Last year I posted an article about detoxing your kitchen from xenoestrogens and how we can work to minimise anything that contains xenoestrogens or phalates out of our kitchens and out of our bodies! While it’s always good to be mindful of any chemical that can enter our bodies through the food that we eat and the water that we drink. It also pays to be mindful of anything that we are putting on to our skin that may get absorbed straight into our bloodstream! This is not about perfection it is simply about being more aware so that we can slowly take steps to reduce our overall toxic load on our bodies. I hope you find this post useful! -B xx

What Are Xenoestrogens?

Xenoestrogens are chemical compounds that are man-made and get absorbed into our bodies. These compounds can mimic naturally occurring oestrogen (or estrogen if you live in America). Unfortunately, our bodies are not too good at determining the difference between the natural hormones that our bodies produce and the man-made hormones that enter our bodies through the air that we breathe, the food that we eat, the water that we drink and the products that we are putting on our body.

Xenoestrogens are also known as endocrine disrupters because they change how our hormones naturally function in our bodies. They can block or bind to hormone receptor sites and eventually might impact organs like the uterus and breasts causing differences in how the hormones would naturally function. Unfortunately, xenoestrogens also have strong links with breast cancer.

Around 80% of all breast cancer is ER-positive which means that it grows in response to the hormone oestrogen (and around 65% of these are also PR-positive which means that they grow in response to the hormone progesterone). Xenoestrogens have links with the development and growth of breast cancer. Women are particularly susceptible to the hormonal effects of man-made oestrogen because our bodies have higher levels of fat and any excess oestrogen is stored in fat cells.

Why Should We Avoid Xenoestrogens In Our Beauty Products?

The chemicals that are absorbed through our skin can be potentially far more damaging than the chemicals that we consume through our digestive tract because our digestive tract is designed to remove the toxins from the food we eat and naturally detoxify them from our bodies through our liver (although our liver can get heavily overburdened in the process!).

Hormones can very effectively get absorbed into our body through our skin and make their way into our tissues. (That’s why the hormone patch method of birth control is highly effective. If you get a gastric bug or have food poisoning your whole month of birth control via. pill form becomes ineffective). The hormones that are placed on our skin can also be up to ten times more potent!

Along with absorbing endocrine disrupting chemicals through our skin we also can ingest anything we put on to our lips and inhale any product that gets sprayed onto our body. Perfume can get inhaled straight into the lungs and absorbed into the blood which is then pumped by our heart throughout our bodies.

The average woman uses a MINIMUM of 11 different beauty products on her body (including perhaps her skin, hair, nails, lips etc. it all adds up!) each and every single day. That’s upwards of 80 – 126 different types of ingredients daily just from beauty products alone!

The EU has banned hundreds of ingredients (upwards of 1300 toxic/potentially toxic ingredients) for use in personal care products whereas the FDA has banned only 11. A lot of the laws surrounding what can be added to beauty products are years old (at least 30 years!) since these laws have come into effect a huge amount of research has been done on the potential toxic effects of many chemicals but regulation has been very slow to change.

There are apparently over 70,000 registered chemicals in existence that along with potentially being toxic and carcinogenic can also have a hormonal effect on our bodies.

5 Common Chemicals That May Be Lurking In Your Bathroom!

1. CHLORINE:
Chlorine can be absorbed through the skin when we shower or bathe. You can purchase a special filter shower head or reduce the heat of your shower slowly over time or try and spend part of your shower in cold water as less chemical vapour is released (hard I know!). You can pop special products like this bath ball in your bath to help absorb chlorine before you hop in. Tap water also contains xenoestrogens along with agricultural and pharmaceutical pollutants.

2. PHALATES:
Phalates are present in those super bendy plastics (we talked about them here) and they are also present in nail polish, nail polish removers and hairspray. Some non-toxic nail polish brands are Zoya, SpaRitual and Ella + Mila. Phalates don’t act exactly like oestrogen in the body but they are known endocrine disruptors.

3. PARABENS:
Parabens are used in many products to help preserve them (search for these names in the ingredients: methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, and butylparaben are some common parabens found in beauty products). Natural skincare brands will preserve their product with minerals or grapefruit seed extract. Parabens are commonly found in moisturiser, cleansers, soap, shampoo, hair care, deodorant and many cosmetics. Parabens are also what has strong links with breast cancer due to their oestrogen-like properties. They are also absorbed through our skin and impact our bodies much like a weaker form of oestrogen.

4. FRAGRANCE:
Avoid all synthetic fragrances or at the very least don’t spray them onto your skin. You can spray a bit on to your clothes or sometimes I will spray the air and walk into it so that you are still getting the effect but it will be much less toxic. Perfume often contains phalates and petrochemicals. There are companies now making beautiful perfumes with plant oils. Search them out! Many skincare products also contain synthetic fragrance so always check your labels.

5. BENZOPHENONE:
This is a particularly nasty sunscreen ingredient which is best avoided. Sunscreen can also contain a range of other chemicals that can have estrogen-like effects on our bodies so it is best to find a good natural zinc-based sunblock. Invisible Zinc is the brand that our whole family uses. I also love this coconut oil-based face sunblock from Eco Tan (it is also tinted so perfect for summer or after a swim at the beach and you can also switch this out for conventional foundation!). Coconut oil also has small amounts of natural sun protection properties so slather up every morning!

There are many more ingredients that are potentially toxic and can be potentially carcinogenic. Work to purchase beauty products that have an emphasis on using natural plant-based ingredients and are scented with natural oils rather than synthetic substances. There are lots of wonderful brands now creating beautiful natural products!

Mascara is particularly toxic so if you are going to replace just one makeup item today that would be the first thing I would try and swap out. Conventional eye makeup remover also contains a bunch of awful toxins so an easy switch is to grab a bottle of organic almond oil from your local health food shop and use that with a cotton pad to remove any eye makeup instead!

I feel like I have only just scratched the surface but after doing this research I am really inspired to make more of my own products and hopefully share some tips on here as well! Lastly, I just want to say that true beauty and vitality comes from within. Cosmetic companies feed off of women’s insecurities to sell us a bunch of stuff we don’t really need.

Taking care of yourself, getting rest and relaxation, nourishing your body with lots of green and colourful plant-based foods, being kind to your skin and hair with some beautiful natural oils, taking care of your mind with stimulation, love and laughter is going to have much more of an impact than an expensive foundation ever will!

Please let us know how you get on with checking your own products in the comments ♥

Links:

Are Your Skincare Products Causing a Hormone Imbalance? from The Spa Dr
This site also has a comprehensive list of common harmful ingredients found in skincare products.

Why is Estrogen in my Face Cream? from Truth In Aging

5 Page informative PDF with tips to avoid Xenoestrogens (Chemical Estrogens) from Balanced Concepts.Net

Exposure to Chemicals in Cosmetics from Breast Cancer.Org

Please visit the EWG Skin Deep site to check any ingredients in your cosmetics that you are unsure about.