I am currently obsessed with the Skin Deep Website, a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products from researchers at the Environmental Working Group. I have been on it all weekend looking up every brand in my bathroom, it was shocking how many items in my bathroom are rated "high toxicity" and that may cause cancer, render me infertile amongst many other scary hazards! Go through the site and search for your favorite products to see what you come up with. I could not find my favorite luxury brands such as La Prarie, Natura Bisse, Sisley or La Mer on the site, hopefully it is because their products are tested extensively to avoid causing hazard? (or maybe they were too expensive for the scientists to buy and test?).
There seems to be a pattern of beauty companies across the board with body lotions being listed as highly toxic even if their other products are of low or no risk (For example, Skinceuticals C&E ferulic is safe but the Skin Firming Body Cream is a high hazard- I am throwing mine in the trash tonight!). In fact, I am so freaked out that I have decided to use my son's baby products from California Baby (rated 0- low hazard) on my body until further notice. I am not one to scare easily and often ignore the urban legends of lipstick accumulating in the stomach etc but this really got my attention! Of course I will do more sleuthing with doctors in order to validate the site's claims, let me know what you beauties come up with.
Here's a thought, perhaps the reason Aveda products tested so high for toxicity is because they do not do any testing on lab rats....
I know so many women with some type of cancer right now, it just seems like cosmetic companies are not accountable for the products they put out! I will check the site, thanks for the tip Beauty Snob.
I just checked. I always use Laura Mercier products and they are scored poorly on this website. I may switch to Awake products. They scored fairly well and I love the bronzer from the daily quiz.
Thank you for the link. I think half of my make-up is going into the trash. There probably should be some kind of warning labels on these products in the future because a lot of them are horrible!
oh no my beloved l'occitane hand cream is a 7!
I love animals but I am not willing to get sick because a company does not test on lab rats. I say test away to make sure they are safe to use! I am not leaving my name because I am sure many of you will be upset but seriously, what is more important, the health of you and your family or lab rats farmed for the purpose of testing?
I am not surprised about Aveda's toxicity, I always thought that without proper testing they can not determine the safety of their products!
I say use L'oreal, Lancome, Prescriptives, La Prarie, Natura Bisse and all the other big brands! They test everything!
Thank you for sharing this site.
It is your most important post ever.
Thanks again! I passed on to others already.
Wow. What an eye opener. They really took chanel products to task. I couldn't find anything on my La Mer or Natura Bisse as well and I have come to depend on those products a great deal.
i wouldn't go throwing out all your products just because they get a bad score... i'm no scientist, but i noticed a lot of products i looked up just listed "no data" or "no fda review" for like 95% of the ingredients, and hazardous for maybe 2%. this doesn't mean it's necessarily harmful. also, a lot of ingredients that are often hyped to be harmful have very little scientific basis.
i recommend searching around beautybrains.com if you have questions about a certain ingredient or product.
They haven't tested all the products, they are just looking at their ingredients and the known problems with the ingredients. The reason some products aren't in the data base is probably because of one of two reasons: 1. They haven't done it yet, they are adding new products all the time. 2. They haven't been able to find the ingredient lists.
You wrote that: "Here's a thought, perhaps the reason Aveda products tested so high for toxicity is because they do not do any testing on lab rats...."
All companies use the same substances, they just need to use ingredients that are known to be safe, instead of ingredients that are known to cause cancer or allergies. Few companies come up with completely new ingredients, if you look at 100 bottles of schampoo you'll see that they all contain almost the exact same ingredients.
The risks of the ingredients are already known. Animal testing is mostly used for skin irritation and is completely unneccessary.
Why companies use ingredients that are known to cause allergies or other problems, is a good question though. If I were to make products I would use safe ingredients, but most companies don't, because it's cheaper and easier to use stuff that aren't safe. Also, perfume can cause allergies, but consumers want scented products, so they keep using it.
Hi Tina,
I am so glad you picked up on this site. I made a comment earlier in March in response to Michelle's posting on Juice Beauty and have talked about the Skin Deep website.
Anyhow, La Mer is on the Skin Deep website. But you need to search for Creme de la Mer or under estee lauder. it scores 6 out of 10.
This skin deep website is being launched in May this year. Prior to that all the information was availabe on the EWG website. At that point of time, all the products was on a scale of 5. At that point of time, La Mer scored 4-4.5/5. That's why I told my mom and my aunts to stop using this immediately.
I am now still using Skin Ceuticals, Chantecaille and Organic Pharmacy. Organic Pharmacy is by far the safest, as the product line was developed by its founder during her pregnancy - to ensure her baby was toxic free! Organic Pharmacy website actually also gives you a long list of toxins that you can commonly find in cosmetics....
Regarding Japanese products, actually they contain a lot of paraben... which is carcinogenic (research have been down on deodorants with parabens - they may be an indirect cause to breast cancer)
Well well, I have done a lot of research when I got hooked to the topic.... and trash away loads of my stuff. But as time moves by, somehow bits and pieces will be forgotten...
Tina, thanks for reminding me to be back on my "organic mode"... especially now that I am pregnant! ( ^ ^ )
Take care,
Karen (HK)
I tried with my Aveda hydrating face location that I love and have been using for years, and it got a 5. I see the La Mer got 6, does that mean Aveda's better than La Mer? Well I suppose animal testing is not really the cause then...
Hi,
I always read this site and totally understand what you are talking about with products. If you ever feel like it, check out www.janellebeauty.com. I'm helping my friend in New Hampshire launch this site. She had a cancer scare and started developing her products after finding out a lot of natural products weren't that natural. And I have lyme disease and can't tolerate man made fragrances and really want to be as natural, but still have products that work. I'm hooked on her coconut cream body bar and coconut cream body souffle.
Anyways, just thought I'd let you know just in case it's of some help.
Caio!--Cheryl
The sun causes cancer and without it, well there would not be life. The reality is, anything and everything has the potential to cause cancer. That does not mean the world is about to end and we should stop using products because it says so.
Hi, Tina!
Thanks a lot for a wonderful link. Unfortunately, I did find cream de la mer and was quite shocked with the results of the search: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/product.php?prod_id=71575&refurl=%2Fwordsearch.php%3Fquery%3Destee+lauder%26