“5 toxic cosmetic ingredients to avoid if you are pregnant.”

Probably most of you who are pregnant starts to feel the same as I do. It's not bad to have this kind of motivation to re-organize a healthier environment for yourself and your family, right?

These days, I have been looking into some of my makeup items with my dermatologist friend to see if I could keep using them during my pregnant months OR whether I should abandon them. Here is a list of ingredients that I have made to avoid using. If any of you are also experiencing pregnancy now, it's worth checking out.

1. Vitamin A / Retinol

Vitamin A is an essential factor for the body and, in general, is not harmful to your body. However, one should make sure that you NEVER overuse it because it has a risk of having your baby malformed inside your womb (fetal malformation) and is also widely used in cosmetics and foundations with anti-aging claims.

Vitamin A applied in cosmetics is labeled as RETINOL, RETINAL, or TRETINOIN, so you can quickly check by scanning through the ingredient list of your products. On the other hand, TOCOPHERYL RETINOATE, produced from retinoic acid and vitamin E, is a safe type of vitamin A derivative that does not lead to malformation of your baby, so you can keep using this even during your pregnancy. 

2. PFAS

Out of over 200 make-up products, 52% of the make-up products (such as concealers, foundations, eye make-up, and lip make-up) sold and used in the US and Canada contained a high concentration of PFAS. It is reported to be cancerous and significantly affects the health of the newborn baby during pregnancy leading to problems such as:

1. Low birth weight and
2. Collapse of the immune system (immunotoxicity) of our coming babies.

3. DEA

DEA is used as surfactants in washing detergents, shampoo, hair conditioners. It is also used as a pH controller/emulsion in cosmetics like mascara.

In California, DEA (Diethanolamine) is classified as risking carcinogenesis. Science reports also claim that it may trigger the malformation of your baby while inside your womb (fetal malformation).

4. BHT / TOLUENE

BHT or Toluene is contained in nail colors and removers. The ingredient is said to cause the baby’s developmental delay and distraction, especially to their brains during your pregnancy. Be careful of ingredients with "TOLUENE" in their names, such as BHT or BUTYLATED HYDROXYTOLUENE.

5. PARABEN

Parabens are used as preservatives in cosmetics and make-up products.

In many products, other safer preservative ingredients like Phenoxyethanol had replaced Paraben due to its toxicity. However, as Parabens are still not restricted in cosmetic use, one should be very careful if your product contains them- especially if you are pregnant.

A large volume of Paraben absorbed into the body and taking over a part of the female hormones' distribution may inhibit the baby's growth inside the womb.

Protect your baby from danger

After knowing all such terrible facts, I ended up throwing away about 1/3 of my make-up products and am now still watching out HOW I should spend the rest of my pregnancy with some attention to safety.

As with make-ups, although I started to reduce the frequency and amount of use every week, it turned out to be not so easy to completely restrict myself from it – unless I could be brave enough to show up in meetings with no make-ups suddenly!

While struggling with this dilemma for a while, I recollected a useful product from the dermatology-based skincare brand I have interviewed before.

Geologist Herbal Claypack is a unique clay pack that applies a clay called montmorillonite, made from the volcanoes 65 million years ago that generates a nano-molecular shield of clay minerals. This clay's unique property enables the product's use in the daytime with your make-ups protecting you from their toxics.

It generates a "veil" like layer, protecting the skin from contaminations of the make-ups and also providing an intense moisturizing effect even while you have your make-ups on.

The product has 3 important functions:

1. Contamination Shielding
2. Toxics Removal
3. Intense Moisturizing

The product is also made with dermatologically effective botanical ingredients such as Yuzu Ceramides and Snow Fungus Extract. It also minimizes the use of chemicals by processing the ingredients with an original fabrication method of infusing, chilling, and filtering (which is also the origin of the brand name) using natural fresh spring water collected from the fresh creeks.

If you're pregnant or have any concern about your make-up toxics getting in contact with your skin, this kind of natural protection approach is one of my best-recommended methods. After all, I am managing to have some light make-ups with this product when I go out, keeping my raw skin protected from any unexpected harmful ingredients. 

Safety-proven with zero-irritation through dermatological testing, it's also suitable for both kinds of people who initially have or are now experiencing sensitive skin due to pregnancy. 

Here's the link: