Are plastics and petrochemical products bad for the environment?

plastic eco beauty

More beauty brands are talking about sustainability, but there’s a lot of greenwashing. In the last installment we talked about the impact of producing natural ingredients and after they go into the environment, as well as organic versus conventional farming. In this part, Jen of The Eco Well and I are breaking down myths about synthetic ingredients made from petroleum …

Read more

Natural ingredients aren’t actually better for the environment

natural eco beauty

Beauty brands are talking a lot more about sustainability and the environment, and it makes sense. Climate change is a huge problem, and most of us don’t want to make things worse. But beauty marketing is full of false promises and meaningless buzzwords. What’s actually better for the environment, and what’s just feelgood fluff? Well… a lot of it is …

Read more

Sunscreen absorption and receptor binding: Debunking TikTok Misinformation

tiktok misinfo hormone

There’s tons of misinformation on the dangers of sunscreen on social media, and it seems like all of the myths make the rounds each time a new platform emerges. Currently the trending platform is TikTok. Even though sunscreen safety is a topic I’ve covered many times, it repeatedly comes up in many different flavours. I’ll break down the misinformation in …

Read more

Parabens, Fragrance, Colorants, Talc: Debunking Bobby Parrish’s TikTok misinformation

tiktok misinformation flavcity

Bobby Parrish, a home cook and food influencer who goes by the name FlavCity, has made a number of viral TikTok videos recently about dangerous personal care ingredients. As you might expect, there’s quite a lot of misinformation in them.  I debunked a couple of them in a recent YouTube video, along with some other TikTok videos – you can …

Read more

Propylparaben in CeraVe: Debunking TikTok misinformation

Tiktok misinformation thumbnail propylparaben

There’s been a recent viral TikTok video from Santa Cruz Medicinals, a CBD brand that sells skincare. In it, their founder claims CeraVe is “trash” because it contains propylparaben.  Here’s what he says in the video: “Do you use this? This contains propylparaben. Propylparaben is an estrogen-like compound that is under the class of what we call parabens. Women who …

Read more

US Sunscreens Aren’t Safe in the EU? The Science

US Sunscreens Aren’t Safe in the EU?

There’s been a lot of fearmongering about chemical sunscreens. There were scary-sounding new stories – sunscreen absorbing into blood, killing coral reefs, zinc oxide being toxic, benzene in sunscreens… Related Post: Top 7 Sunscreen and SPF Myths I’ve covered most of these before, and they’re largely just the media taking things out of context and sensationalising them, partly for views, …

Read more

You don’t need to freak out about benzene in dry shampoo

dry shampoo

There’s been another beauty product recall because of benzene. This time it’s dry shampoos produced by Unilever, including products from; Dove TRESemmé TIGI  Suave I’ve talked about benzene contamination in products before, specifically sunscreen. It’s a very similar situation this time. The key points: Benzene is not intentionally added to products. Rather, it’s a trace contaminant that’s accidentally found its …

Read more

Nail Polish, Miscarriages, Cancer? Not So Pretty Episode 2

Not So Pretty 2 cover

Not So Pretty is a HBO documentary series about supposedly dangerous beauty products. It’s a very persuasive, slick-looking documentary. A lot of people chucked out their products after watching it, and as someone who breaks open bottles to use the last three drops at the bottom, this cut me deep. As a scientist who uses a lot of beauty products …

Read more