Controversial Topics - Beauty Questions Answered

How about PEGs?

vanLoenen — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:16:06 -0400

I've read that PEGs are safe on healthy skin, but possibly dangerous on broken/irritated skin. http://www.truthinaging.com/ingredient-spotlight/what-is-it-pegs However, I find that drier bits of skin, small wounds or zits (places where PEGs can more easily penetrate) are pretty common on the body as a whole, yet so is the presence of PEGs in every cosmestic or skincare product. They are very hard to avoid. So how much effort should one make to avoid PEGs? Thanks!

What do you think about this makeup post I did?

rozy — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 06:49:04 -0400

http://matriarchysouldaughter.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/cosmetics-advertising-and-the-glorifcation-of-violence-against-women-and-other-forms-of-patriarchy-including-pornstitution/

Is doctor oz right? Is this really a miracle skin product?

starchild — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 03:37:03 -0500

Well heres the link to the page and its claims and ingredients. http://www.sibubeauty.com/seabuckthorn_repair_and_protect.php
Thanks Brains and Happy V-Day!

Why is or isn't it important to you to use natural or organic products?

PurpleRules — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:42:44 -0500

We spend a lot of time discussing what should or shouldn't go into our health and beauty products but we never discuss why it's important. What are you looking for in a "natural" product and why? Are concerned with your personal health? Animal rights? The environment? Are you making a statement? Is a product that is 90% natural better than a product that's %80 natural? Are you just concerned with eliminating certain suspect ingredients like parabens or does it have to be all natural all the time?
Let's keep this philosophical and avoid discussions about specifics brands. Think of it as an opportunity to design your own line of products. What are you looking for and why?
I'll start. It's safety first for me. I think all products need preservatives. According to my husband, I "interact with a lot of products." I have no idea when I got many of them. Shampoos and conditioners are moved in and out of rotation on a regular basis. I change moisturizers and cleansers with the seasons so they're like to get shoved to the back of the closet for 6 or 7 months at a time. I'm pretty good about tossing eye makeup after a few months but I tend to hang on to lipsticks and lip gloss for longer than I should. Because of my pack rat tendencies, a well preserved product is a top priority. I'd rather take my chances with parabens than with God-knows-what type of microbial growth.

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

vananners — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:59:57 -0500

Is everyone finally catching on? It only took years and years of solid scientific evidence but I think they're starting to get it!

See link:

http://www.newbeauty.com/dailybeauty/entry.aspx?id=2925

"Parabens: pretty safe after all?
Posted Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Just as mainstream brands have started taking paraben concerns into consideration and taking parabens out of many products, the organizations that take a stringent anti-paraben stance have been dealt an investigational blow.

Europe's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety performed tests involving propylparaben and butylparaben, two common parabens used as preservatives in numerous personal-care products and accused of engendering hormonal effects and health problems by several environmental groups, some of which won't give a product its seal of approval if parabens are present.

According to the results, the parabens are only partially absorbed when applied to mouse skin; furthermore, they're completely metabolized before getting a chance to enter the bloodstream. Blood plasma tests showed no presence of the compounds.

The findings confirm for many pro-paraben pundits that parabens, at the level used in beauty products, are incapable of producing an adverse effect, as mammals metabolize the compounds too fast. The results will likely be interpreted by numerous manufacturers as a green light to continue or return to using parabens as a safe product-preserving option."

Wonder how many people would believe this about fruit juice?

Left Brain — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:06:43 -0500

Being skeptical and keeping an open mind means that you have to be willing to accept whatever reality tells you. Even if you don't want it to be true.
Here is an interesting report comparing the effect of fruit juice and sugary soda on obesity rates.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-juice8-2009nov08,0,5809992,full.story
FTA - "UC Davis scientist Kimber Stanhope has found that consuming high levels of fructose increases risk factors for heart disease and Type 2 diabetes because it is converted into fat by the liver more readily than glucose. Her studies suggest that it doesn't matter whether the fructose is from soda or juice."
So, could you accept the idea that fruit juice is just as much a contributor to the obesity problem in America as Coke, Pepsi, or my personal favorite, Dr. Pepper?

Have you wondered...

beautydetective — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 03:21:40 -0400

what a celebrity feels when they wake up in the morning and realise they are all not that perfect?
In fact, as a beauty detective, I notice more and more' non- celebrities" who look absolutley fabulous with just a touch of lipstick or mascara and nothing much else.

Believe in your beauty!

Am I the only one who sees this as exploitive of women's fears?

rozy — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:28:34 -0400

http://www.brevail.com/index.html Its a supplement that says it will lower your chance of breast cancer. It makes me angry to see women's fears exploited by some supplement thats probably overpriced and not well researched.

