Toxic Ingredients... Let’s face it, most of us get hooked on a beautiful body product label or the attractive scent a product offers. We buy it before even reading the ingredients. We all love the appeal of packaging & how it smells, and therefore easily “buy” into its promises of making & keeping us young & beautiful. Truth is, many of the ingredients in most products are filler ingredients (preservatives, cheaply attainable synthetic substitutes of natural ingredients, ingredients that “sound” beneficial, and ingredients that pretty much do our bodies more harm than good in the long term!) Just like anything we eat, products we rub onto our skin, end up in our body, and the side effects of their toxic ingredients can cause long-term damage to our systems (allergies, skin irritations, digestion problems, nerve damage, fatigue, & even cancer).
It’s very unfortunate that many easily attainable baby products are packed FULL of these harmful & toxic ingredients, and their little bodies & skin are way more sensitive then our skin as adults! For example, Johnson & Johnson Baby Oil is made up of 100% petroleum based oil, called mineral oil, mixed with a synthetic perfume blend. Mineral oil is a liquid by-product of refining crude oil to make gasoline and other petroleum products, such as Vaseline. So many things are wrong about this ingredient combination for a baby’s sensitive body, or an adult’s for that matter!
Take a look at your favorite bottles of everyday products, and see if any of the following top toxic ingredients are a part of its ingredient list. I assure you some of these ingredients are on the bad list, if not most, and you might want to think twice about using them long term since that’s how they can harm us most. It may take time for your body to detox these toxic ingredients.
As you switch to a more natural product, your skin blemishes and overall health may worsen before beginning to improve. This is your skin's way of detoxing the bad stuff! Hang in there. It’s worth the switch. Trust me!
THE BAD LIST
PLEASE AVOID THESE FOLLOWING INGREDIENTS!
Propylene Glycol (PG) / Butylene Glycol
Phenoxyethanol
Sodium Hydroxide
Sodium Benzoate
Sodium Laureth Sulfate / Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
DEA / MEA / TEA
PEG / Polyethylene Glycol
DMDM / Urea
Mineral Oil / Phthalates
Triclosan / Dioxins
Parabens (Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Butylparaben)
Isopropyl Alcohol (rubbing alcohol)
FD&C Color Pigments
"Fragrances" (a term for a scent, almost always synthetic & chemical, that is added to so many products)
Talc
Here are just a few commonly used product companies that use one or more of these ingredients in their products (Some will surprise you!):
Johnson & Johnson
Method
Dove
Pantene
Soft Soap
Banana Boat
Aveeno
Secret
The Honest Company
Murad
California Baby
Burt’s Bees
Olay
Jergins
Yes to Carrots
Trader Joe’s
Suave
Nivea
Vaseline
Organix
Neutrogena
Palmolive
Mrs. Meyers
J. R. Watkins
Babyganics
Baby Magic
Tom’s of Maine
Huggies
Pampers
Biore’
Earth’s Best
USEFUL RESOURCE LINKS:
VIDEO about toxic ingredients.