by Veronica Savvas

Created on: July 06, 2009

Indulging myself in a bit of hard earned shopping the other day, I came across a lady wearing one of those wonderful word shirts. Though not my usual dress style, I can never seem to resist reading them.

Boldly plastered across this woman's ample bosom were the words: "forget organic. I need all the preservatives I can get."

After I'd gotten over my unladylike snort, and really thought about what the t-shirt was saying I was bemused.

I mean, why are we plastering our faces with chemicals and compounds, then worrying about what additives and chemicals are in the food that we eat?

What about our soap, moisturiser, toner, makeup, face masks, and the other million products that we slap on our bodies to clear, smooth, tone and fight ageing?

Sitting at home later that day, I decided to investigate.

First I pulled out all of the products from my bathroom cabinet - and there were a lot. (I suspect they've actually been breeding back there, because I certainly don't remember buying five different face masks - who needs five different face masks?!)

With my trusty internet on hand, I decided to look up what Polyethylene Glycol, Xanthan, Chloromethylisothiazolinone, and the other more difficult to pronounce compounds actually were. What are we really putting on our bodies?

I started out on one of my favourite sights, Wikipedia. After looking up some of the ingredients, and getting a few good laughs - who would have guessed that Bentonite, an active ingredient in one of my many face masks is also used as a sealant for spent nuclear fuel?!

Unfortunately, I still felt I was no closer to understanding. Just because a product is also used in the production of plastic bags (polyethylene), does that make it bad for our skin?

I decided to look up the certification standards for beauty products. What better way to see how harmful these products may be, than by seeing how tight the industry standards are? What sort of testing or scrutiny do the products we use go through before they end up in our medicine cabinets?

What I discovered was lot of regulation in regards to the claims cosmetic companies can make on their products. According to the Australian Government, Department of Health and Ageing Therapeutic Goods Administration, an anti-ageing, anti wrinkle ingredient in a cosmetic product cannot claim to have an anti-wrinkle effect, unless that statement is qualified to show some cosmetic benefit umm ok

Apparently claiming it is anti-wrinkle pushes the product

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