The skin care and cosmetics industries are huge industries netting billions of dollars for the big name players every year. Just about every woman in the world uses cosmetics and/or skin care products.

But did you know that many big name cosmetics and skin care products contain dangerous ingredients that can both harm your skin as well as your health?

Sad to say but it’s true. It applies to not only cosmetics and skin care products but also many personal and bath care products and beauty products. There are ingredients in many of these products that are known to have negative health implications. But nothing is done about it.

There’s many examples, I’ll list 2 here to give you the idea.

In 2007 in independent tests on a number of big brand name lipsticks found a third of lipsticks tested had lead in them. These aren’t obscure brands of lipsticks, these are well known big name lipsticks that women all over the US are using right now.

In particular it applies to red lipsticks because lead is a component of the pigment for extreme red. And even buying the most expensive brands was no protection, some of the expensive brands had lead and some of the cheaper brands did not.

And I’m sure you know all about the risks posed by lead to the human body. It’s a neuro toxin and it accumulates in the body. Lead in any quantity isn’t good for us. It’s known to cause behavioral and learning problems, just to name 2.

Of course the manufacturers claim that the lead is only there in small quantities, so there is no risk. Personally I wouldn’t want any lead in my system. And of course women who use these lipsticks are applying lead to their lips day after day.

Shouldn’t the FDA protect us from ingredients like this? Maybe it should, but it doesn’t. The FDA is not tasked with monitoring the levels of lead, or for that matter any other toxic ingredients, in these types of products. It’s left up to the manufacturers to decide what goes into their products.

Here’s another example. Another study found that adolescent girls aged 14 – 19 in the US have high levels of nasty chemicals in their bodies. These chemicals come from 4 different families of chemicals, namely phthalates, triclosan, parabens, and musks.

Studies have shown that these chemicals can have unpleasant side effects, and can lead to cancer, and hormone disruption in developing girls. 2 chemicals in particular were of real concern, methylparaben and propylparaben. These come from the family of parabens, a controversial family of chemicals used extensively as preservatives.

Methylparaben and propylparaben were found in the bodies of every single girl tested.

And what were the conclusions of how these chemicals got into the bodies of our daughters? They came from the cosmetics they use, as well as other personal and body care products. Teenage girls are heavy users of these types of products. Participants in the study used, on average, 17 personal and body care products every day.

Hopefully these 2 examples have demonstrated the nature of the problem. There are many more examples, and there are organizations set up now to combat the insidious use of nasty chemicals in our personal care products. Teens Turning Green and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics are 2 of them.

So if you’re a woman who is concerned about your health it may pay you to spend a little more time looking at exactly what is in those personal products that you use daily. The average adult woman uses 12 of them every day.