Holistic Beauty from the Inside Out (15 page)

Holistic Beauty Commandment 6: Mix and match as long as you like

Forget the marketing myth saying that you must use cleansers, toners, and moisturizers from one line because they are “designed” to work in synergy. Feel free to use a cleanser from one brand (or
even homemade), mask from another brand, and moisturizer from yet another one—as long as it makes your skin (and wallet) happy. In other words, you should adapt your skincare regimen to your current skin needs.

Holistic Beauty Commandment 7: Play dumb when you hear beauty myths

Myths are created when people are too lazy to look for a reasonable explanation to certain things. One myth is that you need a night cream and a day cream. If your skin is dry, slathering a thick balm at night will not do it any good. Instead, find out why is it dry and act accordingly. Drink more water. Install a humidifier. Toss away that alcohol-laden toner. Add a few drops of oil to your regular moisturizer or massage some oil into your skin at bedtime. Another myth says that people with oily skin should avoid oil in their beauty products because it makes their skin produce more oil. Nonsense! Endocrine glands trigger oil production, not skincare. Our skin has no brains of its own to decide whether it’s had enough oil or not. Some oils are quite pore-clogging (cocoa, wheat germ, shea), but thin, “dry” oils such as jojoba, chia, and evening primrose are excellent for oilier skin types.

Holistic Beauty Commandment 8: Aim for greener packaging

They say that it’s the stuff inside the bottle that truly matters. But as you aim to reduce your exposure to chemicals in your skincare, you should pay more attention to the bottle too. PET plastics leach phthalates into your products, especially if there are lots of essential oils or acids in the formula. Aluminum tubes and bottles are usually lined with epoxy resin, which is another mighty source of gender-bending bisphenol-A. Safe plastic for skincare is polypropylene, identified as PP or #5 plastic on the bottom of a container. The safest and most environmentally friendly packaging is glass or cardboard—yes, they can now make cardboard jars for creams and lotions!

Holistic Beauty Commandment 9: Protect your skin from environmental damage

The true source of eternal beauty is smart protection from damaging elements, especially from the sun. But not all SPF is created equal. Synthetic sunscreens often poise more danger than the sun rays they are created to shield against (further on in this book you will learn more about natural sun protection). Instead, use mineral sun blocks made with zinc oxide and to a lesser extent titanium dioxide, as they sit on the skin surface and act as tiny mirrors reflecting dangerous rays of all types instead of penetrating the skin and fighting the enemy on your territory—causing untold damage to the skin and your health in general. Nourish your skin with antioxidants applied topically and consumed with food to protect against chemical vapors, industrial fumes, automobile emissions, volatile organic compounds, free radicals, and other hazardous “additions” in the air.

Holistic Beauty Commandment 10: Protect your skin from inside

The most trustworthy skin and hair health insurance you can buy is not in the jar or a tube but in your refrigerator and in the kitchen cupboard (and, if you are lucky, in your tap). Feeding your skin with glow-promoting nutrients is the most reliable way to smooth, glowing skin and strong, resilient hair. Eating a healthy, wholesome
diet; balancing the stress with meditation and good sleep; and probably taking an antioxidant supplement (or two) will make your skin and hair more beautiful than all the expensive creams and lotions money can buy. You cannot supply your skin with collagen and elastin from creams, and you cannot prevent hair loss with shampoos. True beauty starts inside your body.

THE DIRTY DOZEN

When we book a holiday vacation, choose a health insurance, or buy a car, we spend untold hours online, comparing options and reading reviews. Why don’t we approach our beauty products with the same discrimination? Is it only the price difference between a car and a jar of cream that matters? If you add up all those jars, tubes, bottles, and vials that you have purchased over the years, the difference won’t be as dramatic. It is estimated that women spend between $2,000 and $20,000 a year on various skin and hair treatments. But when it comes to choosing beauty products, we are so trusting, it is nearly killing us as a result.

Consider this: the sheer amount of synthetic chemicals in use all over the world has increased twentyfold over the last ten years. Today we have over one hundred thousand chemicals in use in different areas of our lives,
⁹²
and less than 5 percent of these chemicals have been thoroughly tested for their long-term impact on human health. Sometimes it takes decades to ban a certain toxin from use in skincare, just as it took nearly forty years for health authorities to admit the health risks of smoking cigarettes.