What beauty treatyment WOULD you undergo?

PurpleRules — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:28:13 -0400

What treatments have you had done or would you consider having done? I've had microdermabrasion and was thrilled with the results. It was a series of 8 treatments of microdermabrasion followed by a lactic acid application, done a week apart. I couldn't believe how good my skin looked and felt afterwards. Even my husband noticed, and that's saying something.

I don't know what category this really belongs under. I put it under Controversial Topics because the "What beauty treatment would you NEVER ..." discussion was there.

What beauty treatment would you NEVER undergo?

MoxieHart — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 21:28:42 -0400

I would never, ever tan. I used to tan a lot when I was little (8 or 9 years old) because my parents were tanning junkies then, and everyone thought it was cute. But now, my parents have horrible skin.
I won't do spray tanning either--I've just seen too many orange people to want to look like that.
I've become very, very fair, and I dye my hair dark because I like the contrast. That's not a look that you see a lot nowadays and I like to stand out.
So...what wouldn't you do?

Triclosan?

thecakepie — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 01:02:24 -0400

I understand that triclosan's safety is currently being evaluated by the US FDA as well as health canada but I'm unclear about the risks being debated here. Can anyone help explain this?

Botox getting into your brain

darkeyes — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:18:29 -0400

A New Reason to Frown

Does Botox get into the brain? Troubling research contradicts earlier findings about the treatment.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/131749

Who's afraid of Lead in their Lipstick?

Left Brain — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:09:50 -0400

Recently, I wrote about the myth of Lead in your lipstick causing cancer.

But yesterday there was a story on the wires about how lead has been detected in lipsticks. It's just an example of how certain consumer groups try to scare the bejesus out of an unsuspecting public.

Yes it's true that trace amount of lead are found in some lipsticks. But that doesn't mean it is a problem for the health of women around the country (or world). I remain skeptical until I see some research which shows trace amount of lead in lipstick is causing people to get sick or having some other negative health effect.

What do you think? Should we be afraid of lead in our lipsticks?:neutral:

Kinoki Foot Pad Marketers Sued by the FTC

BinkyM — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:48:19 -0500

Hi, Brains: Just in case you didn't see this in your daily flood, I'm making sure you do so you can giggle (and do the "I Told You So!" dance; that's always fun!): FTC sues "detox" foot pad marketers. The Federal Trade Commission has charged Yehuda ("Juda") Levin, Baruch Levin, and their Xacta 3000 Inc. with deceptive advertising.
According to the complaint, the defendants claimed that applying Kinoki Foot Pads to the soles of the feet at night would remove heavy metals, metabolic wastes, toxins, parasites, chemicals, and cellulite from their bodies. The ads also claimed that use of the foot pads could treat depression, fatigue, diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, and a weakened immune system. [FTC charges marketers of Kinoki Foot Pads with deceptive advertising; seeks funds for consumer redress. FTC news release, Jan 28, 2009] http://www.casewatch.org/ftc/news/2009/kinoki.shtml
When applied to the feet, foot pads darken, which marketers claim is evidence that toxins are being drawn out from the body. However, investigators have demonstrated that the darkening is caused by contact with moisture from any source and has nothing to do with "toxins." [Barrett S. The "detox" foot pad scam. Device Watch, Feb 5, 2009] http://www.devicewatch.org/reports/kinoki.shtml

riskometer

sarahf — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:07:09 -0400

I'm on a kick lately about environmental exposures, only tangentially related to beauty. Sorry, the Dr. Oz discussion on the dangers of mineral makeup and lip gloss got me started. I thought you might enjoy reading the American Council on Science and Health's riskometer site. Here, I link to deaths in 2002 broken down by how many would be attributable to each exposure. It's probabilistic, so of course not 100% accurate, but puts things in perspective. See if you can find mineral makeup on there lol.
http://riskometer.org/pages/riskringsExposures.html

I was wondering...

