The Ultimate Resource of Ingredients to Avoid in Your Beauty Products
If you’re new to going green with your beauty, you know that there’s a list of ingredients you now need to be extra aware of. But let’s face it – most of us, as much as we love being eco-friendly and going natural, just do not have the time to research, read and consult with a professional every time we want to buy some lipstick. Instead, I’ve compiled a resource of links, just for you, so you can quickly get to the meat of the issue.
PDF Downloads and Printables
David Suzuki’s “The Dirty Dozen”: This is the list I personally use. It’s bright, easy to read and clearly lists the most commonly used ingredients to avoid. (You’ll see many of these chemicals and compounds being repeated in subsequent lists below). This lists even tells you what products you’ll most likely find them in. (Original page)
Whole Foods’ List of Unacceptable Ingredients: Whole Foods has their own stringent standards for products they carry in their stores. This long list of ingredients are not allowed in any of the products they carry. Overwhelming, but it’s perfect for the stickler.
Gorgeously Green’s Cheat Sheet: A handy little printable that codes questionable ingredients by color. Red alert ingredients are a no-go, and orange alerts are a caution. (It mentions that phenoxyethanol releases formaldehyde, but as far as I’ve researched it doesn’t on its own. It could when mixed with other chemicals, so double check the label.)
Green Beauty Team’s Top Ingredients to Avoid: Yet another easy to print and reference list of the top ingredients to avoid, according to the Green Beauty Team. The team consists of eight experts in green beauty, ranging from makeup artists, hairstylists, editors and estheticians, as well as a team of contributing writers.
Various Lists for the Quickest Reference
TheDailyGreen’s “6 Beauty Product Ingredients to Avoid”: A nice, brief list of some of the worse stuff to avoid, like parabens, petrochemicals, sulfates and artificial fragrances and parfum.
NaturalNews’ “10 Worst Chemicals in Personal Care Products”: Also lists ingredients previously mentioned, but with additional emphasis on personal care products for men and lab result explanations.
Green America’s “9 Toxins to Avoid in Your Beauty Products”: Another quick and dirty list that’s easy to read and keeps it succinct. Also mentions nanoparticles, something that’s still relatively new on the scene.
Organic Beauty Talk’s “10 Terrible Touch-Me-Nots”: A nice article on the more commonly listed toxins, plus some alternatives. For example, look for products fragranced with essential oils instead of synthetic “parfumes”.
Organic Beauty Source’s 12 Ingredients to Avoid: Liz mentions a few extras here. Also a very good list – brief, easy to read and also printable. One of my favorites.
Spirit Beauty Lounge’s List of Ingredients They Avoid: As an organic beauty retailer, Spirit Beauty Lounge have their own standards for what their products can or can’t have. A little longer than some of the above, but it’s rather cut and dry. If you don’t really need to know what each ingredient does and just need the names, this list is for you.
For the Absolutely Hardcore
Green Beauty Guide’s 100 Ingredients to Avoid: If you’re going to go all out with ensuring your products are completely pure and have the time to dedicate to the task, this list is definitely the pick of the litter. Lists the name, plus what it can do (or does) to your body. It can get overwhelming for the average reader online – just a warning.
Saffron Rouge’s Black List: Thought Green Beauty Guide’s was big? You haven’t seen anything yet: Saffron Rouge, like Whole Foods, strictly regulates the ingredients in the natural products they sell online. If the product has any of these ingredients listed, they don’t meet the Saffron Rouge Standard and therefore won’t be available for sale. This has over 3,000 ingredients!
EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database: The mother of toxic ingredient resources, you can do searches and find a listing for almost any personal care ingredient you can find. Most of the above lists reference this page. They have over 70,000 products and almost 3,000 brands listed. They color code the ingredient’s hazard score – green is OK, yellow is a caution, and red .. well, red’s obvious. Search by product, ingredient, or company, and find safer alternatives.
(image: Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot)
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I’d suggest strongly that you examine very strongly the teens turning green information as its completely wrong.
For Instance Aluminium Zirconium antiperspirants, legal in the EU, Petrolatum, Legal in the EU.
Preservatives: These are active materials so they are restricted to the amount you can use everywhere.
Before you take on trust that anything is banned in the EU have a look here: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/sectors/cosmetics/cosing/index_en.htm
Thanks for the information, Danny. This blog is not meant for the European market, so you may want to consider contacting Teens Turning Green directly with your findings. In the meantime, I removed that info, but again, please keep in mind that this blog is for the US market, where regulations are (obviously) very different.
Dear Danny,
Your information is incomplete, because Petrolatum is legal in EU, IF “the full refining history is known and it can be shown that the substance from which it is produced is not a carcinogen.”
And: “if it is refined and meets PAH purity standards for food set by FDA (Faust and Casserly 2003).”
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cosmetics/cosing/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.details&id=29080
Besides SCCS opinions about Petrolatum is carciogenic.
http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_risk/committees/sccp/documents/out149_en.pdf
About Aluminium Zirconium: Yes it’s legal, BUT there are limitations and requierements, like “Maximum authorized concentration in the finished cosmetic product 20% as anhydrous aluminium zirconium chloride hydroxide; 5.4% as zirconium and
1. The ratio of the number of aluminium atoms to that of zirconium atoms must be between 2 and 10
2. The ratio of the number of (Al+Zr) atoms to that of chlorine atoms must be between 0.9 and 2.1.
3. Prohibited in aerosols dispensers (sprays)
And “Conditions of use and warnings which must be printed on the label: Do not apply to irritated or damaged skin”
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/cosmetics/cosing/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.details&id=28836
So..I’d suggest strongly that you should give full information.
Even if something is legal doesn’t mean it’s healthy, or good (especially in a long term). Cigarette is legal and we all know how bad is it.
.
Bebeautysmart recently posted..Dietary/Nutritional supplements
Thanks Dina – that is amazing research there! :) I admire how the EU has so many regulations in place – the US has a LOT to learn!
It’s super important to know the amounts that are and aren’t allowed, instead of giving a blanket statement. Thanks for those numbers! :D
And yes, absolutely – just because something is legal, doesn’t make it healthy. Alcohol and tobacco are excellent examples. :) The FDA here in the US recently said parabens are fine, but we know they’re not 100% safe.
[...] a black list of ingredients to avoid when you go shopping. Start with the smaller lists of about 8-12 ingredients. These are repeated ad [...]
Have you tried Bubble and Bee pdroucts? A lot of them are USDA organic, and the owner, Stephanie, is working on a nontoxic toothpaste line currently. I’m really loving their deodorant and lip balm!!
I haven’t tried any of her products yet, but they are very pure and I love that so many are organic! I was thinking about trying the deodorant, too! Glad to hear you liked it!
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[...] As previously mentioned, turn the bottle around and read the ingredients instead. They’re listed from highest concentration to lowest, so look for that vanilla, as well as potential toxics. [...]
[...] you have a list of what ingredients you plan to personally avoid, keep an eye out for them. Any natural beauty company that has something to hide isn’t one [...]
[...] then try to memorize them, or as many as you can. I have a resource you can use to find out what risky ingredients to avoid in your beauty products, but we all have different thresholds and degrees of green. Some of us can not tolerate a [...]
I’m curious what you think of 100% Pure products. I really like them, and from what I can see, they seem to have some good things in them. I use only organic products on my skin and usually on my hair, too.
I’m a HUGE fan of 100% Pure as well! They do have very wholesome ingredients and best of all – they actually work! The prices are very nice, too. :) I’ve finally started to dabble into their cosmetics and so far, everything’s agreeing with my skin. Haven’t had a single issue yet!