Why Clean Beauty Is Best

Q

What do you think needs to happen for the industry to evolve more acceptable safety standards?

A

We need to update the 1938 law that gives the FDA almost no authority to regulate cosmetics. Right now, companies are allowed to put nearly any chemical into personal-care products sold in the US—even known carcinogens—without disclosing all the chemicals on labels. We’ve learned a lot since then! For example, current science tells us that even low doses of certain chemicals can contribute to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, and other health problems that are on the rise. Each day, the average American woman uses about a dozen personal-care products containing more than one hundred chemicals that we ingest, inhale, and absorb through our skin, so they end up inside us.

The good news is companies have already figured out how to make safer personal-care products without using hazardous chemicals—products that work just as well and often better than the old formulas. Yet many of the leading brands continue to use old, outdated, toxic chemistry, because it’s easier than changing.

We need to shift across the board to green chemistry, which is the science of designing chemicals in ways that avoid hazardous substances. Scientists already know how to do this. But large investments from the big beauty corporations are necessary to take this new science to scale. The problem is that since companies can get away with hiding the toxic nature of their products—and marketing them as “natural,” “pure,” and “healthy”—there is no incentive to change. That’s why stronger safety laws are necessary not only for the health of people but also for the long-term health of the American cosmetics industry. People around the world want safe cosmetics. European countries are already far ahead; in 2003, the EU banned chemicals that cause cancer and birth defects from cosmetics. We need to do that here.

Q

What have been recent triumphs? What are the setbacks?

A

The cosmetics industry is clearly responding to consumer demand for safer products. Walmart and Target have initiatives to push for safer cosmetics. Whole Foods has motivated many companies to reformulate to safer ingredients. Large beauty brands are now promising to remove certain chemicals, including triclosan, phthalates, and parabens. These are huge victories, and they happened because of activist efforts like the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which has been watchdogging the industry and pushing for safer products for the past decade. They happened because people across the country are discovering the links between toxic exposures and disease, and they are demanding safer products.

It’s obvious that people want to buy nontoxic products, so it’s stunning that some of the most popular brands continue to use hazardous chemicals even though safer alternatives are available. They just hide these products behind bogus marketing claims of “natural” and “pure” or pink ribbons that make it seem like they care about women’s health.

One of the most disheartening trends in the beauty industry is “pinkwashing”—I wrote a whole chapter in my book about the companies that market themselves as champions of women’s health yet continue to put carcinogens in their products. They slap a pink ribbon on their products and promise some vague “portion of proceeds” will benefit breast cancer awareness, but what they don’t want to discuss is how to prevent breast cancer in the first place. We’re all aware of breast cancer, we need strategies to prevent it, and a good first step would be getting carcinogens out of the products we put on our bodies and our babies. Also beware that many leading breast cancer charities are avoiding this discussion as well, while they take money from the chemical and beauty companies. To learn more about breast cancer prevention, check out my favorite cancer organization, The Breast Cancer Fund, the only national breast cancer organization focused solely on prevention.

Q

Can you walk us through common greenwashing claims in beauty products?

A

Studies show that people often read product labels for only a few seconds—start reading the label all the way through, particularly if a product boasts one of these claims.

The best advice for finding safe products is that simpler is better. Use fewer products overall, especially on children or when pregnant. The Skin Deep database from the EWG is a great resource for researching your favorite products to find out what’s in them and how they rate for toxicity. Choose products in the 0 to 2, least toxic range, with the green circles.

Editor’s note: Choose products with transparent ingredient lists: If you see “fragrance” or “parfum” listed as an ingredient on a label, demand to know what the ingredients within that ingredient are. And for more on ingredients to avoid, click here.

Q

What about products that are preservative-free? Is that a good thing?

A

Not necessarily. Preservatives are important for water-containing products; without them, microbes could become a big problem. And preservatives are definitely tricky: Their job is to kill bacteria, so they are toxic by nature. But some are far more toxic than others. The worst offenders are preservatives that release formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen and potent skin irritant and allergen. These formaldehyde-releasing preservatives are in many popular products. They go by names including quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate, and bromopol. Parabens are also worrisome because they can act like estrogen in the body, and higher estrogen exposures are linked to breast cancer. Many products contain parabens, and the exposures add up.

Q

Are there any worthwhile certifications?

A

I don’t put much stock in certifications: There are so many, and it’s too confusing to keep them straight. But I do appreciate the standards for personal-care products that Whole Foods has in place. Also look for the USDA organic seal—any product that meets that designation is the best of the best.

Q

What are the five most perilous personal-care products and why? What can consumers do to find safer alternatives/options?

A

When our partners at EWG first created the Skin Deep database, which compiles toxicity data on thousands of products, we were anxious to see which company was the worst offender for making toxic products. We were surprised to find there was no “worst”—the mainstream companies are making basically the same products. Formulations are remarkably similar across the board, from the high-end boutique products to the cheapest drugstore brands. Most haven’t changed in decades. When you pay more for conventional products, you are paying for marketing and packaging, not better formulas.

We did find, however, that certain product types are far more toxic than others. Among the worst are hair dyes, hair straighteners, and perm formulas. Anything that changes the shape or color of hair tends to be quite toxic chemically. While there have been some interesting innovations in temporary hair dye, the truly safe and effective permanent hair dye has yet to be created—we’re keeping an eye out for that. For straightening or curling, stick with heat treatments and avoid the chemicals.

Also among the most toxic: Nail treatments, such as acrylics (with formaldehyde glue), and nail products containing acetone, toluene, dibutyl phthalate, or formaldehyde should also be avoided. And last but not least: skin lighteners. These products are problematic not only for what they say about cultural standards of what is supposedly beautiful, but also because they are highly toxic. Many contain hydroquinone, a carcinogen that is banned in most industrial countries but is still legal to use in the US.

Q

If women want to do something about this on a legislative level, what can they do?

A

There has never been a more important time to get involved. I’m convinced that women will be the ones to lead the charge to a new economic revolution—one that values life, health, and happiness over ever-increasing sales of cheap and toxic stuff. We need to get organized. We need to work together. Here are some things you can do:

Get connected with like-minded others. Join the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics listserve and Facebook page.

Make a commitment to buy safe products: Look not just at the label but at the company. Are you supporting companies that support your values? I’ve stopped buying products from all the mainstream beauty companies and choose instead to buy from smaller, independently owned companies (local if possible) that I have come to know and trust. Check out the Safe Cosmetics champion companies and other companies that have low scores on the Skin Deep database.

Get political: How can we turn the powerful and growing green and organic consumer movement into an unstoppable political movement? All these issues are connected: toxic products made from oil by-products, rising rates of disease, our increasingly unhealthy and pesticide-laden food system, climate change. We need to exert our power as moms, sisters, daughters, sons, and fathers to say no to systems that are poisoning people and the planet and yes to an economy that values life.

We are creating the world we want to live in through the choices we make every single day about how we spend our money and our lives. Get registered to vote, run for office, vote your values, shop your values, and let’s create the future our kids deserve.

Join me to continue the discussion at my website MovetheMarket.org.