 What potential health effects can modern cosmetics have
Added: 10/31/2005 |
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Cosmetics, general term applied to all preparations used externally to condition and beautify the body, by cleaning, colouring, softening, or protecting the skin, hair, nails, lips, or eyes. Potential health effects of these preparations varies greatly in some cases. Along with the desirable cosmetic effect they can give side effects. That is why more and more people these days prefer natural cosmetics which has better ingestion and is far more gentle as far as skin contact is concerned.
The earliest known cosmetics come from the 1st Dynasty of Egypt (about 3100-2907 BC). Tombs of this era have yielded unguent jars, and from remains of later periods it is evident that the unguents were scented. Such preparations, as well as perfumed oils, were extensively used by both men and women to keep the skin supple, unwrinkled in the dry heat of Egypt with far reaching
potential health effects. Egyptian women also developed the art of decorating the eyes by applying dark green colour to the lower lid and by blackening the lashes and the upper lid with kohl, a preparation made from antimony or soot, possessing charming skin contact. It is likely that the Jews adopted the use of cosmetics from the Egyptians, as its
use even stimulated ingestion,
since references to face painting appear in the Old Testament.
The almost universal use of cosmetics in modern times has grown with the scientific study of the ingredients employed and their potential health effects. This research was begun by the French in the 19th century, and led to the development of more and better cosmetics at low cost. A large variety of cosmetics is generally available today. Cold cream is an emulsion of various oils and waxes and water; it is employed to cleanse and soften the skin, and to improve skin contact. Various purpose-made moisturizers and cleansers are also available. Face powder and dusting powder, based on talcum (powdered magnesium silicate) and zinc oxide, are used to dry and give the skin a satin-like texture. Lip colour, either applied directly as a lipstick or brushed on to the lips, is made of cocoa butter or lanolin, and is manufactured in an endless variety of shades, as are rouges, mixtures of red pigments and starch or finely powdered clay. Bath salts and other bath preparations combine water-softening agents such as sodium carbonate or borax with perfume; bath oils are also a popular skin-softening and skin contact performing aid.
The market of body care products and cosmetics is huge these days, and you can find anything you want. But to lower the price of such products a lot of different synthetic substances are used in these products. And potential health effects of such chemicals can be sometimes dangerous. Manufacturers now offer wider range of organic body care products. But popularity of natural cosmetics comes at a price. To satisfy such a huge demand for the natural products many manufacturers offer regular cosmetics under the mark of natural or organic cosmetics. To fight unfair manufacturers in many countries world wide special organic standards were introduced.
These standards regulate synthetic chemicals that are used in body care products and cosmetics. But still in many countries even those strict organic standards allow to have "necessary chemicals" even in natural body care products and cosmetics. All the needed information on chemicals you should avoid in cosmetics, all the potential health effects of these chemicals and thr list of all the products, which contain them, is publicly available. You can simply type in the search engine something like "natural cosmetics" or "organic body care standards" and you will get an impressive list of web sites dedicated to that subject. On web sites one can find not only information on possible side effects of synthetic cosmetics but also recipes of different natural body care remedies that can be produced at home. Such recipes have been in use for centuries now. But new discoveries in biology also can be reflected in these recipes - for example new uses of green tea are very popular today as different green tea creams give your skin better ingestion and green tea lotion fights dental infection.
The number of natural recipes is increasing almost every day because all the manufacturers perform numerous studies in the sector of organic products and old recipes are being rediscovered and new remedies are also being found. All that looks very promising as in the market pretty soon all the synthetic products, which have numerous undesirable side effects, can be replaced with much safer natural analogs.
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