Penyep — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 19:02:35 -0400

if a dress and jeans look good together. Like jeans under a dress. I have a ton of leggings but my mom won't let me wear my leggings under dresses that are above the knee. I don't even know why it's not like I have thunder thighs or anything my legs are actually pretty toned they don't jiggle or stick together or anything. I'm only 16 so I still have to listen to everything my mom says plus I always have my mom approve of my clothes and what I wear. I'm about 5'5 or 5'6 and 140-145 pounds and the circumference of my thighs are about 21-25 inches. So would a dress and jeans look good on me. Oh and one more question has or does anyone else wear jeans under a dress?

carcinogens in perspective

sarahf — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 03:04:54 -0500

I learned a while back that if you read the full prescribing information for almost any medication a doctor prescribed, you would find some pre-clinical study in which there was some mutation or tumor produced, whether in bacteria or mammals. I'm talking about medications that received FDA approval. They'd do test after test to evaluate carcinogenicity, and one of the tests would always come up as at least a possible or equivocal positive. It used to spook me, and I wondered how the drugs got approved, until it began to strike me that almost anything is associated with tumors, mutations, or other adverse effects in the right dose or context (in massive doses, in female hamsters but not male or female mice, only if put up the nose but not if slathered on the skin, etc). Rather than being alarming, this was reassuring to me. It kind of gave me the idea that you should always pause before panicking when you hear of evidence that a chemical (such as a cosmetic ingredient) may cause cancer.
It also helped me to know that we're exposed every day to carcinogens, and that they are unavoidable in our world. I'm not arguing that you shouldn't minimize exposure to the major players, stuff that comes up positive on every test of carcinogenicity with flying colors or makes geiger counters go berzerk (benzene, high dose radon, tobacco). But I do think grouchy older people (or younger people) who shrug and say "everything causes cancer" have a point.*
Anyway, monologue over, but I thought I'd share the following article from the American Council on Science and Health. Here is a list of all-natural carcinogens in a holiday meal.
http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubID.103/pub_detail.asp
*And here is where it gets interesting. One thing I learned from the above article is that of chemicals that have been tested in rodents to determine their cancer-causing potential, 57% of the naturally-occurring chemicals, and 59% of the man-made ones tested positive. That means, if we determined what chemicals we should steer clear of based only on rodent studies, we'd avoid more than half of naturally-occurring AND synthetic substances. We wouldn't have a lot left that we'd tolerate being put in our cosmetic products (or be willing to eat in our food.)

Anti-EWG

sarahf — Fri, 28 May 2010 23:24:40 -0400

I went in search of critiques of the environmental working group (EWG), whose scaremongering leads to a lot of posts here. I was surprised not to find mention of them on either quackwatch or the skeptics. I had never heard of American Council on Science and Health (should I have?), but anyway, their site is chock-full of stuff about the EWG, including this from back in 04, which I thought might be enjoyable reading for some here on the forums. http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.381/news_detail.asp I also liked this one a lot, http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.87/news_detail.asp

Oil Pulling - anyone tried this?

bugabo0o — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:53:31 -0500

Oil Pulling - anyone tried this? Success?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jt-WDzVoAM

Is it true Japanese cosmetics are of higher quality than North American ones?

rozy — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 01:21:52 -0400

I read this on the web and some people here buy Japanese cosmetics off the interwebs because they say Japanese people have better technology at their disposal.

"Antiperspirants cause breast cancer!"

JamiSings — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:54:19 -0400

I swear if I hear one more BO-reaking woman claim this I will rip her head off.
There's been absolutely no conclusive link between breast cancer and using products to keep you from stinking. Yet people claim this all the time like it was written right alone with the Ten Commandments. #11: Thou Shalt not use antiperspirants because they cause breast cancer." BAH! To me it's just an excuse to stink like a truck driver who's been hopped up on caffiene pills and driving three days straight without even a bathroom break, let alone a shower.
Since breast cancer is something that runs in my family mom's always reading stuff on it, and so far no one has been able to prove this myth. Do an internet search and even Snopes.com can't call it one way or another. The FDA has found no link.
It's driving me nuts. What's wrong with not wanting to stink?

Do plastic surgeons screw up on purpose so you have to pay to come back and fix it

rozy — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 01:19:09 -0400

I hear that a lot of people need to go back more than once and I wonder if it's a tactic to get more money out of people. I don't mean hideous screw ups but even minor things you might want touched up.

Is it true mold grows in breast implants after 10 years in both saline and silicone?

rozy — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 01:15:24 -0400

That's scary.

Is formaldehyde really safe?

innocencewins — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:49:21 -0400

I don't hype natural or organic cosmetics, and I accept the fact that preservatives and other chemicals must be added in order to protect us from being infected. However, I once watched a TV program, in which a dermatologist was invited to talk about some not-so-good substances in nail polish. I remembered that he mentioned formaldehyde. It can damage nails, or something like that. And, well, actually it's a program broadcast after lunch for stay-at-home moms, and the invited derm is not renowned. But the Beauty Brains said formaldehyde is okay. So who's right? If it can really damage nails, would it be too harsh on skin?

P.S. There's a comment by the Beauty Brains in a blog post saying that our "own bod[ies] produce cancer-causing formaldehyde". But in Wikipedia, it says "Formaldehyde (and its oligomers and hydrates) are rarely encountered in living organisms." Umm...

