Soap is one of the greatest inventions of civilization.

We take it for granted - but just try to live without it.

Unfortunately, however, the mainstream commercial "beauty" and "skincare" industry is focused on selling you products that are cheap and easy to manufacture. They clean your face in the short run, but in the long run, can make your skin look older.

They know you'll blame THAT on simple aging, and you'll buy even MORE products from them.

THEY look good whether your face does or not.

Commercial Products Often Contain Toxic and Synthetic Ingredients

Regulators don't allow ingredients that may immediately harm you, but nobody is going to run studies that last years, just to discover the long-run effects. 

As with so many chemicals we're all exposed to in our air, food, and water, known harmful ones are held within "tolerable levels."

But, again, this is short-run thinking. 

Besides, personal care products are not nearly as well-regulated as you may think. 

In 1938, with the passage of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act the United States Food and Drug Administration took a step forward toward prohibiting unsafe ingredients.

But it's not enough. That law prohibits the sale of any "poisonous or deleterious substance" or any "filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance."

Based on that standard, the FDA has banned only 11 ingredients. Compare that to the European Union, which has banned over 1,300. 

Over the years, government lawmakers have attempted to tighten the regulations, but the personal care industry always defeats these efforts.

That leaves the responsibility for your long-term skin health up to us, the consumers.

After all, using potentially harmful ingredients is more profitable than seeking out and sourcing natural ingredients. 

Your average "box store" or "Wal" shopper just wants what's cheap.

Even worse, many high-end facial cleansers contain the same ingredients. Buying from a luxury store and paying a high-end price does not guarantee short or long-term safety and effectiveness.

In 2022, the Beauty and Personal Care market amounted to $87.13 billion. On average in the US, women use 12 personal care and cosmetics products every day - containing on average 168 ingredients.

Ingredients to Avoid in Soaps and Facial Cleansers

1. Sulfates

These include Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate.

The manufacturers use sulfates to make sure their soap bubbles and lathers. If a soap or cleanser is lathering up, it must be working, right?

The problem is, sulfates remove your skin's natural layer of oil - which helps hold in your skin's moisture.

Without that oil holding in the moisture, your skin dries out.

Removing that natural layer of oil also removes your skin's natural protection, allowing other ingredients in the soap or cleanser to go deeper into your skin than needed and desirable.

Therefore, sulfates have been linked to skin irritations and allergic reactions.

They can also combine with other skincare ingredients to form nitrosamine, listed by the state of California as a carcinogen.

2. Formaldehyde and Related Preservatives

Given half a chance, many microbes and bacteria - some of them harmful - will grow in skincare products.

Therefore, substances are added to soaps and cleansers to kill these harmful bacteria. We can't argue with the principle.

The problem is, according to the United States National Toxicology Program and The International Agency for Research on Carcinogens, formaldehyde and related preservatives cause cancer.

They're also linked to skin allergies - and might harm your immune system.

Many times, manufacturers don't directly add formaldehyde, they use preservatives that release formaldehyde.

These include:

* Glyoxal

* DMDM hydantoin

* Quaternium-15

* Diazolidinyl urea

* Bronopol

* Imidazolidinyl urea

* Polyoxymethylene urea

* Sodium hydroxymethylglycinate

3. Artificial colors

Color doesn't clean your skin, but some women apparently believe using a cleanser with a pleasing color does a more effective job.

This is just marketing, keeping you as a customer by delivering a "user experience" that feels better.

However, you can pay for that with a rash.

4. Artificial fragrances

These may remind you of bouquets of flowers, but they're entirely unnatural and synthetic - found nowhere but in a commercial organic chemistry laboratory.

As with artificial colors, they're there just to make you feel happy. That's pure marketing.

In the United States fragrances or perfume or parfum may consist of over 3,000 different chemicals - and manufacturers are not required to disclose them on the label. They're considered trade secrets.

Many of these are:

* Known carcinogens

* Neurotoxins

* Endocrine disruptors

* Allergens

5. Phthalates - plasticizers

75% of products tested by the Environmental Working Group contained phthalates.

Phthalates disrupture hormones and your metabolism. They're banned by the European Union, South Korea and Canada, but are legal in the United States.

Beware Fake Natural Products

In their marketing, personal care products are allowed to say many things that have no regulatory definition, so they get away it.

These terms include:

* Organic

* Natural

* Wholistic

* Wild-crafted

* Hypoallergenic

* Non irritation or for sensitive skin

They sound good, don't they? But they're all unregulated terms. Within certain limits, the manufacturers can say what they want, and it doesn't matter whether or not the actual product fits the description as commonly understood by you and I.

Look at the actual label. The FDA requires this to be more truthful, though not complete and not in everyday language.

What to Look for Instead

You want a facial cleanser that's USDA Certified Organic.

Products calling themselves "organic" as a meaningless marketing buzzword are not allowed to say they're "USDA Certified Organic."

This is controlled by the United States Department of Agriculture, an independent organization. They will grant certification only if they verify the ingredients in the product were 95% grown organically.

The remaining 5% of ingredients may not be organic, but they do not include any dangerous substances.

That means the product is totally free of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and artificial dyes. And the product was NOT processed using industrial solvents, irradiation, or genetic engineering.

USDA Certified Organic is the highest standard available in the United States for personal care product safety.

https://www.ewg.org/personal-care-products-safety-act-would-improve-cosmetics-safety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DV0W4SX_B4

https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/changes-science-law-and-regulatory-authorities/part-ii-1938-food-drug-cosmetic-act

https://store.puritywoods.com/pur-radiance/

https://www.skininc.com/business/regulatory/article/21880710/skin-carethen-and-now-product-and-professional-regulations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1U-kT4KFgk

https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/80-years-later-cosmetics-chemicals-still-unregulated