Avoid Facial Scrubs with these Dangerous Ingredients

Let us have a serious talk about the face. Everyone has their own skin care regimen or to say the very least I really hope so.

The very common skin care routine includes cleansing, exfoliation, toning and moisturising.

These steps in skin care routine are all vital and each on its own has specific benefits to the skin. But among all of these steps included in caring for the skin, exfoliation is ignored the most.

Exfoliation gets rid of dead skin cells. It gives life to dull-looking skin. After exfoliating, you’d notice that your once dull skin looks vibrant and glowing with a healthy radiance.

You wouldn’t need further convincing to use a facial scrub and exfoliate after learning about the benefit of exfoliating. But before you actually grab a facial scrub that lures you in with a promise of vibrant and youthful skin, check out its label.

The facial scrub you grabbed hurriedly may just have ingredients that would do harm not just to your skin but to our dear old battered planet too.

Harmful Ingredients in Facial Scrubs

Get to know some of the dangerous ingredients found in facial scrubs.

• Salicylic Acid
  This ingredient is very common in facial scrubs. Salicyclic acid is meant to combat acne and is also used as an exfoliant.
  
  Don’t think that this ingredient is safe since it is commonly found in facial scrubs and other skin care products. It has actually numerous dangerous effects on the body.
  
  Salicylic acid may actually have dangerous effects on the brain, nervous and reproductive systems. This is according to cosmeticsdatabase.com.
  
  It also can irritate the skin and allow other toxic chemicals to seep through deeper into the skin.
  
  Canadian and Japanese cosmetics have actually banned the use of salycilic acid because of its dangerous effects.
  
• Color Pigments (F, D and C)
  You may think that the color blue, pink or peach colour of a facial scrub makes it more attractive but did you ever think how such colour was achieved by the scrub?
  
  Often times those blue, pink and peach colours came about thanks to synthetic colours that are usually from petroleum or coal tar.
  
  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been continuously doing test experiments on the effects of coal tar on laboratory animals and tests results are grim.
  
  The experiments showed that these colour pigments can cause cancer to animals.
  
  Numerous studies have also shown that heavy metal salts are found in these colour pigments. These heavy metal salts actually deposit toxins deep in the skin resulting to irritation and skin sensitivity.
  
• Polyethylene
  Polyethylene is an ingredient that must be avoided since it harms our health and the health of our environment.
  
  Ever seen an advertisement for facial scrub boast about having microbeads that do a great job in exfoliating?
  
  Many have probably used such scrub and have been happy with these microbeads thinking all along that they’re doing their skin a big favour.
  
  This is where many are mistaken. Microbeads are usually made of plastic having polyethylene.
  
  Polyethylene is harmful to the environment and is believed to be a human carcinogen.