What's Really In Your Care Products - Shampoo, Lotion, ETC.

Here is the nice thing, the FDA requires all food and care product companies to list their ingredients on the outside of the package. But, do you have any idea what they are? Heck, I can't even pronounce some of the ingredients with their 26 letters looking way too Latin for my brain to handle. Does that sound familiar to anyone else? Boy, I hope so, otherwise I am feeling really silly right now.

Well for people who are like me, and have no idea what some or all of the ingredients are in their products, check out The Cosmetic Database. This is an amazing tool that tells you how hazardous (or not) a product is for you and for your children.

This is how it works:

First, The Cosmetic Database ranks the product on an overall score 0-10. The lower the number the better! Then each ingredient is ranked based on the same scale and describes the reason the ingredient has that rating.

For this article purpose, I evaluated Ellery's Aveeno Eczema lotion - which got a FOUR! I am not happy about this at all. When I found out her lotion was a whopping four, I wanted to know why. I clicked on the product and found that there were a handful of "bad" ingredients, ranking as high as six, outweighing the other 10 good ingredients.  The bad ingredients where ranked high because of their toxicity to the body. Here is what the database had to say about a couple of the top "bad" ingredients:

"STEARETH-20 - Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Ecotoxicology, Data gaps, Contamination concerns (ETHYLENE OXIDE, 1,4-DIOXANE), Use restrictions"

"BENZALKONIUM CHLORIDE - Allergies/immunotoxicity, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), Use restrictions"

Time to get back to the drawing board and find her another product to use!!

Definitely take a look at this database; it's a great tool! The only downfall is it doesn't list every product available on the market, but it has a lot. Have fun digging around - it's addicting!!