Tea Skin Care Products Alert!
Harmful Ingredients To Avoid

It’s so easy to get sucked into buying a new skin care product without really thinking about it. Everyone likes to feel pampered, and skin products always promise to do so much - clarifying, softening, reducing fine lines and wrinkles.

The sad truth is that most skin care product claims are embellished at best. What’s even worse is that they could harm us in the long run.

Do you know that cosmetic companies are not held to the same safety standards as drug companies are? Cosmetics companies can add almost anything they want into our personal care products. The FDA doesn’t require safety tests before products hit the market, so basically consumers are guinea pigs.

It’s not quite as bad as the olden days, when makeup was made out of lead or arsenic. Unfortunately, there are still quite a few hazardous products out there, waiting to snare unlucky customers.

Here are some ingredients to avoid. Check out the label next time!

Parabens are preservatives that are used in almost everything. Shampoos, facial products, hair products, deodorant-you name it, it might have parabens in it. However, you should avoid parabens if at all possible.

When they are absorbed into your bloodstream, they act a lot like estrogen. Estrogen fluctuations play a role in determining women’s risk for breast cancer, and it’s possible that parabens could increase the risk of getting the disease. In the UK, traces of parabens have been found inside breast tumors.

What to look for on the package: methylparaben, butylparaben, and propylparaben.

Yes, you read that right. The putrid-smelling substance that preserved those frogs and rats your teacher made you dissect in high school also preserves many cosmetic products. Between 4-8% of the population is allergic to formaldehyde, and it has been banned from cosmetic use in Sweden and Japan.

What to look for on the package: imadazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, 2-bromo-nitropropane-1-3, MDM hydration, 5-bromo-5-nitro-1-3 dioxane, and tris (hydromethyl) nitromethane. All of these chemicals can release formaldehyde.

Some detergents and foaming aids that are commonly used today are harsh and irritating in high concentrations. Even worse, these chemicals can be absorbed right through the skin, and may react with other chemicals to form carcinogens called nitrosamines.

Sodium lauryl sulfate, one of the most common detergents, is used to cause skin irritation in lab rats. Also, research has shown it can damage young children’s eyes. Stay away from these!

What to look for on the package: Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES), and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS), Diethanolamine (DEA), Triethanolamine (TEA), TEA-lauryl sulfate and Cocamidopropyl Betaine.

Your skin is your body’s first line of defense against environmental poisons and toxins. However, some skin care products use ingredients that breach your skin’s natural barriers.

This makes it easier for the product and its active ingredients to penetrate your skin, but it makes it easy for undesirable substances to be absorbed through your skin as well.

What to look for on the package: Anionic and Nonionic surfactants: Dimrthylformamide, Dimethylacetamide, Dimethylsulfoxide ,N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide, Propylene glycol, Tetrahydrofurfuryl, 1-Dodecylazacycloheptan-2-one 2-Pyrrolidone Alcohol, n-Hexanol, n-Butanol, n-Pentanol, Thymol

There are many other ingredients in skin care products today that are also cause for concern. If you have time, look around the Skin Deep database. You’ll be amazed, scared and probably disgusted at what you find.

Also, next time you are out shopping for a new skin care product, make sure you read the label first.

Back to Top of Tea Skin Care Hazards

Back to Tea Skin Care Main Page

Back to Amazing Green Tea Home

• Home
• Skin Care
• Here