Imagine an attractive lady walking into a mechanic’s shop and asking the mechanic to pour a quart of oil on her hair and smooth it into her face and arms.  Ridiculous?   Maybe not.   Not when you discover how many beauty products contain the same basic ingredient used in cars.   In fact, most folks are surprised to learn that crude oil is the basis of everything from plastics to carpeting.

I’m probably a lot like you in that I don’t like the idea that the same product used to make a plastic bag or run a car is also used in products like shampoo, soap, hairspray, and numerous cosmetics from lip balm to mascara.  Petroleum in beauty products goes by many names such as mineral oil (a by-product of the distillation of gasoline from crude oil), paraffin wax, and petrolatum, just to name a few, and its pervasiveness is more widespread than one might think. There are many reasons to avoid petroleum in beauty products.  Here are a few.

For beauty: According to Newsweek, American women spend over $400,000 in their lifetime on beauty maintenance.  This figure leaves little doubt that women (particularly those in America) are obsessed with looking beautiful.  So why should these women avoid petroleum-based products?

Mineral oil (a petroleum product found in many beauty products) smothers the skin (the body's largest organ), making it impossible for it to breathe.  In fact, because of the way mineral oil works, mineral oil is a very poor choice for beauty products for these reasons:

• It disrupts the way the body naturally detoxifies
• It slows the rate at which cells are renewed, thereby damaging collagen, connective tissue, and elastin - all of which contribute to the way skin looks and feels
• It results in skin that ages prematurely

Many beauty products are made with the purpose of moisturizing the skin, but petroleum products made as moisturizers ironically work against the skin by dehydrating it.

For health: It's best to avoid petroleum-based beauty products for health reasons as well. For example, some products containing petroleum have been linked to an increased risk of cancer. In fact, National Geographic's Green Guide states that "petroleum distillates" are possible carcinogens, and so it's best to steer clear of products containing them.

For the environment: From plastic exfoliating microbeads that end up contributing to the ever-growing plastic vortex in the Pacific Ocean to tales of creatures being found with indigestible plastic in their stomachs, what more reason does a person need to avoid petroleum products? Petroleum, in all its forms, is damaging to air and water and is best avoided.

So what's a girl (or guy) to do?  Fortunately, in this day and age, there are many health and beauty products that intentionally avoid using petroleum-based ingredients.  A little research and time spent reading labels will help you find out what products have petroleum ingredients so you can avoid them.  A little more time spent researching will reveal numerous companies, who have pledged to make their products petroleum free.

Again, read the labels.  Don’t just buy a product because it was “safe” the last time you looked.  You really do need to get into the habit of looking at the ingredients in your cosmetics (or anything you put on you or in you).  DO NOT rely on claims of “all natural”, “organic” or “cruelty-free”.  These claims are meaningless.  The only thing that tells the true story of the cosmetic is the ingredients list.  Price is no guarantee of safety or quality.  Sometimes the cheaper brands contain fewer toxic ingredients.  A good idea is to make a list on an index card of the ingredients you want to avoid so that the next time you go shopping you can whip that out and compare it to the labels.  If it’s on the label, it doesn’t go into your shopping cart.