Unfortunately, a lot of cosmetic products contain ingredients that you should be really careful about, but more often than not, the only warning you get is a generic precaution that does not address specific ingredients. Because of this, it is really helpful to know what ingredients you should avoid in your skincare products and why exactly you should avoid them.
The degree of harmfulness of a particular chemical substance or a group of substances used in skincare formulations is determined based on what negative reactions they can cause. For example, skincare ingredients are generally considered harmful if they:
- are highly likely to cause an allergic reaction;
- have a carcinogenic or mutagenic effect;
- are phototoxic;
- affect the healthy flora of the skin;
- can lead to internal disorders.
The presence and severity of negative effects of certain cosmetic ingredients strongly depend on their concentration in the product, their combination with other ingredients, as well as on how frequently you use the product.
Today, there are a lot of so-called blacklists of skincare ingredients that are allegedly harmful to human health. Unfortunately, many of these lists are not 100% trustworthy because it is unclear by whom they were compiled and what criteria the unnamed compilers used. In addition, a lot of websites copy these lists from one another without bothering to do a fact check.
However, there are officially approved lists of ingredients that are allowed or prohibited for use in cosmetics, compiled by national or international organisations that specialise in consumer product quality and safety. These lists you can trust, although it is worth keeping in mind that some of these organisations have more rigorous standards than others.
For example, the organisation responsible for the control and supervision of cosmetics in the United States is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. According to its regulations, ingredients prohibited for use in cosmetics include bithionol, hydrofluorocarbon propellants, chloroform, halogenated salicylanilides, methylene chloride, vinyl chloride, and zirconium-containing complexes.
In addition, the FDA strictly limits and controls the use of mercury compounds in skincare. They are allowed only in products for the skin around the eyes at a concentration of no more than 0.0065% in terms of the equivalent amount of pure metal and provided that they cannot be replaced with another effective and safe preservative.
As far as European countries are concerned, the member states of the European Union rely on the EU Cosmetics Directive (76/768/EEC) adopted in 2003 and most recently revised in 2019. According to these directives, more than 1,3000 different substances are prohibited to use in cosmetics in the European Union due to their proven or suspected carcinogenic, mutagenic or teratogenic effects, reproductive harm, etc.
Cosmetic ingredients that are considered harmful in the EU include, for example, formaldehyde, quaternium-15, octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane, mineral oil, parabens, triclosan, hydroquinone, phenylenediamine, avobenzone, selenium sulfide, phthalates, dichloroethanes, boric acid, borates and tetraborates, thioglycolic acid and its salts, ammonia, hydroxypridine, etc.
These and other similar ingredients are either prohibited or restricted. Common restrictions include maximum allowed concentration and the way products containing them can be used.
Of course, alongside American and European lists of harmful ingredients in cosmetics, different countries can have their own national blacklists. In addition, there are some ingredients that are not banned or restricted anywhere, but they have a bad reputation among consumers.
That’s why more and more consumers who care about purchasing skin and hair care products without harmful ingredients are choosing to shop in stores that sell natural and organic cosmetics, such as ours. In our online shop Organic Store you can find a great selection of products that contain no harmful ingredients. They are formulated with natural vegetable and essential oils, plant extracts, and other ingredients that ensure their maximum safety and effectiveness.
