Could your mineral makeup, lip gloss, sunscreen and wrinkle cream be killing you? Dr. Oz thinks so. As someone who converted to mineral makeup in large part for its natural benefits (built-in sunscreen, it’s from the earth, so clean you can sleep in it), I’ve wondered on more than one occasion if all that loose powder swirling around my head and up my sniffer could be getting into my lungs. So when I tuned in to The Dr. Oz Show on Dangerous Beauty, my ears perked up. His expert guest (another doctor) said that miners and construction workers have health problems that don’t show up until 10-20 years after they’ve been working around minerals/dirt and that mineral dust used to make mineral makep is 10 times smaller than it was a decade ago, leading to particles small enough to be inhaled into the lungs (scary!). Over time, this could lead to scarring, inflammation and lung disease in women. Note to self: Mineral makeup is bad for you; find a new foundation (or, maybe that’s worse?).

Apparently mineral makeup isn’t that only beauty product we need to be worried about. Your beloved lip gloss? It likely contains petroleum jelly (now being studied for its link to cancer), which gives you that nice shiny finish, but also is the equivalent of ingesting gasoline (according to Dr. Oz). Alarmist or not? He said over a decade, the average lip gloss-wearing woman ingests seven pounds of petroleum jelly (see video above – eew). That’s a lot of jelly, folks. He did say, however, that it was okay to put on the skin.

However, many wrinkle creams are not. Confused? Me too. Most wrinkle creams do more harm than good, actually causing skim inflammation that breaks down collagen, leading to more wrinkles and making you look older faster. Apparently the ingredients in most wrinkle creams can penetrate through the skin to the blood stream and that’s not good for your wrinkles or your health. He also says that natural ingredients are not necessarily good for you either, citing lavender, cinnamon and eucalyptus as irritants.

Mineral Makeup, Sucscreen, Lip Gloss, Wrinkle Cream Killing Us?

Beauty Is a Bitch

Check out Dr. Oz’s  Beauty Cheat Sheet for alternative recommendations.

On the lip gloss front, he recommends beeswax, zinc oxide and wearing sunscreen with your lip gloss. For wrinkle cream, make it fragrance-free and color-free and look for products that contain Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Alpha Hydroxy Acid. With the recent controversy over sunscreen, am I the only one who finds this advice a little confusing? Vitamin A and Alpha Hydroxy are no good in the sun, so I suppose we should be sure to only use those products at night? If anyone knows, please weigh in below in the comments. Instead of mineral powder, he recommends liquid foundation, cream blush or bronzer and pressed powder as alternatives — and that you open a window when applying it. Eeesh.

Via Facebook, I found out that my beloved Suave shampoo and conditioner are highly toxic and apparently so is ChapStick, my beauty staple for the past 20 years. What next, Oil of Olay? Basis? Even more alarming, according to Natural Skincare Authority, 99% of skin care and cosmetic products on the market have never been evaluated for safety by the FDA or any other publicly accountable institution. And, 74% of personal care products on the market contain carcinogens (cancer-causing agents), teratogens (cause of birth defects), reproductive toxins, allergens and mutagens. And 57% of skin care products contain “penetration enhancer” chemicals that drive down deep through your skin and illegally hijack your bloodstream (I guess this is what Dr. Oz was referring to regarding wrinkle cream).

What do you think? Oh dear gawd or purely alarmist? All this anxiety is causing me wrinkles, so I need some answers, stat. At the very least, I’ll be covering up with a cute sunhat (that should be safe, right?).

[Photo via Modern Mechanix; More beauty products to be aware of here.]

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