Only a handful of years ago, I was just as blind as most. Blind to a problem intentionally hidden from us, yet with serious consequences. A problem that we unknowingly buy into, contributing to vast destruction on scales that are incomprehensible. It’s a problem that every supermarket in the country contributes to, be it knowingly or not. It’s yet another hand being played by big corporations to make us think that we need their products to live our lives. In fact, it’s a problem caused largely by a handful of key players in the industry.

What I’m referring to here is the toxic - both literally and metaphorically - industry of cosmetic and household cleaning products. Or, perhaps more generally, the vast proportion of anything that’s sold to us in a bottle with the promise of leaving something - either our bodies or our environment - cleaner. For who wouldn’t want to be cleaner?

Sitting on the sofa this evening, I caught a glimpse of the back of one of the magazines on the pouffe. Lined along the back were a collection of cleaning products that promised to keep your caravan clean. Again, who wouldn’t want a clean caravan, after all? Different shaped bottles in different colours, like a rainbow, catch the eye of the reader. Great marketing, some would say. I’d agree. Great marketing for yet another set of products whose externalised costs are ignorantly glossed over in the pursuit of profit. For products that supposedly make our lives better, but in fact cause great harm.

The use of cosmetic products and household cleaning items with every chemical under the sun in them has been something that has concerned me for a good number of years now. Having reached a tipping point regarding my patience and tolerance for the toxic aisles of bright coloured bottles in every modern day supermarket, I decided that I’d write about a topic that I believe many of us choose to ignore, or know little about, the dark, hidden truth.

Asking the question

To start, I’d like to wind back the clock to the period when I realised that something wasn’t quite right. These products were certainly too good to be true. It must have been during my first couple of years of university. I’d started university caring a lot, in the traditional sense, about my appearance. So, like many, I spent time finding the best products to address various components of what many would refer to as a self care routine. Dry skin. No problem, here’s a moisturiser. Acne. No problem, here’s some benzol peroxide. Dry skin from the acne cream. No problem, here’s some niacinamide. Dry, unhealthy hair. No problem, here’s some ammonium lauryl sulfate mixed with sodium lauryl sulfate, polyethylene glycol and twenty other ingredients that would make a good tongue twister. Also known as shampoo. Oh, and don’t forget the conditioner, too. To rehydrate dry hair after shampooing. Oh, plus some hair gel and spray to keep the hair looking good. And maybe some cologne with some diethyl phthalate to keep me smelling good. The irony is that the chemicals that I just mentioned are all toxic.

This was the norm for me when I started university. In fact, I don’t think this even scratches the surface when it comes to the number of products that I was using, putting onto my body. This is before even considering any of the things that I used to keep my environment ‘clean’.

But at some point, I remember coming across a great source of information called ‘The Story of Stuff’. It’s a channel on YouTube containing videos discussing the real story behind our stuff - from the clothes that hang in our wardrobe, to the food that we put on the table, and, importantly, the products that we use to ‘take care’ of ourselves. This coincided with a point in my life when I began to think about the true costs of the things that I was doing. I was no longer illusioned in thinking that the things that I consumed and used had no externalised costs attached to them. Climate change was - and still is, more than ever - becoming of increasing concern, bringing to light the importance of not ignoring the supply chains that underly everything we produce and, subsequently, consume. I started to question the norm.

Potentially swayed to bearing the burden of the true cost of everything that I did in my day to day life, I started opening my eyes to the truth. I could no longer continue to use a fancy shampoo promising to offer shiny hair for three days, for I realised that once that soapy lather makes it way down the drain, that’s not the end of the chain. There’d be some aquatic life, at least, baring the burden of my ignorance, or perhaps some crops that were once organic ceasing to be so as they become laden with the chemicals that comprise the concoctions that are sold on the shelves as ‘shampoo’. Even if I turned my attention back to myself, I no longer saw any positives in using such products, for I realised the damage these chemicals must be causing to my body’s natural biome; my hair, my skin, and, more concerningly, my insides. I could see the flaws in the system, where, for example, on the one hand, I was being sold a product to give me glowing skin, but on the other, I was being sold some Frankenstein-like junk food only adjacent in the same aisle - aka, something that will likely achieve the opposite of glowing, healthy skin. Players playing the same game in disguise, focused only on deepening their pockets.

I realised then that we were being sold a lie - that we’re led to believe that it’s what we lather on our outside that determines how healthy our skin or hair is. But the truth is, there would be little market for the cacophony of ‘self-care’ products if we simply took care of what we put inside us. These products are used to mask how broken and destructive a very large fraction of the cosmetics and cleaning product industry has become. Yes, it’s true that sun cream is still important and that there exist some products that can aid healthy skin, but they’re certainly not the ones that stack the supermarket shelves. Now I choose the opposite approach, taking care of what I put inside me, my mind and body, before turning to any products, and whenever I do, I take care not to tread into the world of toxins and harmful chemicals, for I appreciate the true cost of things.

