What’s In YOUR Shampoo?

Well, I’m on a chemical posting kick I guess. Earlier today I tackled the chemicals lurking in your dryer sheets. Now I’m tackling our personal care products.

Ok, I’m warning you now: this is scary stuff. I had no idea that my personal care products had so many bad chemicals in them.

But, I’m enlightened now, thanks to Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database.

Here’s their explanation of what they do, and why they do it:

In 2004 we launched Skin Deep, an online safety guide for cosmetics and personal care products. Our aim was to fill in where companies and the government leave off: companies are allowed to use almost any ingredient they wish, and our government doesn’t require companies to test products for safety before they’re sold. EWG’s scientists built Skin Deep to be a one-of-a-kind resource, integrating our in-house collection of personal care product ingredient listings with more than 50 toxicity and regulatory databases.

Skin Deep’s site is really amazing. You can type in the exact brands you’re using, and even pick the specific product. You then get a rating of how dangerous it is on a scale of 1-10, as well as a full list of chemicals (and what diseases/conditions those chemicals have been linked to), and whether or not they test on animals.

They have over 25,000 products in their database.

Here’s is a shocking real life example from your’s truly.

I use Dove Advanced Care Therapy Shampoo. Here is Skin Deep’s assessment of this product:

Score: 6 out of 10

Ingredients in this product are linked to:
	Cancer
	Developmental/reproductive toxicity
	Violations, restrictions & warnings
	Allergies/immunotoxicity
	Other concerns for ingredients used in this product: Neurotoxicity, Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Miscellaneous, Multiple, additive exposure sources, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), Enhanced skin absorption, Contamination concerns, Occupational hazards

And I wish that was all, but they also test on animals. The bottom half of the page is a scary, extremely detailed listing of every single chemical that’s in this shampoo, its safety rating, and what makes it so dangerous.

Thus far, my shampoo is the only product I’ve had the nerve to look up.

But, knowledge is power! I’m now trying to figure out if I should use up the rest of my gigantic tub of Dove (bought from Costco) or run out to my local health food store for some safer alternatives.

A cool thing about this site is that when you just click on a link, like Hair Care, without searching for the skinny on a specific product, they offer up the very safest products in a list. This allows you to see what the best products are in each category.

Unsurprisingly, they’re often small, organic brands that you’ll probably have to order online or through your local health-food or organic retailer.

On Skin Deep’s site you can look up makeup, oral care, skin care, hair care, feminine products, baby care, fragrance, eye care, nail care…the list goes on. It’s truly comprehensive.

Anyway, I wanted to throw this resource out there because I just stumbled on it today and was really impressed. Please visit their site and look up some of your own products; I guarantee that you’ll be shocked at what you find.

For me, starting tomorrow, I’m investigating organic, green alternatives.

You can click here to go directly to Skin Deep’s site.

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