Even as mounting scientific evidence points at the dangers of a certain ingredients, the cosmetic industry cleverly manipulate these scientific results, calling them “urban legends” or “pseudoscience.” Parabens in the breast tissue? Urban legend, says a well-known dermatologist who is busy promoting his own antiaging range. Phthalates found in urine and breast milk? Pseudoscience, says the prominent cancer therapist who is too cautious to
admit that nutrition and lifestyle, not just genetics, play an important part in our cancer risk. Lead in lipsticks? Show us the dead bodies, cosmetic regulators say. There’s no harm until the harm is done.

The grim reality of the unregulated cosmetic industry leaves us to our own devices. Every day we learn about recalls of toys and clothing contaminated with lead, yet no one has ever recalled red lipsticks where lead exceeds permissible levels. Cosmetics, unlike drugs, are not regulated for safety by the government. It’s up to the cosmetic manufacturer to prove the safety of the cosmetic product. That’s why you should become a smart natural beauty shopper and learn to read ingredient lists or labels to spot the worst offenders.

Parabens

When absorbed by the skin, these esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid accumulate in the fat tissue, most notably in the breasts.
⁹³
Samples of breast tissue collected from forty mastectomies for breast cancer in England between 2005 and 2008 found at least one type of parabens in 99 percent of the samples, and all five types of parabens in 60 percent of the samples.
⁹⁴
These parabens were found in the breast tissue of women of all ages. Even those who said they have never used antiperspirants or deodorants in their underarm area still had parabens in their bodies, which means that our breasts accumulate parabens from all sources. Having lumps of parabens in our bodies is not an urban legend anymore.

What is so harmful about parabens? First of all, parabens are xenoestrogens—chemicals that imitate the action of natural hormones. Xenoestrogens bind to estrogen receptors in the breast tissue and trigger growth. In the body, parabens transform into p-hydroxybenzoic acid, which has a stronger estrogenic response in human breast cancer cells.
⁹⁵

Thankfully, there are lots of both conventional and natural cosmetic products made without parabens. The practice of removing these dangerous preservatives is so common, not all
manufacturers who avoid parabens advertise it on their labels. Still, if in doubt, look for “paraben-free” on the label. There are so many safe preservatives developed over the last few years, the use of parabens is no longer necessary.

Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde, one of the oldest preservatives used in medicine and skincare, is classified as carcinogenic to humans. Despite this fact, formaldehyde can be found in nail polishes, antiperspirants, makeup, bath products, shampoos, mouthwashes, and deodorants. Popular “Brazilian blow-dry” and similar hair straightening procedures often involve formaldehyde, as do hair straightening balms, conditioners, and rinses that promise sleek, glossy hair. Formaldehyde is released most actively when you iron or blow-dry your hair using styling products that contain at least one of the following formaldehyde releasers: polyquaterniums, especially quaternium-15; 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol; imidazolidinyl urea; and diazolidinyl urea. Immediate reactions to large amounts of formaldehyde vapors include nausea, headache, and eye irritation that causes tear overflow and a burning sensation in the throat. Long-term effects of formaldehyde exposure include neurotoxicity, genotoxicity, and increased risk of leukemia,
⁹⁶
as well as brain, liver, nasal, and lung cancers.
⁹⁷

Waterproof and crease-proof fabrics, stain-proof carpets, laminated flooring, fiberboard furniture, suede, and nylon often emit formaldehyde.
⁹⁸
To minimize your exposure, avoid fabrics that underwent heavy treatment and choose solid wood flooring and furniture, if you can. There are many excellent nail polishes made without formaldehyde or toluene (yet another skin and eye irritant).

Avoiding formaldehyde in styling products is a tricky task, but it can be done. To reduce the damage to your health, choose organic and natural hair care products made by John Masters Organics, Lavera, Aubrey Organics, and many other reputable manufacturers (find more suggestions in the
Appendix B
). Bath
and skincare products you use should not contain any formaldehyde releasers and should be either unscented or fragranced with pure essential oils.

