Sarah Beeny’s checks how toxic you are!
skincare October 11th, 2007The Telegraph and Daily Mail have both been awash with coverage about this week’s controversial Channel 4 programme presented by Sarah Beeny. The show called, Beauty Addicts: How toxic are you?, investigates the potential dangers of harsh ingredients like parabens, sodium laureth sulfate and perfumes.
The show airs tonight at 8pm on Channel 4 so check it out and let us know what you think!
October 11th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Lookin forward to seeing this show. Can’t believe its taken this long for primetime TV to cover such an important issue. Good on Channel 4!!
October 11th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Interesting show which brought up a lot of good points not aired before. But I’m concerned about products being touted as chemical free, being the same products to contain palm oil. Massive swathes of natural habitat are being ripped up to make way for palm oil crops at a very alarming rate, destroying wildlife and the lives of people who have depended on them for centuries. This surely cannot be a good alterntive for people wanting to become more natural? Do Elave support this industry by including palm oil as one of their ingredients?
October 11th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Fantastic Show - just found this range online after the show. Can’t wait to try it. Great to see an entire range free from all the nasties
October 12th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Hi em,
elave is free from palm oils so no need to worry about that!
October 12th, 2007 at 11:20 am
It is difficult to make objective comments on this programme because it was so poorly researched and contained so many factual errors. At the beginning the presenter acknowledged that the concentration of a chemical is the most important factor in determining if it is a hazard or not. However at no point was any mention made of the significance of any concentrations of any of the chemicals found in the products or in the participants.
There was an obsession in the programme with “man made” chemicals,whereas in fact, many naturally occurring chemicals pose as many, (or as few) threats. Worse,the programme actually failed to distinguish man made from natural, since it claimed that (sodium) fluoride, formaldehyde, and limonene, (quoted as being a pesticide) are man made where in fact they are all “natural” chemicals. Indeed the presence of limonene in a cosmetic is usually as a result of a plant essential oil being used, as limonene is a component of many essential oils. It along with 25 other natural chemicals have to be declared on cosmetic labels as potential allergens. Substituting “natural” chemicals for “man made” ones is absolutely no guarantee of reducing the very low risk that correct usage of these products poses.
There is no guarantee that the alternatives suggested in the programme ARE any safer, for two main reasons. Firstly cosmetics ARE chemicals and in order to do their job must have some form of chemicals in them. Natural isn’t necessarily better because the research on them is even more scant than on “synthetics”. After all some of the most “toxic” chemicals are natural, (think nicotine, strychnine, ricin, belladonna; the last of these was actually used in cosmetics in past times).
Some of the products quoted as only having 3 natural ingredients, will have some natural essential oils from plants in them. These oils will have dozens of chemicals in them; lemon oil for example contains over 100 separate chemicals including some used as pesticides (including the limonene mentioned on the programme). We just assume that because we may ingest lemon peel with no ill effects, that we can spread it on our skin too, and we’re probably right but that doesn’t mean it’s better than products with synthetics and additives because we don’t know. It’s all in the dose. Essential oils have antimicrobial properties but only at does much higher than many “synthetic” antimicrobials. So it’s a question of whether you prefer to be exposed to high levels of 100 naturally occurring chemicals or low doses of one synthetic chemical.
“Natural” isn’t necessarily “good”.
October 20th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Hi Em
Its a good point you made about palm oil. Have a look at http://www.savetheorangutan.co.uk/?page_id=170 for links to companies who think like you do.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
this show is awsome! sooo kool