With a myriad of skin care products on the market it can be difficult to navigate. Companies get very creative to promote their products with attractive claims and promises. Fortunately for them and unfortunate for you, most of the words describing natural products are not regulated by law.
“Certified Organic”, is the only description that is regulated by the FDA. And others such as, “all natural”, “holistic”, “natures gift”, “pure” and similar are just green washing*. *Making it sound sustainable or natural but in fact are trying to dupe the customer into thinking the product is “green” through marketing and packaging to keep you from reading and understanding the ingredient list. Plus, even FDA approved organic products have nasty ingredients! Regulation for organic certification requires 95% ingredients to be organically produced, excluding water and salt. But the truth is most of the skin care on the market contains water as a first (which means water is the base of the product) ingredient. Now the non organic ingredient percentage could be 25 or higher, depending how much water was used in the product.
What else could be part of these 5% of non organic ingredients? Various things:
Perfumes or fragrance. Did you know that “Natural fragrance” does not implicate the use of essential oils*? Actually, “Fragrance" and “perfume” meant the same in their books. When you see “fragrance” or “perfume” on the label, it is listed as a single ingredient. However, it might hide up to 3,163 ingredients in that perfume/fragrance formulation. This lack of disclosure prevents consumers from knowing what they are applying on their skin. Some of these ingredients are linked to a serious list of health problems such as cancer, reproductive and developmental toxicity, allergies and sensitivities. Note, the companies do not legally have to disclose what is inside this “fragrance or perfume. This is their “secret sauce” and is protected under regulation that it is a proprietary formulation and therefore do not need to disclose.
Product preservatives. Phenoxyethanol, for example, is allowed to be used in organically certified beauty products. The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) on phenoxyethanol states that it can cause skin and lung irritation. It is also toxic to the kidneys, nervous system, and liver. Repeated, long term exposure can cause organ damage. It notes that toxic effects can occur through inhalation, skin exposure, and ingestion.
Of course, non-natural skin care products are even worse. They can be loaded with toxic and harmful ingredients such as, parabens, hydroquinone, petroleum, EDTA, phthalates, PEGs, synthetic dyes, and others. They are linked to a wide variety of terminal diseases and organ malfunction.
**Essential oils although provide a formula with a pleasant aroma, it is not its main function in a skincare product formulation like synthetic fragrances do. Essential oils provide specific skin benefits anywhere from calming the skin to being an active ingredient for breakout prone skin or targeting fine lines and wrinkles. More on essential oils in another post.
Long answer to a short question - YES, perfume is not just bad for you, but it is dangerous. Especially if you are trying to get pregnant, are pregnant or nursing, please do your best to read the product labels and avoid toxic ingredients.
If you ever are in question about what some ingredients or claims, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can email me at DRskinhealth@gmail.com or text me at 310-264-2228 or 239-316-6401