Natural & Organic Skincare Products
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Drug/Department Store Brands
“Cosmetics are the least regulated products under the Federal Food, Drug, and cosmetic Act (FFDCA). The FFDCA does not require pre-market safety testing, review, or approval for cosmetics.” – The Cancer Prevention Coalition.
Your skin is the largest organ in your body. While most people do not consider skincare a major factor in their health and well-being, you would be quite surprised at just how major a role it plays. As your body’s regulator, the skin maintains your internal temperature, controls the balance of fluids, vents harmful toxins from the blood, and is the first line of defence against unwanted substances and bacteria. Even something as small as a pimple can allow a multitude of invaders into your skin, thus into your blood. You can see how important it is to maintain healthy, fresh skin to protect you and your loved ones. So why would you rub harmful chemicals into your skin, thus into your body?
The U.S. Institute of Occupational Health and Safety conducted a study on mainstream cosmetics and toiletries and found that over just one year, women absorb up to 2 kilograms of toxins and chemicals into their bodies from using these products. In addition, they found 884 chemicals used in these cosmetics that are known toxins, many of which are known to cause cancer. Not to mention the products used on infants and toddlers, products used in your clothing, and products used to clean the things you touch every day.
“In 1990, there were some 38,000 cosmetic related injuries that required medical treatment in the U.S. That figure does not include the many people who use cosmetics and suffer from allergies, irritation, and photosensitization yet accept these uncomfortable complications as the normal cost of grooming. They never visit their doctor or a hospital emergency room, and they rarely connect their allergies or irritated eyes to the cosmetics they use.” – The Cancer Prevention Coalition
This isn’t some paranoid, holistic hype to sell a different kind of product; it’s common sense. You wouldn’t knowingly take something toxic and gulp it down, would you? Then why put it on your skin – on your children’s skin? Let it absorb into your bloodstream.
The fact is that supermarket/drugstore skincare companies have created many cheap, synthetic components for their products to lower prices and increase production rates. Then, they slap a nice label on it, promote its effects on your skin, and assume no one will know the long ingredient names.
But let’s face it, it’s easy. It’s easy to run to the local store, grab a facial cleanser or lotion, and carry on with your life. So please do us a favour: look on the back of that cleanser, acne treatment, exfoliate, or moisturizer. See those big long words? Type them into your Internet search engine, and see how they affect your skin and health.
Once you’re most likely to find is the current “Holy Grail” of treating acne-related skin conditions, Benzoyl Peroxide. This chemical is well known for its ability to eliminate bacteria on the skin and reduce the appearance of acne, but what they don’t tell you is exactly how it happens.
Have you ever heard that it’s bad to put Hydrogen Peroxide on a cut or wound repeatedly? This is because it inhibits the healing process. It’s toxic to skin cells and kills the newly formed cells trying to heal the wound. It is meant to sterilize a wound ONCE, and then you seal the wound to prevent contamination. The same is true with Benzoyl Peroxide.
It is such a strong chemical; not only does it kill bacteria, but it also begins to kill skin cells. It is drying out your skin and destroying layer after layer. In most cases, pores shrink so small that you have oil and toxin buildup underneath the tough layer of skin, thus forming cystic acne. So yes, the visible acne is mostly gone, leaving a dry, sore, flaky layer of skin with acne growing underneath it.
We haven’t even touched on the most detrimental aspect of Benzoyl Peroxide, which has far too many skincare ingredients in common. Benzoyl Peroxide releases free radicals into your skin. If you don’t know exactly what a free radical is, here are the basics: A free radical is just an extra electron used in bonding atoms and molecules.
For the most part, skin cells are in a relatively stable environment. The molecules which make up the enzymes and components are stable and carry out their normal functions. However, when you introduce free radicals, electrons that aren’t supposed to be there, they can promote abnormal bonding of molecules and substances, causing a mutation.
Cancer is nothing more than a mutation of cells, causing rapid, uncontrolled growth of more mutated cells, eventually forming a tumour. Benzoyl Peroxide was formally rated a Class 1 substance by the FDA; however, enlight of these new findings, it has been changed to a Class 3, meaning its effects on your health are unknown. Just as high school chemistry students in the past were allowed to experiment with and touch Mercury until it was found to be an extremely harmful carcinogen. Likewise, lead paint, Asbestos, we never really know what these chemicals do to our body until someone suffers the side effects.
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