Invest In Your Skin, Invest In Your Health
When we invest in skincare, we often think only of the cosmetic benefit: glowing, smooth skin that exudes confidence. But the benefits of investing in skincare that provides the building blocks your body needs to grow and repair extend far beyond esthetics. Improving your skin health improves your overall health. If you’re chronically inflamed and have dry, sensitive skin, improving your skin health can relieve your chronic inflammation and make you feel better. It’s a different approach to skin care, skincare that’s health care.
The skincare industry teaches you to find fault with your looks and fight your biology. It sells products formulated to keep you hooked and coming back for more.
The line between cosmetics and drugs is blurred, defined by a manufacturer’s intent of how their product will be used, rather than its effects on your body. And, unlike drugs, the FDA isn’t legally responsible for making sure your cosmetics are safe. Cosmetic manufacturers are solely legally responsible for ensuring the safety of the products they sell. And, unlike drugs, anyone can put anything in a jar and legally sell it as a cosmetic, and they frequently do.
Only if enough people are injured by a cosmetic and report it to the FDA does the FDA then take slow and ineffective action. All the FDA does is send a letter to the manufacturer merely notifying them of the situation and asking them to please remedy it. Meanwhile, the harmful product can still legally be sold while the FDA conducts its investigations to determine the validity of the consumers’ reports, adding insult to injury. Moreover, even after reporting them to the FDA and spending the time, money, and energy to sue the manufacturer, victims of cosmetic injuries often go uncompensated.
As a consumer of cosmetics, the odds are stacked against you, which is why it’s important to know what you’re putting on your skin. Johnson & Johnson’s talc Baby Powder and the harm it has caused tens of thousands of people is a case study in the consequences when we don’t recognize and treat skin care as health care. For 60 years J&J intentionally misled consumers by marketing their talc Baby Powder as a safe, gentle skincare product for babies and adults to use, even though they knew it was contaminated with asbestos, a known cancer-causing agent, and that they were being investigated by the FDA. When sales of Baby Powder dropped over concerns about the dangers of talc for babies, J&J pivoted and target marketed their Baby Powder to women, specifically young women, minority women, and overweight women.
Because of J&J's false advertising, thousands of people (mostly women) regularly used J&J’s Baby Powder on their babies and themselves. Decades later many of these consumers developed mesothelioma and ovarian cancer. Since 1999 more than 53,000 people have filed lawsuits against J&J claiming that J&J’s Baby Powder was contaminated with asbestos and caused their cancers. Proving that J&J’s Baby Powder caused their cancers, the burden of proof, was on the injured plaintiffs, again adding insult to injury. It took 25 years of duking it out in the courts for J&J to finally reach a tentative $8.9 billion settlement. Many of the plaintiffs have since passed away from their cancers. For the ones who are still alive, they have yet to see justice. J&J is abusing bankruptcy court to try to avoid paying the victims, putting profits over people. Meanwhile J&J’s website proclaims, “We are committed to redefining healthcare: connecting the best of Health&Care for every provider, for every patient, for everyone. Imagine all the amazing things those two simple words can do.” This is not health care, or skin care, but a perfect example of beauty industry lies.
The dangers of talc in cosmetics are not limited to J&J. Talc is used in many other cosmetic products, such as dry shampoo, loose powder, blush, and eye shadow. It’s used to absorb moisture, to prevent caking, to achieve a matte or opaque texture, and to improve the feel of a product. There’s nothing stopping any other cosmetics manufacturer from making and selling asbestos-contaminated talc products. As I reported in my November 10, 2024 article, “Diet, Skincare, Health, & HIDDEN”, there’ve been recalls of other brands of talcum powder products contaminated with asbestos.
Given that the FDA is only just now proposing a new rule to require testing of all talc-containing cosmetics, the dangers of talc in cosmetics are still very real; proceed with caution when applying any talc-based cosmetics. Avoid inhaling or getting anything containing talc near your genitals. If you have lung issues, avoid any talc-based product. (If you don’t know how to tell if your cosmetics contain talc, read “How To Read An Ingredient List And Why It Matters”.) Most importantly, talc is a naturally-derived mineral, so don’t be fooled by brands that market their talc-containing cosmetics as natural. A lot of things that are natural, for example, arsenic, strychnine, mercury, and nicotine, can kill you. Natural does not mean safe. It merely means it exists somewhere in nature.
Even ingredients that sound like they’re nutrients and might be good for you, such as vitamin A, may not be safe when modified for use in cosmetics, as has been documented in the scientific literature. Synthetically modified forms of vitamin A called retinoids are used in anti-aging skincare products, and, at higher concentrations, prescribed as drugs to treat acne. The effects of retinoids can be systemic; they can affect your entire body. Isotretinoin is a retinoid that's been shown to cause dry eye symptoms, blepharitis, and meibomian gland dysfunction.
If you use anti-aging cosmetics, especially around your eyes, your chances of developing meibomian gland dysfunction and dry eyes are high. If you already have meibomian gland dysfunction and dry eyes, like almost everyone with Sjogren’s (SHOW-grins) Disease, using anti-aging cosmetics may exacerbate your symptoms, making you feel worse, instead of better.
So, buck the beauty “ideal” of looking young and flawless, it’s toxic, and it’s a lie. Take a different approach to skin care. Feed your skin from the outside in; give it the appropriate building blocks it needs to grow and repair. Invest in your skin, invest in your health. After all, skin care is health care.
A version of this blog post is published in my local newspaper, The Davis Enterprise.