Why are small cosmetics companies at war with EWG, Skin Deep and Campaign for Safe Cosmetics?

Tweedy — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 23:35:41 -0500

I have been following discussions about "fragrance" and recently read CfSC "Not So Sexy...the Risks of Secret Chemicals in Fragrance". I do not know how good the science is but the article is certainly food for thought. I then surfed other forums and blogs
and I am amazed at the anger in some postings even threats of legal action against EWA. I thought their Skin Deep cosmetics database is welcomed by most cosmetics users as a responsible effort to inform. EWA claim that many companies have joined
their Compact since 2004 and I have no doubt that those companies have got good publicity from that partnership. Now there is war
why?

Paula Begoun is not the one!

Millefeuille — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:19:26 -0400

I never been very supportive of this woman, I never thought on using her products because contrary to what she says, I know she's not always right and I don't support some components, and I'm very picky with what I use. Also, I always knew she's not THE one, the expert, that person who knows everything, I don't even know if she studied anything related to skincare or chemistry, but she touches every single issue. I believe everyone should stay with what really knows. Whatever, if you read her "cosmetic ingredient dictionary" you may already know what she thinks about essential oils, so, to contradict her, I want to share with you this article I found from a real expert in aromatherapy and essential oils, a guy who has also written several books about this issue and knows what he says, and surely you already know, Robert Tisserand. So you can be knowledgeable about this issue and stop spreading the myth that essential oils are bad, they even can be very helpful with some skin issues! Hope you already have read this, so you already are informated, but if not, here is:
http://roberttisserand.com/2011/08/lavender-oil-skin-savior-or-skin-irritant/

Hopefully this will be helpful!

Suggestion on better way to lighten skin. (Especially for post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation)

Hyspin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:51:18 -0500

I actually looking for more efficient way to get rid of hyperpigmentation on different parts of body with different degrees of sensitivitity. Including legs, hands, armpits, bikini line, cheeks, joints, and around eye.

Now if recall correctly the steps to treat dark marks are as followed

2nd step: Exfoliate
3rd step: Cleans
4th step: Apply skin Lightener (would love to know what are good recommendations)
5th step: Sun Protection (wear clothing over spot, cover area, avoid the sun and sunscreen/sunblock)

The #1 step is to eliminate the cause of the hyperpigmentation. Which can be tricky some times, since it not always that simple to completely eliminate the cause, and you don't want to wait to long because the longer the pigmentation there the harder it is to get rid of.

Now I wanted know if anyone had and recommendation on how to get better results lighten existion dark marks, and be more efficient at attacking the pigmentation before it forms.

My problems lies int hereditary dark joints and slightly under eyes, contact dermatitis (around mouth and eyes caused by sunscreen and sunblock lotions, sprays or gels), eczema, ingrowns (I can minimize but still get quite a few and I am not going to stop shaving) and the occasional cut, bruise or bad pimple.

Any recommendations on how treat hyperpigmentation are greatly welcome.

Fragrance and Chemicals

lalaland — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:34:36 -0400

Perfumes, colognes, and other fragrances have tons of chemicals. My question is: are they bad for you?

I've heard that since you spray it on your pulse points, on the skin above your veins, it absorbs through and is potentially bad for you, despite what the FDA says. I don't know what to believe. Isn't the skin a strong organ that protects us from this sort of stuff? Or are these ingredients something to avoid? I love perfume, so I wanted to be sure.

Has motherhood become depreciated in today's world?

neveen — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 04:52:15 -0400

I'm a fresh graduate, but I haven't started a career yet. I'm 26 weeks pregnant so I decided to start my career a few months after the baby is born and I can handle being a mother. As a first time mother I am overwhelmed but feeling a bit disappointed. I love my child and I know motherhood will be awesome, but somehow I don't see it as an achievement. It's like, I don't want to be just a mother. Unless I build a career, no one will ever appreciate me no matter how much I do as a mother and a wife. Is it me, or has motherhood become just a common thing and if everyone does it then it isn't unique anymore. Is it true that these days a woman's worth is work? I've become truly confused, all my friends have work (no flashy careers yet, they're all fresh graduates too) but it seems like they're all ahead of me. Is it because I'm the only pregnant one that I feel this way, or has motherhood become more of a bliss and less of an accomplishment?

Does it really matter for nail polish to be B3F?

innocencewins — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 09:21:24 -0400

Living in a country where it's not obligatory to list the ingredients of a beauty product, I recently bought a Japanese top coat polish that doesn't list them. Are the Big Three so unsafe to the point where we should stop using them?