5 Ugly Beauty Biz Facts

Toxic chemicals lurk in products
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 13, 2009 7:14 AM CDT
5 Ugly Beauty Biz Facts
A woman takes a sniff of a perfume from Chanel.   (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

The beauty industry banks $500 billion a year by helping people hide the epidermal truth—so it should come as no surprise that the biz glosses over a few facts. Treehugger lists five:

  • Skin-toxic chemicals lurk in many skincare products, "and trigger skin problems such as rashes, redness, acne, and other symptoms of contact dermatitis."

  • Carcinogens exist in products by companies that give to breast-cancer research: "Cosmetics companies, including Estée Lauder, Revlon, and Avon, are some of the worst offenders."
  • Cosmetic products sold in the US are required to pass no safety tests: "Period."
  • Toxic chemicals aren't listed on labels of personal-care products. Lax laws allow many of them off the label, but watch for oft-contaminated chemicals, like sodium laureth sulfate, urea, and quarternium-15.
For the fifth, click on the link below.
(More Estee Lauder stories.)

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