Beauty is quite a thing, the pursuit of beauty has been an obsession to many, a gift to others, a curse for many more and the bane of countless others. However, poetic introduction aside, many people do turn to beauty products to achieve their ideal look and quite frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with that. Save for animal testing and toxic ingredients of course, since the first is the safety of all animals and the latter is safety of you as a consumer, these are the things that gets my eyebrows raised in shock. I thought perhaps people don’t know just how much toxic ingredients are in beauty products and I wanted to level the playing field to make sure that your safety is always number one priority.

Below is a list of toxic ingredients that you need to look out for and the reasons why you should, remember several beauty products may list some of them, but since this is a fairly unregulated market sector, they get away without listing byproducts either which is a scary thing.

1,4-Dioxane – One of the toxic ingredients not listed, as it is a byproduct. This chemical found in beauty products has been linked to cancer, which is more than enough reason to fear for your safety.

Acrylates – Looking for a nail product? Then turn away from one when it has this listed, as this item on the long list of toxic ingredients can cause organ system toxicity, cellular and neurological damage and much more. Even when questioning the safety of consumers, this ingredient continues to find its way into nail beauty products.

It would be best to go natural and opt with genuinely organic products.

Benzophenone – This item on toxic ingredients is often found in lip balm, nail polish, baby sunscreens, hair conditioners and much more. This chemical has been known to cause cancer, give toxicity to development and reproductive system, which makes it dangerous for kids and women mostly but be forewarned, given that it can be found in a ton of places, everyone’s safety is of concern.

Coal tar – Found in shampoos and scalp treatment soaps to name a few, this chemical can be linked to cancer, organ system toxicity and much more. Given that the beauty products it can be found in is quite broad and used by pretty much everyone, everyone needs to be on their toes to really keep track of their safety.

Formaldehyde – This science experiment gone wrong, has found its way into your beauty products and as one of the more known toxic ingredients on the list, I’m sure you’ve heard this chemical a few times over. This dangerous chemical can be found in a number of beauty products such as nail polish, hair gel, body soap, baby shampoo and much more, now you can really see that everyone’s safety is in question when products made specifically for babies have something like this in it.

Now I can keep going and share how many dangerous toxic ingredients are in a number of beauty products, but we’d never end and quite frankly you and I don’t have the time to go over it. However given that everyone’s safety is indeed a concern, I will now share some alternatives and tips as to how to avoid these chemicals.

Read the label – Companies are obligated to place all items on it, non-toxic and toxic ingredients as well. So beauty products are not absolved from this responsibility as well, despite having looser regulations, this is still not something they can avoid. Now as a rule of thumb, if you are unfamiliar with the ingredient listed and think it could be harmful to your safety, research it and see the feedback about said ingredient. Personally if it’s impossibly difficult to say the ingredient, that could be a red flag getting calling out to me, so that can be a good measure for a lot of people.

Keep it simple – Sometimes simple is the best, a lot of people pay for the natural look, but sometimes the real natural look is the best. Need a little oomph in your hair? Nah, avoid the hair gel, you don’t need that, just take the time to style it with a brush and what not. Need softer skin, you don’t need that lotion, all you need is a steady diet of proper nutrients and your skin will glow, or opt for organic natural oils like virgin coconut oil. When you do stick with the natural look, you can avoid some nasty toxic ingredients, which in turn ensures your safety and to top it all off, you won’t spend so much on beauty products as well, so I don’t really see the downside of this tip, so make the most of it and go natural.

Make sure to always check the label. It is often disregarded, but the ingredients of what we put on our skin matters a lot.

Avoid the extra stuff on you – While keeping it simple is a great tip on it’s own, there are times when you are required or assume you need to use items, case and point: when you bring your baby out under the sun. Don’t reach for the sunscreen or other beauty products – that stuff could be loaded with toxic ingredients and could be detrimental to your child’s safety. Dress your baby in better and more sun protected clothes to be safe. There are always ways around the extra garnish or other needs, if not natural alternatives are preferred in order to really avoid extra exposure.

Beware the fragrance – When things seem too good to be true on certain beauty products, they probably are. Now one word to be afraid of is: fragrance – that can mean a lot of toxic ingredients mixed into your item and that can spell trouble for safety. Go with unscented or natural items if at all possible, avoid the fragrant smells and the toxic ingredients that it brings with it.

Be careful of organic – Now this is strange coming from me, I suppose but please do listen to this safety tip. Regardless if a product says “organic” or “USDA-certified” that means that perhaps most of it is organic but that still leaves some space in that bottle to put in some toxic ingredients, after all beauty products will be beauty products. So again the word caution should prevail and you need to keep reading the labels regardless of the big shiny signage of rather empty promises the beauty products marketing team has come up with. Be a smart consumer and take the time to learn about the ingredients of what you consume.

There it is, some of the scary toxic ingredients, the list is way longer than the items I shared above, believe me on that one but it’s something to definitely get you started. I believe beauty, health and hygiene products are something we have gotten used to over the years, but most of them are unneeded especially if they put into light our safety, you can avoid most of them but if not there are always healthier alternatives. Be smart and read up on what you end up buying and using, don’t just blindly follow the hype and you’ll be fine. Stay healthy!