Detox your beauty cabinet.
25 common toxic ingredients to avoid
Image by Pierre Touissant. Makeup by Sam Addington.
Clean can be a dirty word in your beauty cabinet. A word that is used liberally and loosely by cosmetic brands and marketing executives. The word clean can be slapped on anything because there is no legal definition for “clean” in cosmetics.
Europe has banned over 1300 toxic ingredients in beauty products. The United States FDA has banned 11, and Congress hasn’t updated its cosmetics regulations since 1938.
Sadly, you can’t trust labels that say “dermatologist tested”, “natural”, or even “organic”. The safest approach is to take a quick look at the ingredients label.
It’s confusing and frustrating to try and navigate all the harmful ingredients lurking in your skincare and cosmetics, so I’ve made an easy-to-reference list of some of the worst culprits to avoid.
25 Ingredients linked to Cancer,
Hormone disruption, skin irritation,
birth defects and toxicity
in the human body.
BHA (Butylated Hydroxyanisole).
BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene).
Ceteareth-20 and most ingredients ending in “-eth”.
Chemical Sunscreens including Benzophenone, Oxybenzone, and Octinoxate.
Cyclic Silicones including Cyclotetrasiloxane (D4), Cyclopentasiloxane (D5), Cyclohexasiloxane (D6), and Cyclomethicone.
Ethanolamines including DEA/TEA/MEA/ETA.
Formaldehyde (Formaldehyde is rarely listed on an ingredient label, but you can find Formaldehyde “releasers”, including DMDM Hydantoin, Diazolidinyl Urea and Quaternium-15.)
Hydroquinone.
Iodopropynyl butylcarbamate.
Methyl Cellosolve or 2-Methoxyethanol.
Methylchloroisothiazolinone and Methylisothiazolinone.
Fragrance.*
Oxybenzone.
Parabens including Butylparaben, Isopropylparaben, and Methylparaben.
Perfluorinated compounds (PFAs or PFCs).
Petrolatum and Paraffin.
PEG compounds (Polyethylene Glycol).
Phthalates.
Polysorbate-20.
Resorcinol.
Sulphates including Sodium Laureth Sulfate (commonly found in shampoo and soap) and Ammonium Laureth Sulfate.
Talc (commonly found in eyeshadow and pressed powder makeup).
Toluene.
Triclosan and Triclocarban.
Triethanolamine.
*A note on Fragrance
Fragrance is a catch-all umbrella term for a trade-secret formulation when beauty brands don’t want to disclose potentially harmful ingredients. It’s a legal loophole where companies can pour in any ingredient they like including thousands of potentially dangerous, endocrine-disrupting, carcinogenic chemicals. It’s important to note that not all products that include the word “fragrance” do contain toxic ingredients, but there is no way for consumers to know what chemicals they are exposing themselves to. The only solution is to avoid products containing “fragrance” and demand transparency from beauty brands so we can understand what we are putting on our skin. It’s important because demanding change will change the world for future generations, one small step at a time.