Beauty Tips

8 Secrets Cosmetic Companies Don't Want You to Know

You won't believe what these cosmetic chemists had to say about your beloved beauty products

by Emily Woodruff | 9 COMMENTS

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Sometimes You Get More Than What You Paid For ... ... and not in a good way. Some companies add ingredients that aren't listed on the label. While the FDA does mandate that cosmetics cannot contain ingredients that can harm the user (i.e., known harmful substances like lead) or instruct the consumer to use the product in a harmful way (i.e., squirting alcohol into your eyeball), they don't actually regulate or test cosmetics. Testing is left up to the discretion of the manufacturer, so ask yourself: do you trust your favorite beauty brands to conduct rigorous tests of their own products?

Alcide calls out companies that slap "all-natural" on the label, but don't always live up to the claim, ingredient-wise. She sees a lot of labels that list botanical ingredients and distilled water, but they leave out any mention of preservatives. "If a product has water in it, it must have a preservative. Otherwise, bacteria will form," says Alcide. "Natural preservatives are expensive. When I tested one 'all-natural' water-based product with no preservative listed, I found methylparaben in it. That's a chemical preservative."

P.S. If you're scanning your labels a little more closely now, look for ingredients like aloe vera juice, honey, and any type of oil -- these are particularly susceptible to bacteria.

SEE NEXT PAGE: Manufacturers Are Betting You Don't Have a Chemistry Degree

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