Do you read the ingredients labels on Beauty products?
I recently received a sample sachet of Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula Skin Therapy Oil. Tried it – Loved it – and decided to purchase a full-sized bottle with my next online chemist order.
Upon receiving the bottle I read the ingredients label and I was shocked to see the No.1 ingredient is Canola Oil.
WTF you mean I could have gone to the pantry and put cooking oil on my skin.
Cocoa Seed Oil was No.5 ingredient & No.8 was Fragrance with 4 more ingredients thereafter.
FYI – Label laws say that the ingredients must be listed in order of quantity so that beautiful fragrance is not natural.
Are there any beauty products out there that you won’t purchase because of certain ingredients?
Replies
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7 yrs, 1 mth ago
After I read about the unhygienic agricultural practices in China, I stopped buying products such as chilli sauces etc from China. When the frozen berries scandal erupted, I stopped buying frozen fruit, even if the label said that the fruit was sourced from New Zealand or Chile. I’ve read that New Zealand can be a way for produce grown in China to get into Australia, but I’m not sure if this is always the case. Now I stock up on fresh Australian berries when they’re on sale and I store them in the freezer.
I’ve started looking at where cosmetics are made. It can be tricky to find out where products are made if the information is not on the product’s packaging or the company’s website.
Europe has more stringent standards with excluding possible harmful chemicals in cosmetics compared to countries such as the US. I’ve tried doing Google searches to find where some European cosmetics brands are made, and information doesn’t come up easily. I have found a few cosmetic brands that manufacture their products in the US.
I prefer to buy skin care products that don’t contain synthetic/man-made chemicals; and I try to buy Australian made products. However, the country of manufacture and where the ingredients are from is not always available. Many brands possibly source their raw ingredients from China. One reason why I like Simplicité is they say where their ingredients are from.
As someone that sometimes goes to Chinese acupuncturists, herbalists etc. I was concerned when I heard that some Chinese herbs are laced with heavy metals and other contaminants. The next time that I go to a Chinese traditional medicine practitioner, I will ask them where their herbs are sourced from. Here is one worrying article about this:
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7 yrs, 1 mth ago
Trish, I did a search for facial wipes not made in China. So far, I have found the following UK brands:
http://www.shopnaturally.com.au/natracare-makeup-removal-wipes-20.html
https://www.beautifulbecause.com.au/products/ecocare-facial-cleansing-wipes-organic-rose-chamomile
I have read reviews for both these brands, but they’re not as good compared to reviews for facial wipes by WOTNOT.
I have seen your review for Essano’s wipes (which I’ve also reviewed), but I can’t remember where they are made.
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7 yrs, 1 mth ago
Thanks so much, Petal. I find wipes so convenient, especially when travelling. It`s such a pain now needing to read the back of everything and I acted as you did in the following post with food coming from China. New Zealand used to be incredibly diligent with food, as was Australia but it`s not the case any longer.
The part that irritates me most with the beauty items is the companies who have built their reputation on Australian owned and made. It`s really sad.
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7 yrs, 1 mth ago
We probably would have been able to find the thread if BH`s search engine had not changed. Before BH changed its format, I could search for a word and I could find a thread or information I was looking for.
I vaguely recall when someone shared the information on that ingredient and how it had been banned in Europe. The person could be skincare junkie, but I`m not sure.
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7 yrs, 1 mth ago
Petal, the “”new”” site is still getting me down too. I`ve sent MULTIPLE emails to tech about “”Hot Topics””, but it still doesn`t function. I use Google to search for bh threads & user information.
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7 yrs, 1 mth ago
misfortune8, thanks for the reminder about using Google search, which I had forgotten about. I just did a search for “”beautyheaven”” and “”polyaminopropyl biguanide””. Some threads appeared with this ingredient in it, but there were so many threads. I quickly scanned two threads for the information but I couldn`t find it, so I gave up. I`m not going to bother searching through twenty threads. You may remember how in the past, you could search for one word and get a highlighted direct hit for that word.
