How do you know which cosmetics are safe to choose? Is there a list? Where can you find it? I knew I needed to answer those questions after talking with my niece Christina Mastrangelo.  We were talking about my posts ”Carcinogens and Toxins in Cosmetics – How Much Do You Want to Know?” and ”Unlabeled Estrogen in Moisturizers Pose Potential Risks for Breast Cancer Patients” when the subject came up. After many hours of research, I am including links to several sites, one of which I am adding to the links section that you’ll find on the right sidebar. These links will help you determine which cosmetics, lotions, lip balms, hair products etc are considered safe to use. I outline below what information you’ll find on these sites.

1. Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Reviews

This site provides a numerical rating (0-10) for 8 different cosmetic categories: make-up, skin care, hair care, eye care, nail care, baby care, oral care and fragrance. The ratings are based on whether the ingredients are linked to:

• cancer
• developmental/reproductive toxicity
• violations, restrictions and warnings
• allergies/immunotoxicity and
• persistence/bioaccumulation

It pairs ingredients in more than 41,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind.  For example, there are 796 acne treatment products rated. You can also find out which manufacturers have signed the “Compact for Safe Cosmetics“, a pledge to formulate products that do not use ingredients that are known or suspected to cause health problems. You can also find out if these products are tested on animals. All-in-all, this is a very comprehensive site.

2. Teens for Safe Cosmetics

“Teens for Safe Cosmetics” is an outgrowth of Search for the Cause, the brainchild of Judi Shils, a Marin County resident. When Marin County announced that its breast cancer rates had risen 60% in 8 years, residents wanted to know what the leadership was doing to reverse the rates. When they were told that there wasn’t enough funding to find the cause, Shils organized the Marin Cancer Project which then became “Search for the Cause”. Since then, the group is close to completing its Cancer Maps.

“Teens for Safe Cosmetics” is a branch of this organizaton whose mission is to inform teens about personal care products and cosmetics that may be harmful and provide them with greener choices. This organization was instrumental in getting California to pass the California Safe Cosmetics Act in 2005.

They partnered with Whole Foods Market in selecting an eco body care line of 9 products selected for its safety, sustainability and practicality. Having said all this, a quick cross check with “Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Reviews” did not turn up specific product matches for the first 3 products on their list, but I did find a manufacturer match on one of them. Unfortunately, the manufacturer, Astara, was not a signature to the “Compact for Safe Cosmetics“. Check it out none-the-less and draw your own conclusions.

3. Comparative Study on Cosmetics Legislation in the EU and Other Principal Markets with Special Attention to so-called Borderline Products

This is an interesting document that spells out the differences in regulations between the European cosmetic markets and the US, Japan and Canada. Essentially, the EU has a broader definition of what constitutes a cosmetic but has many more restrictions and prohibitions on what are considered safe ingredients.

For example, in the EU, there are over 400 ingredients that are prohibited from use in cosmetics and 90 that have restrictions associated with their use. Compare this to only 15 ingredients that combined  are either prohibited or restricted for use in the US.

Since US manufacturers compete on the European market as well, they often have two lines of the same product for sale. Look for the CE (Council of Europe) logo on the packaging in order to get what is considered to be the safer product. 

Remember, the FDA has no regulatory power over the cosmetic industry in this country. This cosmetic industry in this country gets to oversee itself. That’s why it’s important that databases such as the Cosmetic Safety Database exisits for consumers. The problem is very few people know about it so we remain largely ignorant of the harmful effects of many of these substances. We have to become more savvy consumers since there is no governmental agency charged with protecting us.

The EU cosmetic legislation standards have been adopted by China, Israel, India, Algeria, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

The report’s recommendations say it best:

• the EU Cosmetics Directive, which combines a wide definition of cosmetics with
  clear and comprehensive requirements on safety testing, ingredients and labelling,
  provides a good basis for achieving further alignment, demonstrated by the
  number of countries and regions already modelling their approach upon it; and
• the alternative model, with a narrow definition of cosmetics subject to limited
  controls, is unlikely to be acceptable to regulators outside the USA and Canada as
  providing adequate protection for the consumer, (italics added) particularly in the emerging
  markets where the effective in-market surveillance required to make this model
  work may not be present. The fact that many products categorised as cosmetics
  elsewhere are regulated as drugs under this model acts as a constraint on
  innovation without enhancing consumer safety.

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