Beauty products and toiletries are now a vastly growing market. With the increasing emptiness we feel in our souls, we resort more and more to advertised products that are ‘supposed’ to make us look better and thus, according the seller, feel better. But how true is this?
Scientific researches show that the more we concentrate on our outer look and material processions, the more depleted becomes our souls. So what these ‘look good, feel good’ motto is doing is draining our spiritual reserve. We work hard to support our life style habits, then go home drained and exhausted; sit on the sofa flipping through TV channels that tells us that we basically ‘aren’t good enough’, so we go out to buy more ‘stuff’, work more to afford them and go back to our sofa and TV channels to hear the same message over and over again: ‘you’re not good enough’. We always need so and so to make us look better, feel better, be more ‘cool’, accepted, loved… We thus throw ourselves into a vicious cycle that poses more stress on our nerves and more depletion of our souls.
There is nothing wrong with using cosmetics and toiletries to look better (provided they are safe enough for us as we will discuss in a moment), the problem lays in letting these material look control the way we perceive ourselves. The belief that this physical body is what we are all about and becoming obsessed with our appearance, makes us risk neglecting our true essence: the beauty of our souls.
Another important risk concerning cosmetics and toiletries is safety. Many beauty and personal health products are synthetic chemicals stuffed with pesticides, preservatives, plastics, artificial colors and odors. The National Institute of occupational safety found more than 2500 toxic chemicals in cosmetics that can produce skin rash, eye irritation, tumors, reproductive problems, and biological mutations in animals tests and therefore, possible in humans.
Cosmetic products and toiletries that we use do not just remain on our skins. Powders are absorbed through skin pores and oily solutions and emulsions and moisturizing products allow more skin absorption of any chemicals present in the formula. To make matters worse, many products contain penetration enhancers that actually increase their absorption. Even eye makeup could be absorbed through the mucus membrane covering the eyeballs. Fine particulates of sprays, perfumes, powders could be inhaled and lipsticks could be licked and swallowed.
The health hazards caused by these synthetic products are numerous. Many ingredients are potential carcinogens. For example, many medicated shampoos, anti-dandruff shampoos, bubble bath soaps, and even toothpastes contain possible carcinogen as formaldehyde, coal-tar, sodium lauryl sulfate, polyethylene glycol and/or various preservatives. Many ingredients trigger allergic reactions and sensitivity and have negative effect on our nervous system. Many ingredients in shampoo, hair dyes and other cosmetic products interfere with body hormones especially sexual hormones causing reproductive problems ranging from PMS and impotence to sterility and congenital deformation of fetuses.
What can you do about it?
· Use these products only when necessary and do not over do it. Ask yourself before buying it: Do I really ‘need’ this?
· Select natural products (organic if possible) as much as you can.
· Read the label. The basic rule is: the fewer ingredients they have, the better.
· If you are a bubble bath fan, use essential oils or fragrant herbs to fragrance your bath.
Suggested reference for this topic: What’s in this Stuff? By Pat Thomas.
Finally, always remember, your real beauty shine from deep within your soul.
Scientific researches show that the more we concentrate on our outer look and material processions, the more depleted becomes our souls. So what these ‘look good, feel good’ motto is doing is draining our spiritual reserve. We work hard to support our life style habits, then go home drained and exhausted; sit on the sofa flipping through TV channels that tells us that we basically ‘aren’t good enough’, so we go out to buy more ‘stuff’, work more to afford them and go back to our sofa and TV channels to hear the same message over and over again: ‘you’re not good enough’. We always need so and so to make us look better, feel better, be more ‘cool’, accepted, loved… We thus throw ourselves into a vicious cycle that poses more stress on our nerves and more depletion of our souls.
There is nothing wrong with using cosmetics and toiletries to look better (provided they are safe enough for us as we will discuss in a moment), the problem lays in letting these material look control the way we perceive ourselves. The belief that this physical body is what we are all about and becoming obsessed with our appearance, makes us risk neglecting our true essence: the beauty of our souls.
Another important risk concerning cosmetics and toiletries is safety. Many beauty and personal health products are synthetic chemicals stuffed with pesticides, preservatives, plastics, artificial colors and odors. The National Institute of occupational safety found more than 2500 toxic chemicals in cosmetics that can produce skin rash, eye irritation, tumors, reproductive problems, and biological mutations in animals tests and therefore, possible in humans.
Cosmetic products and toiletries that we use do not just remain on our skins. Powders are absorbed through skin pores and oily solutions and emulsions and moisturizing products allow more skin absorption of any chemicals present in the formula. To make matters worse, many products contain penetration enhancers that actually increase their absorption. Even eye makeup could be absorbed through the mucus membrane covering the eyeballs. Fine particulates of sprays, perfumes, powders could be inhaled and lipsticks could be licked and swallowed.
The health hazards caused by these synthetic products are numerous. Many ingredients are potential carcinogens. For example, many medicated shampoos, anti-dandruff shampoos, bubble bath soaps, and even toothpastes contain possible carcinogen as formaldehyde, coal-tar, sodium lauryl sulfate, polyethylene glycol and/or various preservatives. Many ingredients trigger allergic reactions and sensitivity and have negative effect on our nervous system. Many ingredients in shampoo, hair dyes and other cosmetic products interfere with body hormones especially sexual hormones causing reproductive problems ranging from PMS and impotence to sterility and congenital deformation of fetuses.
What can you do about it?
· Use these products only when necessary and do not over do it. Ask yourself before buying it: Do I really ‘need’ this?
· Select natural products (organic if possible) as much as you can.
· Read the label. The basic rule is: the fewer ingredients they have, the better.
· If you are a bubble bath fan, use essential oils or fragrant herbs to fragrance your bath.
Suggested reference for this topic: What’s in this Stuff? By Pat Thomas.
Finally, always remember, your real beauty shine from deep within your soul.
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