California Lays Down the Law and Bans 24 Hazardous Ingredients found in Cosmetics

The beauty and personal care industry may be a tad bit shook after the state of California laid their bricks and made them straight about harmful substances in cosmetics! California is the leading state in regulations of safe and harmful ingredients in products.

Governor Gavin Newsome announced that the Golden state would be banning these 24 toxic ingredients from personal care products and cosmetics, beginning in January of 2021. it is called the "toxic free cosmetics act." The list of banned ingredients are as follows:

1.) Dibutyl phthalate

2.) Diethylhexyl phthalate

3.) Formaldehyde

4.) Paraformaldehyde

5.) Methylene glycol

6.) Q-15 or Quaternium-15

7.) Mercury

8.) Isobutylparaben

9.) Isopropylparaben

10.) o-Phenylenediamine and its salts

11.) m-Phenylenediamine and its salts

12.) 13 various types of PFAS (Per and Poly fluoroalkyl substances)

What does this mean for the Cosmetic Industry?

Though California is the only state who is making sweeping changes in banning what it deems to be harmful, the decision is particularly groundbreaking because products are not manufactured on a state by state basis. For instance, commercialized companies such as L’oreal or Nars ship their products everywhere in the USA. Will companies whose products contain these harmful ingredients refuse shipments to California? No! They will be obligated to redo and revamp their product formulations to ensure that products do not contain the ingredients. If they do not, they run the risk of becoming non-compliant with this newly passed law in the state of California. So even though you may not live in California, this law still has an impact those living in other states.

The European Union is light years ahead of the USA when it comes to personal care, cosmetic and food ingredient regulations. These products (and a whole lot more) are already banned in Europe. Europe has governing organizations that are very strict with ingredient regulations and bans. The governing organization who is responsible in the USofA is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Unfortunately, the FDA hardly does regulations on personal care products and cosmetics. The FDA made a general statement about regulations of cosmetics.

"Under U.S. law, FDA does not have the authority to require cosmetic manufacturers to submit their safety data to FDA, and the burden is on FDA to prove that a particular product or ingredient is harmful when used as intended."

This is the primary reason why they are lax concerning cosmetics and product regulations. To date, there are only 11 ingredients that are banned by the FDA.

Several bills have made it to Congress over the years regarding the banning of numerous harmful ingredients but practically none have been passed. There have been calls by environmentally focused groups and individuals demanding for the FDA to start producing more regulations within the industry. IT is a victorious moment for these individuals and groups with the passing of the toxin free Cosmetics Act. The law is a step in the right direction towards cleaner beauty and personal care items in the USA. This is just the beginning.

Where can these ingredients normally be found?

These ingredients can be in items like synthetic fragrances, shampoos, deodorants, lotions, makeup, hair conditioners, skin lighteners. Basically anythings that can be considered a personal care item can potentially have these ingredients. PFAS’s are normally found in food packaging, drinking water, soil, cookware, electronics, household products (paints, waxes, etc). Though the state of California has banned 24 specific ingredients from personal care products and cosmetics, these aren't the only ones you should be wary of. When you purchase the "Detox My Life" consult, you will learn of many more harmful and toxic ingredients that you should be staying away from as well as the art of reading a product label. you won't even need to know how to pronounce these ingredients (which are often a mouthful). you will also learn how to stay away from these types of ingredients in A simple and effective manner..

It's truly an amazing time in history for the beauty industry and we can only hope that one day the USA will become as strict as Europe in food, environmental and product regulations.