Skin Deep — What’s Really in the Skincare Products We’re Using

My readers know I’m a huge fan of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit organization, founded in 1993 by Ken Cook and Richard Wiles, whose sole mission is to “…use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment…” How great is that? I cannot stress enough how much information is on this site, but organized in a user friendly and intuitive way. One subject or topic of interest can take you deeper and deeper into more information. One of my favorite tools on their site is Skin Deep, a cosmetics safety database which is a safety guide to over 25,000 products. As quoted from their website: Skin Deep “…is the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn’t require companies to test their own products for safety…” The minute I see FDA, my regular readers know how I feel. I’ve written in the past on some major infractions by the FDA in my opinion: beef recall, safety review of botox after 10 years in the marketplace… so to see EWG doing what the FDA doesn’t do is a blessing.

So how does Skin Deep work? Just type a brand, product or company into the database. Skin Deep will then give you a search results list. I put in “Maybelline mascara” — loved and used by many. The search results for that product will give you a hazard score key from “low hazard” to “high hazard.” When you click on the actual product in the results list, it will give you a run down of ingredients and their links to certain diseases and their toxicity. It also let’s you know if animal testing was done in product development.

How would I use this database? Check out your normal products - and see how they rate. Also, before spending money on new products, I’d refer to Skin Deep first. Put in a product and see the results!