But I appreciate that some of you might be confused. If these things are so harmful and useless, then how and why am I still seeing them on shelves in every modern supermarket? And what’s so harmful about them after all?

Harmful hygiene

To begin this discussion, I’d like to dive straight into the harms of the chemicals that are contained in many of the products that most of us regularly use. Then I’ll dive into how big corporations get away with such behaviour.

Off the bat, many chemicals included in cosmetic and personal hygiene products have been linked to cancer [1]. Just flicking through one paper discussing the dark side of beauty [1] made it apparent to me the stark number of chemicals that the manufacturers of these beauty products get away with including in their products that are linked to some form of cancer. From parabens and phthalates being linked to skin and breast cancer, to heavy metals having general carcinogenic potential. Like when I first read about this, I am just as struck now. In the aforementioned list of common harmful ingredients in beauty products, there are over a handful that have an associated carcinogenicity. But this might still sound all up in the air and unrelatable.

So let’s look at the preservatives that are often included in these products. Of the list of preservatives commonly seen in these products, only a couple are not linked to causing skin irritation. So, when we’re lathering on our skin creams that promise smooth, radiating, itch-free skin, it’s quite likely that they actually include ingredients that themselves irritate our skin. If this isn’t bad enough, which I can understand as skin irritation may be a minor issue if we can walk the streets looking all fresh and clean, then the plasticisers so often found in fragrances, these being phthalates, have been linked to hormone disruption. So when I used to spray some expensive cologne to smell nice before heading on a night out, I was also inadvertently messing around with my and others’ hormones.

Corrupt companies

OK, I get your point, these things contain lots of harmful chemicals, so how are these companies allowed to sell these items? This all comes back to the legislation - or more precisely, a lack of - surrounding these beauty and cosmetic products. We’ve arrived where we are now due to us being caught up in the mid-twentieth century mentality of ‘better living through chemistry’ [2], and despite getting better at identifying and thereby prohibiting the use of some of the harmful chemicals, there’s still a lot lacking regarding the management and oversight of products containing such chemicals.

My guess as to why these companies can still get away with selling us these products is that they themselves have a large say in what does and doesn’t constitute harmful and, just like the tobacco industry did when they successfully lobbied for cigarettes being harmless, or even good, for humans, the cosmetic industry are able to cleverly pry their way into important discussions regarding the harm of their products, swaying any legislators and people of power to allow them to continue to destroy both the planet and the people who inhabit it. Just take the long-term lobbying blitz of chemical companies to undermine EU safety, which has included “using eye-catchingly high potential industry costs; ignoring the health and environmental benefits of regulation; undermining science; and making misleading claims about how progressive proposals would work.” [3] Or the deceptive, destructive chemical giant that is DuPont’s continued efforts to lobby MPs not to ban PFAs [4].

You see, the common theme that recurs whenever I dig into how these big companies can get away with such destructive acts is money and power. They have so much money and power - far more than we might at first think - that they can undermine fundamental truths about their wrongdoings and the harms of their actions, prohibiting legislative action against the use of harmful, toxic chemicals in their products. Just a couple of days ago, I came across various news articles discussing the high levels of toxic forever chemicals found off the South coast of England, and overheard an MP discussing how the concentration of toxins and pollutants in its constituent waterways was hundreds of thousands of times higher than the safe amount. The PM’s response was that he’d certainly look at it, but we’ve not simply arrived at such high levels unknowingly. Ignorance has played its course and will continue to do so unless we acknowledge the real harm we’re causing.

Toxicity in = toxicity out

One thing that is certainly true is the following: toxic chemicals in = toxic chemicals out. This simple fact means that whatever these big companies put into their products at their chemical factories is what comes out the other end when we squeeze something out of a bottle in our homes. What’s even more concerning is that chemistry itself does not discriminate between the bottle from which a certain product came from. What this means is that, if, as so many of us do, we use a combination of beauty products that are initially sold separately, we may just be recreating our year 10 chemistry class experiments. In our homes. On our bodies. Given the amount of PPE and risk assessments we had to do during these classes at school, I’m concerned, to say the least, about what may have been going on when I used to combine a whole load of these different products.

To add to the above, what’s also true is that toxicity in means toxicity out. And, more importantly, once something toxic enters our domestic water waste, it’s highly likely that it also ends up in other water sources, too. This is an example of how our actions can begin catalysing ecological destruction, and is what I’ll touch on next, as, after all, the least we can do is try to protect the habitability of this Earth that we live on.