Phthalates

Speaking of fragrances, there’s nearly impossible to avoid artificial scents these days. Everything we use has some kind of an added scent to it. From household cleaners to candles and even baby toys, smells bombard our senses, often triggering not only positive emotions but also skin rashes, headaches, and teary eyes. Surprise: the irritating compounds in artificial fragrances are not the worst offenders. You cannot smell phthalates, but they do your health as much damage as parabens or formaldehyde. Phthalates are industrial chemicals used as softeners in plastics made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and solvents in artificial fragrances. Epidemiological studies link phthalate exposure to the following:

IN MEN: shorter penis, sperm DNA damage, decreased
proportion of healthy sperm, and low
sperm concentration.
⁹⁹
in women: breast cancer,
¹⁰⁰
abnormally early puberty
(as early as six years),
¹⁰¹
endometriosis,
¹⁰²
and
hyperprolactinemia.
¹⁰³
IN CHILDREN: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,
¹⁰⁴
low intelligence quotient.
¹⁰⁵
IN ALL ADULTS: rhinitis,
¹⁰⁶
eczema,
¹⁰⁷
asthma,
¹⁰⁸
thyroid hormone alteration,
¹⁰⁹
obesity,
¹¹⁰
and
diabetes.
¹¹¹

Which beauty products are “richest” in phthalates? According to a 2011 study among women in Mexico, the highest concentration of phthalates in their bodies appeared from use of body lotions, deodorants and antiperspirants, fragrances, antiaging facial creams, and bottled water.
¹¹²
Unfortunately, cosmetic manufacturers now
focus their efforts on young girls. My five-year-old daughter now wants glittery makeup, nail polish, and an eau de toilette with her favorite kitten or princess on the packaging. I usually win the battle by painting her nails with chemical-free nail polish in a bright pink shade and letting her use my own organic lip glosses and eye shadows. But what about the millions of girls whose parents are not into natural skincare? These girls will be exposed to phthalates, formaldehyde, and artificial colorants so early, and their bodies won’t be able to cope with all that chemical rubbish.

Other significant sources of phthalates are baby bottles made of polycarbonate that leach bisphenol A into drinks and food, and canned foods that absorb phthalates from epoxy resin lining tin and aluminum cans. Shower curtains, rubber ducks, PVC furniture and clothes, sex toys, fragrances, MP3 players—phthalates are so ubiquitous, it is impossible to completely avoid them. Here are some steps that you can take to get rid of at least some of the phthalates in your environment:

1. Avoid drinking water, or any other beverage, from a plastic bottle. Buy mineral water in glass bottles if you can. Once you have one large glass bottle, refill it with filtered water or tap, if you are lucky to live in a place where tap water is clean enough to drink unfiltered. Alternatively, carry your water supply in steel canisters but make sure they are not lined with epoxy resin, which can also leach phthalates. Less expensive plastic bottles made from polypropylene (identified as plastic 5 or PP at the bottom) are still a better option than polycarbonate and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles.
   
2. Do not eat canned food. Choose toothpaste, ointments, and creams packaged in plastic rather than aluminum tubes, which are always lined with phthalate-rich epoxy resin. Steel and aluminum 100 ? Holistic Beauty from the Inside Out water bottles must be labeled as BPA (bisphenol A) free. Choose canned tomatoes in glass jars. Tomato juice and oils in foods absorb phthalates most efficiently. Unfortunately, there are no options for BPA-free canned fish. Buy fresh fish, then cook and freeze small portions—it will be much better for your health.
   
3. Limit your exposure to artificial fragrances. Whenever you sense a synthetic smell of roses, understand that at that very moment phthalates are entering your lungs. Choose unscented laundry detergents and household cleaners. Switch to greener brands such as Seven Seas, which uses essential oils to scent their cleaning products. Better yet, add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to the laundry detergent or the floor cleaner. Instead of a heavily scented phthalate-rich air freshener, use a votive candle or a scented cone that you can buy from most health food stores.
   
4. Choose nail polish that is marked as phthalate free or BPA free, or at least toluene free. That’s a good sign that a manufacturer took care to remove toxic ingredients from its products. Many manufacturers including Revlon, Clinique, and Clarins are now removing toxins from their nail products, but to be absolutely sure, choose polishes from Suncoat or Zoya. You can find more suggestions at the end of this book.