Ingredients to Avoid in Your Beauty Routine

At Make it Classy, we're huge advocates for knowing what’s inside of your beauty products and health is at the core of why our business began. Our team often has conversations with women who are concerned about the ingredients in their beauty care items.

Not only do many beauty products have long lists of ingredients, but a handful of them are also ones you cannot pronounce or aren’t familiar with. Today’s lesson is to help you get familiar, so you can choose the correct products for you.

This isn’t all fluff either. Here’s some evidence to prove some of the ingredients found in traditional beauty products are no good for your health:

"Although many of the chemicals and contaminants in cosmetics and personal care products likely pose little risk, exposure to some has been linked to serious health problems, including cancer.

Since 2009, 595 cosmetics manufacturers have reported using 88 chemicals, in more than 73,000 products, that have been linked to cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm.^[1]"

"In an analysis of ingredients in 1,177 beauty and personal care products marketed to Black women, about one in 12 was ranked highly hazardous on the scoring system of EWG’s Skin Deep® Cosmetics Database, a free online resource for finding less-hazardous alternatives to personal care products."

Avoid These Ingredients In Your Beauty Routine

• Sodium laurel / Laureth sulfate (SLS): It’s a cleansing agent found in many shampoos although it is also mainly used to degrease engines. You can find it in aggressive cleaners also – like those you use for garage floors and drains.
•  Isopropyl alcohol: It can literally make your hair break! Although it’s in hair products, it’s also used in wood polishes and antifreeze (yes, for your car!)
• Propylene glycol (PG): If you’ve got scalp irritation, blame it on this one! It is known to break down the protein in hair which results in dull, lifeless strands.
• Parabens: This one could be linked to disrupting hormones and even causing cancer cells.
• Fragrance: This is a common one that should make you run the other way. “Fragrance” isn’t as innocent as it seems and this ingredient isn’t regulated by the FDA. This means, “fragrance” could mean anything.
• Diethanolamine (DEA) Triethanolamine (TEA): Could come with allergens and cause eye irritation.
• Petroleum: Don’t be fooled. Petroleum is a byproduct of oil production made of mineral oils and paraffin wax. It’s not made for skin or hair use. It’s what is left over during the oil production process – gross!
• Mineral oil: This oil blocks your pores and coats the skin or hair. It does not moisturize.

The problem with this list is that these aren’t ALL of the ingredients to avoid - just a handful. There are many, many more, unfortunately.

Want to learn ingredients you should include in your beauty routine? Here's a great one to start with.

Ingredients such as these are is why we make health and plant-based ingredients our core. Learn more about Make It Classy's plant-based beauty products HERE.