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The Truth Behind Those 'Sensitive Skin' Product Labels

  • March 26, 2017

When it comes to skin creams, the mantra of “read the label” may not be enough to give you the information you need to determine whether the product in question is something you want to try. That’s because, whether the label says “sensitive skin” or “hypoallergenic” or some other innocuous term like “natural,” none of those terms is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Therefore, as reported by Today, a product labeled as safe for sensitive skin could be just as skin-irritating or allergy-causing as anything else on the shelf.

The average U.S. woman uses 12 personal care products a day, containing 168 different chemicals out of about 13,000 chemicals that cosmetic companies use — and only about 10 percent of these have ever been evaluated for safety. Further, cosmetics can come on the market without any type of approval necessary, as history has shown that only after a product is deemed to be harmful, adulterated or misbranded can the FDA take regulatory action.

Adding insult to injury, the FDA tasks the companies that manufacture and market cosmetics with ensuring their safety. Not only does this pose an obvious conflict of interest, but neither the law nor FDA regulations require specific tests to demonstrate the safety of individual products or ingredients.

One way of slashing your exposure to these chemicals is to simply stop using them, or at the least, look for personal care products that bear the “USDA 100% Organic” seal. Additionally, a slew of lotions and treatments can be eliminated with a jar of coconut oil, to which you can add a high-quality essential oil for scent.