Coral corroding cosmetics

I mentioned in my post discussing tipping points that we’ve now likely pushed coral reefs beyond large-scale tipping points by warming the planet. To add salt to the wound, many of the products that we use on a daily basis also contribute to coral reef corrosion. The product that immediately jumps to my mind, and is the biggest culprit of the all, is sun cream. It also happens to be the product that I seemingly continue to use despite my awareness of its harm to both myself and wider nature.

It’s true that protecting our skin is important, and it’s also true that many sun creams do a good job at this. But whilst doing so, they also contribute to destruction elsewhere. Another example of unnecessary human selfishness. Unnecessary because there are alternative products that exist that do not harm nature, plus, various different cultures have successfully covered up and protected their skin for countless years before sun cream was a thing. The main culprits in many sun creams that cause great harm to coral reefs are oxybenzone and octinoxate [5], which bleach and disrupt their growth.

Just recently, I bought some new sun cream from a drugstore in Japan. I opened the bottle and applied it to my skin, and all I can say is that there’s no way that it isn’t harmful in some way to the environment. Its colour seemed crazily artificial, and the white pigmented chemical in the ‘sun milk’ stained everything it contacted. I felt guilt after buying and using it, as I do not wish to support such products. But it’s difficult when you are part of a broken system.

Dirty dealers

Given all of this, what should we do? Firstly, we can’t expect individuals to be held accountable as it is ultimately up for companies and governments to decide what’s on the shelves. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t work to change the system. Just like with anything that we spend our money on, we can decide whether we want to support companies that care about the planet or not. This is what I choose to do. Yes, these products are often more expensive, but there’s a good reason for this. The ego doesn’t like to spend more money than necessary on something, but once you stop ignoring the true cost of the things that you buy and consume, then you can start to feel good about spending your money ethically.

For the most part, however, I have just stopped using the products that I was once convinced were needed for me to be healthy. The only products I use now are toothpaste and suncream. I make sure to brush my teeth properly twice a day, flossing most days, and I often swoosh around organic coconut oil in my mouth to give it a deep clean. Regarding my toothpaste, just like the suncream, I still want to do better at always making sure I have some natural mineral one lying around if I run out. As of four years ago, I no longer use any hair products and instead know that how my hair looks is simply a gauge of a small part of my health that I shouldn’t ignore. I find that if I eat healthily, focusing on getting in plenty of healthy fats, my hair stays healthy. Regardless, our hair actually cleans itself in cycles and has its own microbiome that is necessary for healthy hair. I no longer use moisturiser, choosing instead to eat healthily. From time to time, I’ll use some olive or coconut oil on any dry spots, also massaging it in occasionally. Cologne is something I last used a handful of years ago, and I now choose to just smell like myself, sometimes using lavender oil as a fragrance - it also is a great essential oil to help relax and destress. I’ve not used deodorant for four years and, before you ask, I don’t smell of BO because I put good stuff into my body and work up a sweat by exercising every day. I very rarely wash my body using soap, finding that hot water is enough, and I choose not to disrupt the natural bacteria on my skin that are so vital for good health. The exception to this is washing my hands and down below, where I use whatever is available wherever I am. In terms of sun cream, I hope to use it minimally in the future and, instead, make sure that my skin is covered using clothes. For shaving, I am currently messing around with creating my own natural shaving cream and have been using a metal double-edged razor for the past couple of years (this is a great way of saving money and reducing waste!).

Enough talking about what I do. The crux is that many of the cosmetic products that we are made to believe are necessary are in fact wholly unnecessary and cause great harm to us and the planet. Personally, I’ve decided to trust my body and to focus instead of preventative healthcare and medicine, viewing my food as a vital component to this. Next time you use a cosmetic product, perhaps take a moment to look at the list of chemicals in it. Do some research to see if they’re harmful or not. The chances are pretty high that they.

An important point to make is that what I’ve mentioned above is just a very small piece of this corrupt industry, and I’ve ignored other huge problems, such as the slave labour at the end of the chains of many big cosmetic companies. This is something that I may touch on in future writing.

I decided long ago to step away from corporate control and deception, choosing to live more in alignment with my body and the Earth. I’m happier for it.

[1] https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1439027/full
[2] https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-cosmetics/
[3] https://euobserver.com/202912/behind-the-chemical-industry-lobby-blitz-to-undermine-eu-safety/
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/28/chemical-companies-lobbying-mps-not-to-ban-pfas-forever-chemicals
[5] https://sustainable-earth.org/cosmetic-ingredients/