How Do You Choose A Product?

[robertchoi]

Hi everyone,

Which factor is more important for you: cost or safety?

Let's get some opinions on here about skin-care products
and their value vs. safety.

How do we know which ones are best?
Can we trust the belief that "expensive is better"?

Thanks!

Robert

[jamesherried]

"More expensive" is definitely not always better. Read the thread on the Consumer Reports here, plus a lot of others as well. To choose the right products you have to know what ingredients work and which ones don't, then look at the ingredients. I would suggest that you order Dr. Todorov's DIY Infopack, available here online.

[robertchoi]

Thanks for the information, James.

What do you mean by "work" and "don't work" ?

I can see that for certain medical conditions, you would need to find
products that work to fight against them, but in terms of simply finding
a good product that cares for your skin, why is that important?

Going to the local discount store may save you money in the short-term,
but what about ingredients like SLS and parabens? I'm sorry I haven't
ordered the infopack, but maybe you could let us know if SLS and
parabens are good or bad ingredients?

I would appreciate that, if it's not too much trouble, thanks!

Cheers,
Robert

[jamesherried]

I would recommend that you start by checking out the articles Dr. Todorov has listed on the homepage of this website.

[beauticontroltiffany]

Expensive is not always BETTER!!!

I believe Safer is the way to go...
you want prodocts that are non-comedogenic, hypo allergenic, allergy tested, and fragrance free!!!

I am a skin wellness specialist so I see a lot of people with minimal to SEVER skin damage and conditions...90% of what I see is do to what my client is PUTTING on their own skin! It is absoluty insane to see some of this stuff...

Would you put something on your skin if you knew it would clog your pores??? Most people wouldn't... but most people aren't educated on this subject either!

-Tiffany

[jamesherried]

Well for that matter, Kevin Trudeau in his new book "Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About' claims that you should never put anything on your face that you wouldn't put in your body, and he says that includes sunscreens. He claims that the sun does not cause skin cancer, but sunscreens do cause skin cancer because of the harmful chemicals they contain that damage the DNA of the skin. There could very well be some truth to that.

[beauticontroltiffany]

I couldn't agree more. Most sunscreens out there contain known carcenogenics. (cancer causing ingrediants) Yet again, VERY FEW people are actually educated about the contents of what they are using. Also, most people do not know that the highest SPF the FDA has approved is SPF 20... There are some companes that boast an SPF 60 or 60+ but the only reason they do this is becuase they use DOUBLE stregnth ingrediants therefor DOUBLING the Carcenogenics!

I am amazed at the lack of education. I have 2 children and at no point have either of them been educated on proper skin care at school... They change the cafeteria's to promote health... why can't they add a little bit of SKIN care in health class???

JMO

-Tiffany

[brunettemama]

I only use what my dermatologist suggests that I use.That includes face wash that I buy from his office.My face was in BAD shape when I first saw him and he cleared it up...I love the man.

[sdxl]

[robertchoi]

Thanks for the advice, James. I understand that the doctor
has written some reports on this subject.

Has anyone here heard of this?

The EU Cosmetics Directive
In January 2003, the European Union amended its cosmetics directive (76/768/EEC) to ban the use of chemicals that are known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation or birth defects. The amendment went into force in September 2004 and bans carcinogens, reproductive toxins and mutagens from cosmetics. Companies are required to remove these chemicals from cosmetic and personal care products sold in the EU. Since the EU directive requires that all cosmetic products containing toxic chemicals be reformulated for the EU market, we're asking cosmetics companies to make those reformulated products readily available in every market they serve - both domestically and globally.


As far as I'm concerned, what's important for the EU should be
important for us, when it concerns our health.
What do you think?

Here's a link to a site that lists all companies that have signed
the compact agreement, and a shorter list of some who have not...

http://www.safecosmetics.org/companies/signers.cfm


It's amazing what the multi-billion dollar cosmetic industry will
try and make you believe, isn't it?


Have a great day!

[jamesherried]

Where is your proof that the chemicals (such as Parsol 1789) found in sunscreens are safe and non-carcinogenic? If there is no evidence of their safety, then you're just taking risks. If you want evidence of the potential dangers of the chemicals found in sunscreens, check out www.skinbiology.com. Also, the chemical DHT used in "self tanners" (not in sunscreens) has now come under attack because there's evidence it may cause damage to the DNA in the skin. There was a thread on this forum about that a while back. So the slogan "the only safe tan is a fake tan" (a convenient one for boosting the sales of fake tanning solutions) may no longer be appropriate or true. We tend to to forget that when you introduce a chemical into the body that the body perceives as a "foreign" "unnatural" substance, the body often tends to reject the molecule and you get negative side effects, even cancer. Thats probably why almost all drugs (even aspirin) cause undesirable side effects. That may also be the case with a lot of sunscreens. One alternative option would be to use organic sunscreens.

