We slather, we lather, we dab, and we smear, all in an effort to feel softer, look younger and smell better. But what exactly is the true cost of our vanity? Never mind the price tag, it is the ingredients in the products that could be costing us much more than our paycheck.
Mounting research is making it exceedingly clear that the majority of personal care products contain dangerous levels of toxic chemicals that enter our bodies via the skin, our largest organ. But as marketers continue to woe consumers with powerful advertising promising instant youth, beautiful flawless skin, hair, nails, eyes and more, the vanity within us seems to overpower even common sense. We often purchase unnecessary products in mass volume.
Toxic Beauty
However, would you continue to use products such as toothpaste, shampoo and makeup if you knew they contained poisons? The majority of personal care products on the market today contain known carcinogens, reproductive toxins, degreasers, surfactants, pesticides, endocrine disrupters and plasticizers.
In the United States alone, there are over 80,000 chemicals that are registered for use although only about 500 have been studies as to their effects on humans and the environment. Even those that have been studied have not necessarily been long-term studies with clear results.
Check the label of your shampoo bottle, it probably contains sodium lauryl sulfate, an industrial strength surfactant, Parabens, preservatives that mimic estrogen and propylene glycol a cosmetic form of antifreeze. While these chemicals may do much to enhance the desirability of personal care products, they are a formidable threat to our health.
A study published in 2004, noted that Parabens enter the skin and adhere to the estrogen receptors in the body where they can encourage cancer cell growth. Parabens have been found in breast tumors. Propylene glycol absorbed through the skin has been linked to such conditions as kidney damage, liver abnormalities and contact dermatitis. Brand 
name moisturizing creams cause skin tumors in mice and may pose a similar threat to us.
Day after day, as long as we are using products that pollute our bodies, the chemicals build up. The body does the best it can to rid itself of the toxins, but eventually it becomes too taxing and our health is markedly compromised.
There is unquestionably no price to be put on good health, and the best thing you can to protect yourself is to make responsible personal care product choices and purchase only what is absolutely necessary.
-The Alternative Daily
