In the past I've talked about what parabens are and explained why all of my products are paraben free but I feel it's worth repeating. The point of this post isn't to just repeat a post I've written previously, but instead, I'm going elaborate on my previous post by including how you can spot parabens by reading the labels on your favorite beauty products. First, let's do a quick review....
Parabens are preservatives used in over 70% of all beauty products. This is why you NEED to know how to spot them because you can bet that if you've bought something from the drug store, mall or department store lately, there's a good chance it has parabens in it.
Why you should avoid them
- one study showed that they can age the skin with exposed to UV light
- another study showed that they mimic estrogen
- they have been found in breast tumor tissue
- contrary to what was previously thought, they can penetrate the skin and migrate into body tissue
Now let's learn how to spot them!
If you have never read an ingredients label on a beauty product before, now is the time to start. When you do - don't freak out! If it's a commercially made product, the ingredients list is going to be HUGE with super long unpronounceable words, but I'm here to help you out! There's lots of things to look for on ingredients list, but we're going to start with baby steps and ease into things. If there's anything I've learned from my university years, it's don't try to learn EVERYTHING all at once. Instead, start with something that's manageable and build your knowledge bank from there. Today we're going to start with parabens.
The great thing about starting with parabens is that they are pretty easy to spot on a label because the name of the ingredient generally ends with "paraben"! Parabens aren't awesome but it's awesome that some of the most common ones include the word "paraben"! There are a few that are a bit tricker to spot but thankfully the list of incognito parabens is short
Here's the most common parabens you'll find on ingredient lists:
- methylparaben
- ethylparaben
- isobutylparaben
- propylparaben
- ... (other variations ending in paraben can be spotted as well)
- hydroxybenzoic acid
- hydroxybenzoate
There you have it! Go grab the products you use everyday and check out those labels! You'll be glad you used your new label reading skill to protect you and your family!
Stay tuned to the blog or join the mailing list for more "ingredient spotting baby steps" you can take!
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