Story of Cosmetics

Personal care products play an important role in my everyday life. However, whether its the shampoo that I use to care for my thick, dry and colored hair or the many skincare and makeup products I own, I never usually check to deep into what chemicals or ingredients are in them. There are times where I would make conscious decisions such as when I specifically look for hair products with no parabens however I usually don't spend much time reading labels and trying to determine if they're hazardous or not. 

After watching the Story of Cosmetics video, it made me re-evaluate my choices and try to be more aware of what I'm purchasing instead of mindlessly just throwing things into my cart just because it's what I've been used to. The Kirkland Signature Body Lotion is one item that I use almost daily to keep my skin stays moisturized all day so I decided to read through the label and this is what I discovered: 

Benzyl Benzoate, which is one of the ingredients listed is that short-term exposure can irritate eyes, skin and respiratory tract and long-term exposure can cause dermatitis or skin inflammation (CDC).

When I looked up the lotion on the Environmental Working Group's online database on chemical safety information, no results came up for this specific product but I did look up some of my favorite makeup products on there just to see how good/bad they were and surprisingly a good amount of products that I had that were marked safe. 

Seeing that this product contains a potentially harmful chemical has made me want to look for other alternatives for my everyday moisturizer and paying closer attention to the ingredients list because even though it hasn't irritated my skin and I've been using it for years, I still wouldn't want to risk one day ruining my skin and ignoring the what's on the label. 

Sources:

“CDC - BENZYL BENZOATE - International Chemical Safety Cards - NIOSH.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/niosh/ipcsneng/neng0390.html.