What’s in your cosmetics and beauty
products? I personally did not know any of this until I was educated on this
subject. To be honest, I was pretty shocked and sickened by the truth, and
sometimes the truth hurts! Some people may not care what is in their beauty
products, or don't want to know. We live in a sociality that wants instant
gratification. So goes the old saying "oh the price we pay for
vanity" well in this case we not only paying for it but we are also
participating in using products that are unsafe, harmful to our well-being (and
not to mention disgusting). The US cosmetic industry uses fillers (animal
product or by-product) in every day items that you purchase. This is what you
pay for when you buy items that are not vegan certified or botanically based.
Words like Collagen, Elastin, and Retinal etc. are important words when
we start to see fine lines and wrinkles. Ahhh! Words are powerful! But what are those products made of, you ask? Lets read on.
1.
Hyaluronic Acid -is used in anti-ageing skincare products as it is an
antioxidant, a humectant (drawing moisture up in the skin) and it boosts
collagen synthesis. Sounds like a fantastic ingredient for a skincare product,
right? Hyaluronic acid is found in human umbilical cords and rooster combs.
Since the early 1980s, it has been produced from rooster combs on an industrial
scale. If you buy a product that contains this anti-ageing ingredient, check
that it was made by producing enzymes from a bacteria-based biofermentation
process. It is likely that most products you buy in the shops will
contained the rooster comb variety.
2.
Collagen – Ever seen a skincare product advertise that it contained
collagen? Sounds like a great idea, given that the loss of collagen is one of
the main signs of facial ageing. However, collagen in skincare products won’t
actually do all that much, as the consensus is that it won’t be absorbed deeply
enough into the skin (if at all) to help strengthen fibrous tissue. And you
might be even more put off when you find out that most collagen in skincare
creams comes from chicken feet and ground-up animal horns.
3.
Elastin – much like collagen, the loss of elastin is one of the main
reasons for facial aging Again, skincare companies are clamouring in order to
be able to claim that their product boosts elastin so some of them add it into
their creams and lotions. Will it penetrate your skin far enough to do much?
The consensus is probably not. According to PETA, this protein is extracted
from the neck ligaments and aortas of cows.
4.
Keratin - I bet you’ve seen this one advertised in some of your hair care
products. Many shampoos and hair rinses like to tell you all about their added
keratin which will strengthen your hair. What they don’t tell you is that it’s
extracted from the ground-up horns, hooves, feathers, quills, and hair of
various animals.
5.
Carmine -is a red dye that is often used in lipsticks, rouge, eye shadow
and other cosmetics. It is also used a lot in food and drinks, particularly
items that are bright red (think of ruby-red juice and supermarket curries!).
It is made of red pigment from the crushed female cochineal insect. PETA
reports that 70,000 beetles must be killed to produce one pound of this dye.
Sounds horribly unnecessary when you can also use beetroot which, as everyone
knows, stains everything red.
6.
Glucosamine – This skincare ingredient is thought to be barrier enhancing,
moisturizing and helps to even out skin tone. It’s found in many animals’
exoskeletons but apparently chicken bone marrow is a great source of
glucosamine for the cosmetics industry (is this going to be a blog post just
about chickens?!).
7. Ambergris (a.k.a. whale vomit). This grey floating faecal-smelling lump is a
sperm whale bile duct secretion. Gosh, that’s really selling it, isn’t it? It’s
still used by some perfume manufacturers to ‘fix’ the smell of a perfume.
Thankfully most perfume manufacturers use synthetic alternatives nowadays,
although Cosmetics Design Europe reports that
it is still used by Dior and Kenneth Cole. Skunk order is another form that is
use to give one a long lasting smell... Yuck!
8. Fake vanilla fragrance – Vanilla has a lovely aroma, as we all know. This
Mexican plant is beautiful and produces fantastic orchid-like flowers which
have a symbiotic relationship with its pollinator, the Melipona bee
which is native to Mexico. For that reason, the only way vanilla can be
cultivated around the world is through hand pollination, which is how almost
all of the vanilla pods you buy in the shops came about (ever seen Mexican
vanilla for sale? I didn’t think so). In other words, extracting vanilla
fragrance is an expensive job. Which is why we can all breathe a sigh of relief
that scientists at the International Medical Center of Japan can now extract a
fake vanilla fragrance from cow dung.
9.
Placental protein – this one says it all really, doesn’t it? Animal
placenta is extracted from the uterus of animals in abattoirs and seems to be
used quite widely in skincare products. It seems to be used as a humectant,
which means that it is used to draw moisture up into the top layers of the skin.
10.
Stearic acid - many natural (theres that word being tossed around) skincare products will tell you if this fatty
acid is plant-derived. However, those that don’t tell you are probably using
animal-derived stearic acid. Rendering factories separate the fat from waste
animal tissue in order to create stearic acid. Animals used for this process
will include cows, pigs and sheep. Sources of meat include abattoirs,
restaurant and butcher shop trimmings, expired meat from supermarkets, and the
carcasses of euthanized and dead animals from animal shelters, zoos
and vets.
11.
Crystalline guanine – ever wondered what creates your pearly iridescent
effect in your shampoo, eye shadow and nail polish? We all love a bit of
superficial prettiness, after all. The shiny effect is caused by crystalline guanine,
extracted from fish scales.
12.
Panthenol – you will probably recognize this chemical as it is often used
in shampoos and conditioners to moisturize and lubricate your hair. It is also
used in some lotions and mascaras. Panthenol is often made from one of the
components of honey but is also found in certain vegetables and meat. The
majority of panthenol used in the cosmetics industry comes from meat or honey.
Given the price of honey and the worldwide decline in numbers of bees, I’m
guessing meat might be a more common source of panthenol nowadays.
I
am not a vegan or a vegetarian, I am an Iowa girl. I was raised in the country
and have eaten my fair share of meat. Although now that I am older and a little
bit wiser I am carful with what I put in my body and even more carful what I
put ON my body. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and
please note this is informational only and if you are conscious about your
health you will understand the importance of what you just read. It saddens me that we have no
regard for our well being as humans; what are we doing to ourselves by
using products that are potentially unhealthy.
Wishing
Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Ania
I
am not an advocate for PETA, nor am I a member. This information has
come from the PETA’s Animal Ingredient list. http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/animal-ingredients-list.aspx
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