Did you know that the products you put on your face and body don't just sit on the surface? They actually sink in and get in our bloodstream. We tend to be really careful about the foods we eat, and by "we" I mean us as individuals, and also our government. We have standards, certifications and regulations coming out our ears, and for the most part we can rely on a little sticker that says "USDA Organic" to tell us that something has been grown a certain way without harsh chemicals. With personal care and beauty products though, it's a very different story. The FDA does not regulate them and therefore anyone can label their product any way with basically no regulations. Let me rephrase that. Just because a product claims to be "natural" or "organic" does not mean that all the ingredients are safe.
The only way to really know what products are safe and what aren't is to educate ourselves on ingredients, read labels, and find companies we can trust. Thankfully there is a tool to accomplish all of this!! I've mentioned it before and I'm sure I'll mention it many more times, and that is the Skin Deep database.
Built by the smart and caring Environmental Working Group, the Skin Deep cosmetic safety database is a place where you can search for any personal care product and see how it rates on the hazard scale, and learn about its ingredients. It's really simple. 0 is the safest and 10 is the most hazardous score. Most products on the market are listed, and although it can be a bit tedious, you can actually list products that you don't find, simply by copying information from the label onto a form on the website. You can also search by category and see which products in that category have the safest ratings.
I'm going to talk more about this subject later, but for now I encourage you to take a look around. You may be surprised at how some of your products rate.
On the front page of Skin Deep is a petition you can sign to support the cause of regulating these products. We can all fight to make a change, and make personal care products in the U.S. safer.
Due to gaping loopholes in federal law, companies can put virtually any ingredient into personal care products. Even worse, the government does not require pre-market safety tests for any of them.
This is unacceptable. Sign the Environmental Working Group's petition to Congress to turn this around and make personal care products safe.
Sign the petition now: http://www.cosmeticdatabase.com