5 Things to Avoid in Your Skin Care Products

Category: Healthy Beauty

We all want to have great skin, and we don't want our skin to age. But environmental factors, stress, genetics, and a busy life all play a part in how our skin looks over the years.

So if you're like most people, you're probably buying something that promises to slow down how your skin ages.

However, in your pursuit for nicer, healthier skin, is what you're putting on your face even safe?

The truth is, most skin care products contain questionable and even downright harmful chemicals.

Your makeup, face cream, skin moisturizer, or cleanser may deliver short-term smoothness and brightness, but it may disrupt your hormones and fertility.

They can also expose you to known cancer-causing pesticides and deliver dangerous toxins that penetrate and age your skin.

That’s right. The skin care products you use may actually speed up the formation of wrinkles, age spots, and worse.

5 Harmful Chemicals Commonly Used in Skin Care Products:

1. Parabens
You’ve probably seen a slew of products marketing themselves as “paraben-free.” These chemicals mimic estrogen and lead to hormone imbalance.

Now, the Centers for Disease Control reports suggest their presence in every American’s body. Whether they are or aren’t, you should avoid products with parabens to prevent reproductive issues like infertility or slowed growth and developmental disorders in children.

2. Phthalates
A common ingredient in fragrances, phthalates block testosterone and can damage a man’s reproductive system. These dangerous chemicals have also been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer.

3. Mercury
You know mercury is bad, but some skin care products use it to lighten the skin. It absorbs easily through your skin, and with enough use, can develop into mercury poisoning.

Steer clear of products with calomel, mercurio, mercurio chloride, or just plain old mercury.

4. Petroleum
As an industry standard, there’s a lot of information out there touting the safety of petroleum by-products, so you might be wondering why you should avoid it.

It’s because it contains 1,4-Dioxane, which has been listed by the World Health Organization and the Environmental Protection Agency as a probable carcinogen. Cancer from your moisturizer? No thank you.

5. Hydroquinone
Hydroquinone reduces the melanin in your skin to get rid of those unsightly marks. But in doing so, it hurts your skin in many ways.

First of all, it’s permanently altering your pigment while also weakening the elastin and collagen in your problem area—the very things that are key to keeping your skin firm and youthful!

Here are other ingredients to avoid:

Why do companies use these ingredients?

So why do companies even use these types of chemicals if it's well known that they're harmful or even downright dangerous for your skin?

Your skin's health is crucial not only for your appearance, but more importantly, because your skin performs so many essential tasks for your body. So it's important to use products that are made for your skin type and has ingredients that are safe for your health.

Thanks for reading!