I saw a Mommy at our local chemist who was pondering over the ingredient list on a bottle of bath foam her little girl was begging her to buy. She went over to the pharmacist and asked her if this product would be OK for her little girls eczema. The pharmacist (who is extremely knowledgeable as she helps me with various medication advice all the time) took one look at the ingredient list on the product and rolled her eyes!
She said she had no clue what any of that stuff was! I was shocked as I realized that even a good pharmacist COULDN'T understand the ingredients. I don't know all the weird and wonderful things they throw into everything we put on our bodies but I know a lot of the ingredients, and most importantly I know what to AVOID.
Its made me realize how I need to start teaching people about the dangers of unknowingly applying things to our bodies and our kids EVERYDAY without realising how harmful they can be. 60% Of what we put on our bodies absorbs directly into to the bloodstream. Caffeine patches, hormone patches, Vitamin B and D patches, even Transact muscle anti inflammatories. Now imagine putting, petroleum and paraffin by- products on your skin? Or sulphates and dangerous preservatives like parabens. Recently "Johnson and Johnson" had to pay millions out to a woman who got ovarian cancer from talcum powder. The most seemingly innocent ingredients, which we put on babies for decades! Don't even get me started on petroleum jelly AKA Vaseline. They are not even try and hide the name. it comes from PETROL people, how can you put that on a babies bottom? So my new mission is to start educating people about this.
Putting chemicals on your skin or scalp, may actually be worse than eating them. When you eat something, the enzymes in your saliva and stomach help to break it down and flush it out of your body. However, when you put these chemicals on your skin, they are absorbed straight into your bloodstream without filtering of any kind, going directly to your delicate organs.
Once these chemicals find their way into your body, they tend to accumulate over time because you typically lack the necessary enzymes to break them down.
If I were to tell you that your personal care products could be putting you at risk for hair and skin damage, immunological problems, damage to your eyes, and possibly even cancer, would you pay a little more attention to their ingredients?
There are a lot of controversial ingredients out there. At Pink cosmetics, I just decided to stay away from 3 Sulphates, parabens and petro chemicals. I will be posting up some input on why we don't use these soon, and trying to teach people about their potential dangers.