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Cosmetics are part of everyday life. We use shampoo, soap, makeup, lip balm, and cream, all in the hope of doing something good for our bodies. But that hope can be misplaced — some ingredients commonly found in skincare products are considered harmful and worth avoiding. Consider this your map through the ingredient jungle.
By: Nancy Wegner
EDTA
EDTA stands for ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid — a mouthful that hides what’s known as a chemical chelating agent, meaning it bonds readily with other substances. You’ll find it most often in shampoo, where it’s responsible for that satisfying lather, as well as in body lotion and sunscreen, where it helps bind ingredients together. This binding ability is exactly why EDTA is so valuable to the cosmetics industry — it links substances that would never naturally combine on their own. It even turns up in ready-made sauces, where it helps water and oil bind together in reduced-fat margarine, and in canned goods, where it traps metal ions so your ravioli doesn’t taste like the tin it came in. But that same property is also where the danger lies: EDTA readily latches onto harmful substances too, and via lotions, shampoos, and the like, it can carry them straight into the skin.
It’s not great for the environment either. EDTA doesn’t break down, and it’s already turning up in drinking water and groundwater. In nature, it binds to pollutants like heavy metals, allowing them to enter the food chain and accumulate in both plants and animals.
Parabens
Parabens are another ingredient worth steering clear of. They’re a type of preservative used to extend a product’s shelf life, working as an antibacterial agent to keep pathogens out of the formula. They carry a low allergy risk and are gentle on skin, which is precisely why the cosmetics industry has relied on them for decades. The catch is that the long-term effects of parabens on the human body still aren’t fully understood — the compound closely resembles the female hormone estrogen, raising the possibility that it could disrupt the hormone system over time. Studies so far haven’t confirmed that these chemicals cause cancer, but they remain under close scrutiny nonetheless. As a result, only a handful of parabens — methyl-, butyl-, propyl-, and ethylparaben — are still permitted for use.
For a quick way to check whether a product contains parabens, try the app or website Toxfox, run by Germany’s Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND). Simply enter the barcode number and it will tell you instantly whether the product contains hormone-disrupting chemicals.
Microplastics
Microplastics are barely visible plastic particles smaller than 5mm, commonly found in scrubs and shower gel — though they also show up in plenty of other cosmetic products, where they serve as fillers or binding agents. These tiny particles wash down the drain into treatment plants, but their size makes them nearly impossible to filter out. Most of them end up in rivers and oceans, where marine life absorbs them. Seals, fish, and mussels are already turning up with microplastics in their bodies. What makes this especially dangerous is that the particles act like magnets, attracting other pollutants and making the animals that ingest them sick. That puts us at risk too, further up the food chain, whenever we eat fish.
Germany’s Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) publishes a shopping guide listing products that contain microplastics and are worth avoiding at checkout.
And the team behind “Beat the Microbead” ranks products from countries around the world by how much microplastic they contain.
Mineral Oil
Mineral oils, derived from crude oil, are another ingredient worth watching for. The crude oil is refined until only assorted hydrocarbons remain, producing a clear, transparent oil. For the cosmetics industry, mineral oil is close to perfect — it’s easy to work with and essentially lasts forever. Plant-based oils, by contrast, often struggle with shelf life, spoiling quickly without extra stabilizers. Mineral oil also rarely triggers allergic reactions and is cheap to produce, which suits manufacturers just fine. Because it’s derived from crude oil and foreign to the body, it only penetrates the uppermost layers of skin, forming a film on the surface that locks in moisture and leaves skin feeling smooth.
But that’s exactly where the problem lies — the skin can no longer breathe properly underneath that film, and its ability to regenerate suffers. So skincare products like lip balms that rely on mineral oil only ever offer temporary relief from dry skin. Worse, mineral oil often contains aromatic hydrocarbons that are harmful and even carcinogenic. That’s particularly concerning in lip products, since you end up swallowing whatever’s on your lips, sending those compounds straight into the body. Natural cosmetics made from plant oils remain the better alternative here too. If you see “Mineral Oil,” “Vaseline,” “Petrolatum,” or “Paraffinum Liquidum” listed on a label, that’s mineral oil — steer clear.
The Bottom Line
To make sure you’re buying cosmetics free of harmful substances, websites and apps like Codecheck or ToxFox are a genuine help. Switching to natural cosmetics is another smart move — those products are typically certified by eco-labels like BDIH, NaTrue, or EcoCert, which guarantee that natural ingredients are actually inside.
