5 Tips for Choosing Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care Products
Many consumers are now becoming more aware of the adverse effects of toxic ingredients in cosmetics and personal care items. From perfume to simple lipstick, even a small amount of harmful chemicals can be bad for your health as well as the environment. Fortunately, many cosmetic companies have started to change how they process and manufacture products but choosing safe cosmetics and personal care products can still be very confusing.
We hope our 5 tips will make it easier for you to make better product choices whether you are walking along the aisles of a local beauty store, looking at personal care products for you and your family in the supermarket, or perhaps working out how to choose the safest deodorant set online, for example.
If you want to know how to pick safe products for yourself and your loved ones, keep reading this article!
Tip #1: Simplify
You should always read the ingredients list carefully when shopping for a cosmetic product. Remember that generally, the shorter the list the better. Shorter ingredients usually mean that the item only contains the necessary ingredients to target the concerns it is primarily aimed for.
Generally, it’s better to stick to around 7 ingredients. Some companies hide toxic or unhealthy ingredients under the “fragrance” or “parfum” ingredient name. Honest companies are transparent about the source of fragrance they use, so you need to watch this out too.
Tip #2: Beware of Buzzwords
In the UK, the terms ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ are not specifically regulated under the UK Cosmetics Regulations, which control the safety of cosmetic products. The same applies to labels such as pure, eco, herbal, and botanical which may also be used by some brands. However, there are 6 points of common criteria relating to cosmetic claims to ensure labelling is not inherently misleading:
- Legal Compliance
- Truthfulness
- Evidential Support
- Honesty
- Fairness
- Informed Decision-Making
It is imperative, therefore, that you check ingredients carefully rather than relying on buzzwords.
Tip #3: Get to Know Ingredients
Of course, you can’t learn each and every single ingredient by heart. What you can realistically do is remember some of the toxic ingredients that are commonly used by brands and their alternatives, so you know when to avoid purchasing a product if it contains any of those.
Some of the most commonly known ingredients you need to look out for are heavy metals, parabens, octinoxate, triclosan, lead, petrochemicals, the Laureth family (ALS, SLS, SLES), DEA, MEA, TEA, and artificial colours and fragrances.
Tip #4: Shop Where There Is Ingredient Transparency
You can easily tell if a company is transparent about the ingredients it uses in its products. Since online shopping is prevalent nowadays, many brands list all the ingredients of a relevant product under the “ingredients” heading on the product page.
If a brand is shady about the ingredients, you can easily tell that, which is a sign that you should avoid buying it.
Some companies are only committed to dealing in products with safe ingredients, which you can tell by their mission statement. Once you have found a brand or brands you are comfortable with, it is worth staying with them because choosing safe cosmetics shouldn’t mean using less effective products.
Tip #5: Try DIY
When you can easily make your own affordable and effective products, you can avoid purchasing products from other sources.
For example, you can massage your head with almond oil rather than purchasing a high-end dandruff shampoo. Furthermore, you can create your own body scrubs, body oils, or face masks at home and use them with peace of mind with added effectiveness.
Making your own beauty products is also often a greener option.
However, although there are lots of options for personal care products, it isn’t as easy to make things such as lipstick, eyeliner and many other beauty products, so you will still need to be vigilant when choosing safe cosmetics.