100 ml bottle, that’s 1 ml of a substance, about the size of a tester fragrance vial. Imagine how a guy
in a white lab coat takes an ampoule of something that causes cancer in rats and pours it into your
body lotion, or worse yet, baby bath. The situation is cartoonish, but you get the idea. Does it look
pretty or healthy? It certainly doesn’t look good to me.
So resist the urge to scan just the first few lines. Keep reading. Take your time and ignore those
spiteful looks from the sales clerk at the counter. It’s your money and your health. The girl works on
commission, so no wonder she hates you for delaying the decisive moment—you know, the one when
she swipes your plastic. And watch her face freezing when you refuse to buy the proffered magic
potion.
Sometimes, ingredients lists are not easy to locate—or they are not there at all. In that case, contact
the company directly by phone or e-mail. Most companies respond to customer queries about their
ingredients, so don’t be afraid to contact them if you are unsure about a chemical or it’s not listed in
any online database.
There are thousands of safe synthetic ingredients that can be used in skin care products. In the next
chapters, I will list many natural or syn-the sized active ingredients that you should look for when
buying a new cosmetic product or purchasing online to enrich your existing products. If you want to
learn more about each particular ingredient, you can check the safety of a suspicious chemical at the
Environmental Working Group website (www.ewg.org) where they have a very comprehensive and
searchable database of most existing chemicals used in personal care products.
When you learn the trick of scanning the ingredients list for toxic chemicals and ingredients that can
damage your skin, you will never purchase a beauty product just because it looks pretty or elegant,
thus falling prey to tricky advertisers and talented product designers. Once you’ve learned to read the
ingredients label and identify marketing scams, you’ll be able to avoid wasting money and still take
perfectly good care of your skin and hair.
ANGEL DUSTING: NOT JUST FOR ADDICTS
No worries: I am not telling you how to extract a pinch of illegal substance from ten bottles of herbal
shampoo. Angel dusting is the common practice of adding very minute amounts of trendy ingredients
just so they can be listed on the product label. These exciting ingredients are being used in very small
quantities, so they are physically unable to make any difference in skin’s condition. However, the
mere presence of “angel dust” on a label generates a lot of interest, making us feel very eager to try
the product.
This is how it works: let’s take some fantastic ingredient, like “olivoil fifty-peptide,” a powerful
antiaging molecule similar to palmitoyl pentapeptide but ten times more powerful. A laboratory that
developed this magic molecule specified at what percentage “fifty-peptide” must be included in the
cosmetics to produce the desired effect. However, this magic ingredient costs $200 per ounce, and it
takes a quarter ounce to work its magic.
Therefore, instead of dumping liquid gold into every bottle, smart cosmetic manufacturers would
wave a spoonful of “fifty-peptide” over a plopping canister of lotion. Some molecules actually land
in the brew. No worries! Now the manufacturer can legitimately list “fifty-peptide” on the label,
write a news release about a magic antiaging discovery, and send samples to glossy magazines. Now,
because “fifty-peptide” is listed on the label, the antiaging potion sells like hotcakes. Very soon,
consumers will be disappointed because fifty molecules are useless and won’t repurchase the