Parabens can be found in makeup and skincare products, as they’re used to help preserve our products – but the preservatives have been identified as estrogenic and disruptive of normal hormone function – so here are the makeup brands you might want to consider that are paraben free.
Parabens have been widely used in products since the 1950s as a means of preventing bacteria growth, what's more, they don't cost much and the work particularly well too.
Parabens, compared with new preservatives, have been used for years safely, that's why they're more likely to be used in products with more modern methods, which don't have as much evidence of being good at what they do.
Then in the nineties, parabens got a whole load of bad press, they were labelled xenoestrogens, which means that they mimic estrogen in the body. The reason this wasn't particularly good is the fact that a disruption of estrogen in the body had been linked to breast cancer and reproductive problems.
It was in 2004 that cancer research Philippa Darbe PhD found parabens in malignant breast tumours. This resulted in a limit on the paraben amounts in skincare and beauty products.
But it must also be noted that noncancerous tissue from healthy breasts wasn’t tested to see if parabens were also there and the fact that they were there, doesn't necessarily establish that they were the cause of the cancer.
Further studies have indicated that parabens have a very weak estrogenic effect.
When it comes to parabens in your beauty products, there is some evidence to suggest that you should be cautious, but there's no reason to let this concern take over your thoughts.
Over the last few years, however, in response to customer concerns, many brands have started to manufacture (and label) paraben-free products, including lotions, lipsticks, shampoos, scrubs, and more.
If you want to know if your beauty products contain parabens there are certain things you can do.
- When you look on the label at the ingredients of your beauty products, chances are it won't simply state parabens, instead be on the lookout for these following ingredients: isoparaben, methylparaben, propylparaben or butylparaben.
- A lot of companies list the ingredients of their products online, so check them there to see what's inside the items you buy.
- You can even contact them by email or use social media, like Twitter, to get a direct answer to a particular product.
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