Paraben Free Isn't What it Used to Be

Parabens are chemicals used to preserve everything from shampoos to moisturizers to toothpastes.  They are also used as food additives.  Their low cost and efficacy as preservatives explains why parabens are so commonplace in all of our skin care products. Over the years, however, they have become increasingly controversial having been classified as endocrine disrupters and being linked to breast cancer. Another concern with parabens is that the estrogen mimicking properties of them may be a factor in the increasing prevalence of early puberty in young girls. While there are many studies supporting both sides, there is no end all be all concrete evidence that long term use of parabens will lead to health problems. My opinion, however, is why take the chance.

All this being said, many of you already know that I am a big supporter of paraben free products.  Both the Ilike Organic Skin Care and KB Organic Blends lines that I use in my services are paraben free. But lately paraben free doesn't mean what it used to. Many companies are jumping on the paraben free bandwagon only to preserve their skin care and cosmetic products with other chemical preservatives. Preservatives with even less long term research in their toxicology reports. So we really won't know how safe they are until 10 years from now when a law firm's commercial comes on in the middle of the night saying, "Did you use products with (insert chemical preservative name here) in it? Are you now suffering from (insert random health problems and symptoms here)? Then you may be eligible to join this class action lawsuit".

The bottom line is be informed. Read labels and look up the skin care ingredients in your products on the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) cosmetic database. Here you will get the all the health concerns of an ingredient including ratings on overall hazard, cancer, developmental & reproductive toxicity, allergies & immunotoxicity, ecotoxicology and use restrictions.  We can't do it all. It is hard to be 100% natural and organic all of the time especially with all of our different budgets, lifestyles and the ever changing labeling laws. But we can keep ourselves informed and make the best choices possible to protect our skin and overall health.

What websites, blogs, etc. help keep you informed?