Hiya,

I recently came across this site, and was a little perturbed by all the posts attacking the Beauty Brains over, well, everything. 'HOW DARE YOU TRY AND BLIND ME WITH SCIENCE! I KNOW THE TRUTH! MINERAL OIL IS FROM SATAN!' Etc. As a beauty fanatic, I've read my fair share of scare stories over the years - but now, I just go to this site here: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com

First things first. A lot (I'd say all) of the articles posted on there are bogus and scaremongering. Don't bother reading those. It's the incredible ingredients database they have which is worth getting to grips with. They list every single ingredient in use by the industry today, and give them safety ratings using a "traffic light" system.

RED means avoid at all costs.
YELLOW means it's fine in small doses - perhaps exercise a little caution if used heavily in a product.
GREEN means it's completely safe.

It's not just speculation, either - they provide links to huge amounts of study and research on every single ingredient. The last ingredient I looked at had links to 24 separate studies and papers from bodies like PubMed, FDA and other credible scientific sources.

I don't know. I swear by this site as determining whether ingredient scares are valid or not (best example is that mineral oil has actually been given a green light - The Brains are perfectly right when they say how good it is for you). I'm quite new here, so I'd love to know what the more seasoned members think of it? :)

Sorry for the wordy post! You'll be shocked to know I cut about 50% from this little essay, too. :P x