We’re told all the time that it is essential to be careful what you put into your body. Most people know they need to avoid chemical additives and toxins in their food. But it is just as important to be careful about what you put onto your skin.

Your skin is capable of absorbing 1-2kg of whatever is put on it! Skin care, hair products, sunscreen, cosmetics, hand cleaners – the chemicals in all of these are absorbed through the skin and into your bloodstream. From there they can travel anywhere in your body.

Skin Care Labeling

If you stop and think about what this means it gets quite scary. Why? Because the regulations that control labeling on these products are very sketchy. Also, enforcement of accuracy and truthfulness describing ingredients or effectiveness of the product, in both the labeling and marketing, is minimal.

Many countries don’t even require manufacturers to list all the chemicals that have been added. Terminology is misleading. Claims of fantastic results don’t have to be proven until the manufacturer is taken to court. That rarely happens because few have the money to sue the giant skin care companies.

Basically, there is no way of knowing the details or the truth about what the products actually do, if anything, and what is in them.

This means that a product that is labeled as “natural” or “organic” could easily have quite toxic ingredients in it without you even knowing it.

Here in Australia cosmetics don’t have to have the ingredients listed on the product or the packaging. Ingredients only need to be displayed at the point of sale, and that can just be on a slip of paper or the shelf label. Few people can read the label in the shop and remember what all the long, unpronounceable chemical names are, and which ones are harmful.

Skin Care Ingredients

This lack of transparency is pretty serious given that many women wear make-up every day.

Most people are applying more than safe quantities of these toxic or questionable chemicals on their skin and into their bloodstream every day.

Let me explain using the fictional chemical ‘x’ as an example.

The safe amount of a chemical in a product is calculated with the assumption that the product is used alone. This means no other products containing that chemical will be used at the same time. In our example, the particular amount of chemical ‘x’ in this single product is considered to be within the safe guidelines to be absorbed into the body. However, in real life chemical ‘x’ will actually be used in product after product.

Given that most women use an average of twelve personal and cosmetic products each day, and most men use an average of six, you can see that the amount of chemical ‘x’ they put onto their body is way in excess of the amount considered safe.

The Chemical Maze

This little book turned this whole dilemma right on its head for me.

It was small enough to sit in the bottom of my shopping bag and lists all the additives you are likely to find in foods, skin care and cosmetics. Beside each additive it lists what products it is normally added to, why it is added to the product, whether it is benign, harmful or very harmful, and what effects it normally has on the body. Pretty comprehensive!

For years I carried this little gem when shopping and didn’t have to remember the confusing names of dangerous chemicals. Luckily for you the app is now available through Google Play or the App Store so it’s much easier to take shopping.

It is a real eye opener to read that a chemical added to make a skin care product feel moister as it’s applied actually dries out the skin afterwards. It amazed me how many chemicals added to skin care and cosmetics cause dermatitis, flaky scalp or other skin problems!

You can read about some of the worst additives in skin and body products here, but chances are you will forget their names when you’re are at the cosmetic counter. Which is why The Chemical Maze app is essential.

Let’s hope that as more and more of us start to demand accurate information these deceptions will stop. But in the meantime, let’s get informed and bring about change with our shopping dollar.

In case you wandered, I don’t have any affiliate interest in this product. I just want to share this amazing app with you to help with your shopping choices.

“I was blessed to come across The Chemical Maze as a teenager and have always bought the updated editions of the book. Bill’s knowledge is incredible and I respect him, his work and his commitment to making a difference to others.”                    

Miranda Kerr xxx

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