Chemicals to Avoid in Your Skin Care Products

The industrial movement in America was overall a good thing. We wouldn't have a lot of the technology that we see today that makes life a whole lot easier if it weren't for advances in chemical engineering.

However, one aspect that I definitely don't dig about our discoveries is that nearly every common brand of personal care products like skin lotions, face washes, soaps, deodorants, and other common toiletries that are applied to our skin, has some sort of potentially toxic chemical in it.

Where there is a market for one product though, there is always a market for another. It used to be that you could only find chemical free, natural, gentler forms of products like these in specialty natural foods stores that you may not have even had easy access to, depending on where you live.

Now though, you have access to a fairly nice variety of chemical free products either with the click of a button online, or in your local grocery store since most grocers now have a whole separate section dedicated to organic or natural body care products.

Let's talk about some of the specific ingredients that are commonly placed in your body care products that you will want to avoid if you'd like to minimize your contact with potentially harmful chemicals. These are a list that you should try to avoid, but it is not all inclusive.

The general rule is that the longer the ingredient name, the more you should try to avoid it, if you're not sure what it is, or the labeling should provide a laymen's description of what it is. For example, camellia sinensis is the chemical name for different types of green and black tea.

One of the worst ones to look for, and you will find this in most deodorants except the naturally derived ones, is aluminum. It may contain other words if it is listed on the label, but if it has the word "aluminum" in the listing of ingredients, I would avoid it.

This heavy metal has been linked to different types of cancer, including breast cancer, and most notably to alzheimers. I don't know about you, but just the link is enough to scare me off. Plus there are plenty of good, effective deodorants out there now that do not use this ingredient.

Just the fact that you have clusters of lymph nodes in your underarms alone should make you leery of using any type of chemical in that area, since most things are absorbed into your blood stream even when applied topically. The main concern with aluminum is that it has been linked to buildup in the brain over the years, and it is thought that this buildup is linked to alzheimers. Like I said, for me, just the implication was enough for me to stop using conventional deodorant.

Another potentially dangerous compound that can be found in deodorants and also any scented product like a lotion or hand wash or soap is propylene glycol. This one is pretty scary, because not only is it used in perfumes, cleansers, and a variety of other products that are handily applied to the body, but it is also a component of antifreeze. Just that fact alone makes me avoid this compound in my products like the plague.

While we are on the subject of glycol, try to avoid any product with an ingredient that has this word at the end, they are all an alcohol derivative, are highly flammable, and just not a good thing to be putting on your body and delivering to your blood stream on a silver platter.

Also high on the avoidance list are parabens. You will see any good organic or natural product say right up front that it is paraben free, because this chemical has been linked to a variety of cancerous growths. It is commonly used as a cheap preservative in cosmetics and other body care products, and you should try to avoid this one as well if at all possible.

And, now for the one that many of you may have heard of, and the one that is in the majority of soaps, shampoos, face washes, and body washes on the market today for it's detergent, high lather quality. This is sodium lauryl sulfate, or SLS. This is one that you want to avoid because it has been linked to a variety of health issues. Not only that, it can be extremely drying and damaging to your skin, your hair, or whatever else it is you're using it precisely to make look and feel better.

Again, most of these chemicals can be avoided if you just pick the right products, and you either stick to the natural section in your grocery store, or you go to a specialty or natural grocer. It's a good thing we live in times where we're both educated enough to avoid these types of ingredients, and also have the access to do so fairly effortlessly.

Danna Norek is the founder of several natural health and wellness websites and blogs on the net. You can find more information about natural where to get some of the best chemical free, natural skin care products here at Natural and Herbal Skin Care. Also, be sure to visit her weblog about natural male health and enhancement at Mens Health Supplement.