your favorite brand,  first look it up on this database to make sure that it’s doing more good than harm.

If you have a favorite beauty product – such as make-up, moisturizers, or sunscreens – that has earned a good rating on the EWG’s  Cosmetics Database, let us know in the comment box below.