With the help of my tutor, I posed a question via email to Nuria, an LCF student who is researching ingredients in hair products. Which ingredients in everyday care products are the most harmful? Are there healthier alternatives or ways to improve them? Her research reminded me that there are no ingredients in regularly sold skincare products that are dangerous, only things that are more effective for different consumers. This is to focus the question more on the consumers themselves. Even though it is a non-dangerous ingredient it should be dosed appropriately and not just for the sake of effectiveness.
Nuria: Safety in cosmetics, especially in skincare products, is a hotly debated subject. As we all know, every nation has laws protecting consumers that include stringent testing.
In the course of my research on this subject, I spoke with Diogo Baltazar, the course leader for cosmetic science at LCF, who assured me that all cosmetics that have been properly developed and regulated (legal cosmetics) are safe for the consumer to use, and that any ingredients that were found to be harmful would not be included.
I do agree with this up to a point, and that is that we can only test ingredients and their effects so far. Since we don’t have enough time to conduct long-term studies, we cannot determine whether they will harm users in the long run.
It would be worthwhile to consider the case of Johnson & Johnson’s talc powder, which was found to cause ovarian or uterine cancer in female users.
In conclusion, I don’t think any ingredient in skincare is harmful, but I do think some ingredients are more potent than others and some won’t work for different skin types
I suppose this is not the response you were hoping for to your question, but I hope it will still be helpful.