Summary

• Many skin care products contain chemicals that may be harmful or that are not tested for human safety
• Any product with a fragrance will have some potential danger.
• Not all harmful effects of the chemicals in skin care products are immediate; some take years of exposure to present themselves.
• Not all products that claim to be "natural" really are; check the ingredient list for harmful chemicals.
• When going shopping, bring the Shopper's Guide to Safe Cosmetics to help determine the safety of certain products.
• There is no single brand for which all products of that brand are dangerous, although many of the bigger companies have harmful ingredients in at least some of their products.
• Before using and or buying any product, check its safety on Skin Deep.
• Skin Deep is a cosmetic safety database in which a consumer can search the product by company, name, or ingredient to learn which of the product's ingredients are hazardardous and the overall hazard rating of the product.
• Next to the searched product will be a green, yellow, or red dot.
• Green means that the product has low to no hazard; go ahead and use it.
• Yellow means there is some potential risk of harm; use with caution.
• Red means there are definite dangers from using the product and one should avoid this product.