Beauty & The Chemical Beasts

Photo courtesy of africa

First things first, I am not a health freak but I want to be healthy enough to not feel like shite so that I can enjoy everyday life. I can't be bothered with elaborate impractical ways of staying healthy, case in point, colonic irrigation (yikes!). I believe in simple and uncomplicated methods.

If you have a recurring history of allergies, skin allergy in particular, all the more to read on. Even if you don't, you may want to think twice about the stuff you use in your daily beauty regime. Because, that's how it all started for me.

I am quite religious about applying cream on my body to keep moisturised, doing my weekly facial and hair masque, slapping a million and one types of facial cream on my face etc. Couple of years back, I started to have unexplained X-files-mind-boggling-but-not-X-files-scary rashes appearing on my body regardless. I'd be sitting down minding me own business and rashes appeared. I had just stepped out of the shower and rashes would popped out of nowhere. I'd be sleeping and they appeared...you get the picture. I was perpetually uncomfortable, always itchy with rashes and I can't sleep from the itch. Sometimes, the itch would be so bad especially after a meal of scrumptious butter prawns (I found out prawns was a trigger that made the condition worse) that it would be so painful if I didn't scratch.

I went to the doctor who diagnosed me with urticaria (or hives). There are about 12 types of urticaria and I experienced 6. The cause is hard to pinpoint and could be caused by so many internal and external factors. My next question was, "Right, so how do I get rid of it?" Doc's answer was, "No cure." Crap...

I was told it's a condition that can only be managed but not cured if it doesn't go away on it's own. I don't want to spend the rest of my life being dependent on anti-histamines. 

I refused to believe that there was nothing that could be done about it. So screw modern medicine. I decided to go hippie and find alternative cures. I figured if I could find out what caused the allergy then I could stay away from the trigger. As said earlier, I found that prawns was one of the cause (Thank goodness other forms of shellfish and seafood is still good with me. I love food too much). I also began reading this website www.care2.com that promotes an organic and natural lifestyle. It was from them that I found an article about how the daily toiletries and beauty products we use affect us, not in a good way.

Photo by akeeris

 Reading that article was a Eureka moment mixed with excitement and fear of being let down all at the same time. Those pesky chemicals could be what's causing my condition but if that wasn't the case, I'm screwed again. Turned out, I was right. So I pretty much threw out all my conventional beauty stuff and replaced them with chemical free toiletries (and boy, locating them good quality chemical free stuff is another almost wild goose chase befitting a blog on its own as it's hard to get them here in Malaysia.). Whaddaya know, I noticed the symptoms getting milder after the first week of regime change itself and by the third week, it was pretty much gone. 

Turns out, almost all the products you get from pharmacies and supermarkets contain 'poison'. Trust me, I've read the labels of pretty much every products off the shelf I could get hold off. I will list a summary of major pesky chemy, what they cause and how to identify them, if not to give you a rough idea of what rubbish we've been 'nourishing' our skins with.

PARABENS
Effects: Mimic estrogen in the body, disrupt normal hormone function, found in breast-tumor biopsies.
Found: Appear as methyl-, ethyl-, butyl- or propylparaben. Used as a preservative and anti-microbial agent in pretty much everything, shampoo, lotion, conditioner, cleanser, body wash, deodorant. 

PHTHALATES
Effects: Depression of normal thyroid function, birth defects, affects the genital development of young boys and sperm counts in adult men.
Found: Perfume, colour in cosmetics, nail polish and pretty much everything too since you may not even find this ingredient on labels. They are also hidden as part of the ingredient list under "fragrance" and since fragrance is considered proprietary formulas, companies are not required to disclose its contents.

SODIUM LAURYL/LAURETH SULFATE (SLS)
Effects: Skin and eye irritation. Could possibly be carcinogenic as a by product of making it less harsh (think baby products).
Found: It's a foaming agent, so it's found in shampoo, soap, cleanser.

DIAZOLIDINYL and IMIDAZOLIDINYL UREA
Effects: Contact dermatis (a subset of Urticaria! Eureka!), also suspect to release formaldehyde.
Found: Again, pretty much everything, shampoo, lotion, conditioner, cleanser, body wash, deodorant.

DIETHANOLAMINE (DEA) and TRIETHANOLAMINE (TEA)  

Effects: Allergy reaction (another Eureka! moment), dryness in hair and skin, possibly carcinogenic.

Found: Shampoo, body wash.

 

Photo by maya photo

The list is endless so be smart with what you buy by reading labels. I found this environmental group website very useful in terms of helping me with my purchases www.cosmeticsdatabase.com 

To find out how safe your product is, simply key in the brand or name. If the brand is not in the list of tested products, then you can type in the ingredients to see how harmful they are. 

I find it shocking and appalling that there are no laws to regulate such use of dangerous ingredients we apply on our bodies although environmental groups in Europe and US are fighting for legislations to ban harmful ingredients from being used.

My mom who has been suffering from the same skin allergy albeit much longer (20 years!) is now itch-free too after ditching all her conventional toiletries for much safer options. She then told me about a friend of hers who suffered from the same thing too and is on anti-histamines all the time to stop the rashes and itch. It made me realised that there could be so many people out there who suffers from this and not know what to do. I'm hoping that by having this blog, other people who have the same problem could have a solution and it doesn't take much!

On one hand I was dumb-founded we have been cleansing and beautifying ourselves with dangerous chemicals. On the other, saying it was a major relief I found that caused my chronic allergy is an understatement.   

Who knew that trying to look beautiful could bring out the beast instead.

Photo by posterize