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7 yrs, 1 mth ago
I originally posted about the banning of the Garnier micellar water in Denmark (now also the EU). The substance is polyaminopropyl biguanide (PHMB). My original post is here: https://www.beautyheaven.com.au/comment/3133811#comment-3133811
These are products that contain PHMB:
Sephora Express Cleansing wipes face, eyes, lips pro-vitamin B5
Vichy Pureté Thermale soothing eye make-up remover
Vichy Pureté Thermale 3 in 1 one step cleansing micellar solution
La Roche-Posay Micellar Water sensitive skin
La Roche-Posay Physiological micellar solution sensitive eyes
La Roche-Posay Respectissime Waterproof eye makeup remover sensitive eyes
La Roche-Posay Physiological eye-make up remover sensitive eyes
La Roche-Posay Solution Micellaire Physiologique sensitive skin
Garnier skin naturals Micellar Cleansing Water normal & sensitive skin
Garnier skin naturals New pure active micellar cleansing water
Garnier skin naturals Micellar cleansing wipes
L´Occitane en Provence Milk veil
L´Occitane en Provence Gentle toner enriched with shea
L´Occitane en Provence Ultra rich shower cream
L´Occitane en Provence Amande milk concentrate
L´Occitane en Provence Delicious hands with almond milk
L´Occitane en Provence Dry skin foot cream 15% shea butter
L´Occitane en Provence L´Occtitan after-shave balm for men
L´Occitane en Provence Cade after-shave balm for men
L´Occitane en Provence Bavx after-shave balm for men
L´Oreal Paris Eye & lip extress make-up remover
L´Oreal Paris Micellar cleansing water
Garnier skin naturals Micellar Cleansing Water
Garnier skin naturals Eye make-up remover 2in1
This is also a more comprehensive list of all the products with PHMB: http://open.cosmethics.com/Products_with_PHMB.pdf
P.S. I forgot how to make bullet points. 🙁
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7 yrs, 1 mth ago
To narrow down the search to hits on the beautyheaven website only, type your search word then site:beautyheaven.com.au. For forum searches, add /forums.
Eg. “”polyaminopropyl biguanide”” site:beautyheaven.com.au/forums -
7 yrs, 2 mths ago
cityglenda, I’ve been reading ingredients lists since I switched to natural-focussed brands in my late twenties (I’m now in my fifties). This was when brands such as Jurlique and Kosmea introduced their products to the market.
When I was younger, reading labels was much easier. I could do a quick scan and I could immediately identify synthetic/man-made chemicals, petrochemicals, silicones etc which I prefer to avoid. These days, there are so many more new ingredients that it’s hard to keep up with them all. It can get confusing when there are synthetic and non-synthetic versions of one ingredient. When purchasing a new skin care product, I do Google searches to find out what the ingredients are.
I also look at the order of the ingredients. For instance, if a brand is advertising that their product contains an anti-ageing ingredient, but it is listed towards the bottom of the ingredients list, there probably isn’t much of it in the product. In other words, the product won’t do much.
In the last few years, I also look to avoid chemical SPF, synthetic fragrance etc. Sometimes these ingredients trigger minor pimples, blocked pores, minor tingling/stinging etc.
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7 yrs, 2 mths ago
Petal you mention that you avoid chemical SPF, do you use a zinc-type cream to avoid being burnt or something else?
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7 yrs, 1 mth ago
cityglenda, I buy sunscreens from brands that use a minimum of chemicals. Here are some of the natural-focussed stores that I buy my products from:
https://www.nourishedlife.com.au/natural-sunscreen/
https://www.beautifulbecause.com.au/collections/suncare/sunscreens
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7 yrs, 2 mths ago
Yes the handcream I got from the chemist which was part of the perfume giftpack is made in Australia too .
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7 yrs, 1 mth ago
My Mum just bought one of their foundations the other day & its made in Australia. I also had a look at some of their products yesterday & they all said made in Australia. Admittedly they were all face makeup products from memory, but it might just be a case of reading the label prior to purchase.
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7 yrs, 2 mths ago
Hayley, Natio products were made in Australia, and I`m not sure when they started outsourcing – I`ve checked all my Natio products and the eye palettes are the only ones from China that I have – make that had, because I`m not prepared to continue using the eye shadows, even though they were beautiful.
Hope you`re having a lovely birthday.
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