[jamesherried]

[jamesherried]

Here's just one article on the dangers of the chemicals in sunscreens from www.skinbiology.com. There are other articles they have also on that site related to this topic, in which they discuss some of the actual chemicals used in sunscreens and the dangers they have when applied topically. When you go to the site, click on "Suntanning", then on "Healthy Suntanning"

"Free Radical Generators and Gender-Bending Estrogenic Chemicals"

For decades, irresponsible cosmetic companies and a small group of very vocal, publicity-seeking dermatologists have strongly advocated that chemical sunscreens should be heavily applied before any exposure to sunlight, even on young children. They insisted that such sunscreen use would prevent skin cancer and protect your health. This was despite of a lack of any adequate safety testing of these chemicals. (It should be emphasized that most dermatologists are much more cautious and careful.)

On the other hand, over the past decade, many scientists studying cancer have come to virtually the opposite conclusion; that is, the use of sunscreen chemicals may be increasing the incidence of cancer and that sunlight exposure may actually decrease human cancer rates and improve your health.

It now appears that many heavily-used chemical sunscreens may actually increase cancers by virtue of their free radical generating properties. And more insidiously, many commonly used sunscreen chemicals have strong estrogenic actions that may cause serious problems in sexual development and adult sexual function, and may further increase cancer risks.

It is not that these compounds were ever viewed as benign substances. Organic chemists have been long aware of the dangers of compounds in chemical sunscreens. Such chemicals are widely used to start free radical reactions during chemical synthesis. These chemicals are the dangerous types that one carefully keeps away from your skin while working in a laboratory. To use them, you mix them into a combination of other chemicals, then flash the mixture with an ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet absorbing chemicals then generate copious amounts of free radicals that initiated the desired chemical reactions.

Despite the medical establishment's near unanimity on the issue of sunlight exposure, on other health issues in the past, serious errors been promoted to the public.

1. In 1927, 12,745 physicians endorsed smoking Lucky Strike cigarettes as a healthful activity. In the 1940s and 1950s, thousands of prominent surgeons were used in national cigarette advertisements to reassure the public about the safety of cigarette smoking.

2. In the 1950's, lobotomies were promoted for mental disorders and produced near-totally dysfunctional people.

3. In the 1960's and 1970's, diets high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fats and partially hydrogenated fatty acids such as safflower oil and margarine were recommended to reduce heart disease. However, long term studies found that, while such diets decreased heart disease, they increased the total death rate and the cancer rate and produced accelerated aging.

[jamesherried]

Here is more info on the dangers of inorganic sunscreens, from www.skinbiology.com.

Chemical sunscreens have three primary defects: 1)They are powerful free radical generators. Their free radical generation increases cellular damage and changes that lead to cancer.
Psoralen - such a compound that is used to treat psoriasis increases skin cancer rates 83-fold.
2)They often have strong estrogenic activity. Estrogenic - "Gender Bending" - chemicals interfere with normal sexual development -
Engendering a host of secondary medical problems - see more below.
3)They are synthetic chemicals that are alien to the human body and accumulate in body fat stores. The human body is well adapted to de-toxify biologicals that it has been exposed to over tens of millions of years. But it has often has difficulty removing new and non-biological compounds such DDT, Dioxin, PCBs, and chemical sunscreens.

Chemical sunscreens include:

Benzophenones (dixoybenzone, oxybenzone)

PABA and PABA esters (ethyl dihydroxy propyl PAB, glyceryl PABA, p-aminobenzoic acid, padimate-O or octyl dimethyl PABA)

Cinnamates (cinoxate, ethylhexyl p-methoxycinnamate, octocrylene, octyl methoxycinnamate)

Salicylates (ethylhexyl salicylate, homosalate, octyl salicylate)

Digalloyl trioleate

Menthyl anthranilate

Avobenzone [butyl-methyoxydibenzoylmethane; Parsol 1789] - This is the only chemical sunscreen currently allowed by the European Community. However, its safety is still questionable since it easily penetrates the skin and is a strong free radical generator.

[drtodorov]

Meroxyl may be a bit more stable older chemical sunscreens. However, at this point ZnO remains the best overall, despite its drawbacks.