Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Beauty is only Skin Deep

I had a frustrating experience at Sephora this week as I scanned the aisles for a bronzer that was a color I like, low in toxicity and packaged responsibly. Although the staff did their best to help me, I realized that the FDA does not require companies to test their own products for safety. So even if you purchase a product that has "All-natural, Organic or Green" written on the label there is no government organization regulating the production of these products.

Lucky for us the Environmental Working Group has created a fantastic web-database called Skin Deep that pairs ingredients in more than 25,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. It is a great way to research cosmetics before purchasing them. They have even added sunscreens to the database - just in time for the summer!

Check it out at: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php

No comments: