Deciphering the long list of unfamiliar words and numbers on a product’s ingredients list is a daunting task, even when armed with a chemistry textbook.
No matter how hard I try to stay calm and serene, my blood pressure soars whenever I’m unfortunate enough to stumble across certain advertisements. The kind I’m referring to almost always feature some actor or celebrity, who earnestly informs me that if I were savvy enough to switch to a certain brand of shampoo, my hair would be ‘eight times stronger’. Eight times stronger than what? An ant? An elephant? My coffee?
So, what’s a cynical girl to do when it comes time for her to buy cosmetics? In a market swarming with phantasmagorical stories and promises, making an educated and informed decision is a challenge.
The good news is this – the information you need is right in front of you. You just need to know where to look and how to decipher it once you find it.
Ingredients lists
Many countries forbid the sale of cosmetics that do not include a list of ingredients. In Australia, the sale of beauty products, regardless of where they were manufactured, is regulated by a set of statutory rules called the Trade Practices (Consumer Product Information Standards) (Cosmetics) Regulations 1991.
Subsection 5(1) of said Regulations states that all ingredients in a cosmetic product must be listed, either on the container or on the product itself, in descending order by volume or mass. Unfortunately there’s no requirement for disclosure of the exact quantities of each ingredient or the precise formulations. Even so, finally we have what appears to be a fairly reliable and consistent source of information. Don’t we?
Well, not quite. Following subsection (1) is a long list of exceptions to this rule. I would list them but I’m afraid you’ll fall asleep as you read them – I did.
There are, however, two points worth noting. The first concerns something called an ‘incidental ingredient’ which the Regulations define as ‘any ingredient or substance which has no technical or functional effect…and is present in insignificant levels’. Any ‘incidental ingredient’ need not appear on the ingredients list at all. Hmm.
The second is a confidentiality provision which essentially allows a company to list a secret formula as an ‘other ingredient’ if it successfully convinces the Minister that revealing the ingredients would give away a ‘trade secret’ and that the ingredients in question are ‘unlikely to be harmful to a consumer’. Even if we don’t need to know what the ingredients are for the sake of our safety, the lack of transparency prevents us from deciding for ourselves if a product’s ‘miracle formula’ is likely to live up to its promises.
What can we make of all this? Well, for a start, if a product claims to rely on an active element (say Vitamin C) which doesn’t appear until the middle or bottom of the ingredients list, it’s safe to say that the concentration isn’t substantial enough for it to have an effect on your skin. The same goes for products that advertise the inclusion of exotic ingredients like pearls, diamonds or mermaid scales. More often than not these ingredients are only present in miniscule amounts, which means they will appear right near the end of the list.
Misunderstanding or misinformation?
However imperfect it may be, the ingredients list is where the facts end and the fiction is free to begin.
Learning how to read a list of ingredients is the best chance you have of sifting through the waffle. Aside from the list, a company can say pretty much whatever it pleases. There’s no rule in advertising which demands that the truth be told. Vague promises and loose guarantees are all a part of the game. All’s fair in love and marketing.
Studies quoted in the advertising material or on the packaging need not be conducted in the same way as studies used to test the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals. For example, the study need not be impartial. It might be conducted by the same company that manufactures the product, using a sample size of, say, 10 women. If nine of them say they noticed an improvement after using the product (note there is no objective test for what ‘improvement’ means), this result can be manipulated and included in the marketing campaign.
So this hypothetical company can legally publish the following statement: ‘In a clinical study, 90 percent of the participants reported a significant improvement after just three weeks of using Fantabulous Anti-Ageing Serum’ (not a real product).
Other potentially misleading statements to watch out for include the following:
– Not tested on animals – most ingredients were tested on animals at some point in our past. Instead, look for words to the effect of ‘not currently tested on animals’ or ‘no further testing on animals’.
– Hypo allergenic – says who? There are no regulations to govern the use of this phrase, so if you have problem skin, ignore this enticement and seek professional advice before purchasing skincare products.
The good stuff
Providing you with an exhaustive list of good ingredients is impossible, but look for products including antioxidants, anti-irritants, ingredients which mimic the skin’s structure, cell-communicating ingredients, emollients, UV protection and delivery agents.
If your skin needs hydration, search for anything containing a decent amount of hyaluronic acid (the higher up the list, the better).
Lastly, a quick note on mineral oils and products derived from petrolatum or crude oil. Despite the fact that they’re hugely unfashionable these days, they are very good moisturising ingredients with an excellent safety record. For people with very dry skin, petrolatum moisturisers provide excellent barrier protection, helping to prevent further loss of moisture from dehydrated skin.
The necessary stuff
Ingredients burdened with nasty names are sometimes unfairly dismissed (consider poor old Diazolidinyl urea, a preservative which sounds more like a disease than a cosmetic ingredient). Look them up online and you’ll discover most are harmless substances functioning as thickeners, preservatives or texture enhancing agents. Others, including sodium laureth sulphate (found in many shower gels and shampoos) and parabens (found in almost everything) have been tainted by false rumours.
If you’re not sure about an ingredient, look it up online (www.paulaschoice.com is a good resource) or talk to a qualified skin specialist.
The nasty bits
I’d like to draw your attention to a few of the unnecessary ingredients added to enhance a product’s superficial appeal (the ‘Ooh, that smells lovely!’ factor). A lot of these ingredients do nothing more than add fragrance or colour to a product and are potentially irritating to the skin. They include synthetic dyes, fragrances (both natural and synthetic) and menthol, often added to create a tingling sensation which convinces consumers that the product is ‘working’.
Use-by date
No matter how desperate I am for my morning cup of coffee, if the use by date on the milk is up, I’m far too suspicious to risk drinking it.
The same should be applied to the use-by dates for cosmetics. Have a close look at your beauty products and you should be able to find a symbol which looks like a jar with its lid open accompanied by a number and the letter ‘M’. So, for example, if the symbol on your foundation bottle is followed by ‘12M’ then it has been estimated that your foundation will survive for 12 months from the date you break its seal.
All sunscreens in Australia need to have an expiry date on them, so be sure to check the expiration date and make sure it has at least a year to go before expiry.
This is only a guideline, as the shelf life of a product is influenced by many factors both within and beyond your control, including where you store it, how often you use it and the way in which you use it (dipping dirty fingers into the pot and leaving the lid off reduces the longevity of a product).
