Skincare and Cosmetic Ingredients to Avoid

Many popular beauty and cleaning products contain harmful ingredients that have been linked to cancers and others have the ability to alter hormone levels. Some commonly used products even contain the same ingredients used for engine degreasers, brake fluid and anti-freeze.

I was shocked to learn how hazardous many skincare and cosmetic ingredients were. If you scan some ingredient labels of products you already have in your bathroom or make up bag, you will probably find long lists of unpronounceable ingredients that require a science degree to decipher. Chemicals such as parabens appear to be in every product as a preservative. Parabens have been found in breast tissue, according to the Teens for Safe Cosmetics list of chemicals to avoid. This kind of information is enough to wake up anyone and encourage you to overhaul your bathroom and beauty cabinets ASAP.

Green Lashes aims to avoid the following ingredients on this site:
(as and when I come across new ingredient information I will update this list).

Some ingredients to avoid:

Preservatives
Formaldehyde
Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate
Methylisothiazolinone (MI/MCI) and Methychloroisothiazolinone
Parabens
Phenoxyethanol
Triclosan

Solvents
Butyl Acetate
Ethyl Acetate
Phthalates
Propylene Glycol
Toluene

Foaming & Emulsifying
Sodium Laureth Sulfate / Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS/SLES)
Cocamide DEA / Lauramide DEA

Other
Aluminium
Talc
Petrolateum
Fragrance / Parfum

For detailed ingredient information, please visit the following sites:
http://www.cosmeticdatabase.com/
http://www.teensturninggreen.org/

How to Choose an Organic & Natural Shampoo

If you are in the process of converting your hair products to greener alternatives you will be relieved to learn that there are some great quality green shampoos out there for all flat, frizzy, and frazzled hair types. And according to Aubrey Organics’ website we should try and avoid the following ingredients when purchasing our next shampoo. (for further information visit Aubrey Organics UK)

¨ Sodium Laureth / Sodium Lauryl Sulfates (also used as an engine degreaser)
¨ Methyl/Propyl Paraben (petrochemical that can mimic oestrogen action)
¨ Cocmide MEA (causes cancer in laboratory animals)
¨ Parfum/Fragrance (mainly derived from petroleum products)
¨ Propylene Glycol (petrochemical used in brake fluid)