What's in Your Cosmetics?

What's in Your Cosmetics?

Ciao bella,

It just makes sense that natural is the way to go. Cosmetics contain so many artificial, toxic and allergic ingredients. We should be more careful what we use on our skin as well as what we ingest in our bodies.

Check your labels!

Watch out for those parabens. They preserve cosmetics and are widely used in almost everything. This chemical preservative can't be safely used in any skincare products that contain collagen, elastic, placenta, hydrolyzed animal protein or keratin.

Nitric acid is an inorganic acid used as an oxidizer and stabilizer in cosmetics. It is a corrosive liquid that can irritate skin.

Mineral oil is a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum. It can increase the response of the skin to ultraviolet rays and can cause sunburn without any allergic effect being involved.

Even petroleum jelly, also a semisolid mixture of hydrocarbons, pollutes our water and destroys marine life. Avoiding them is essential for the health of humans, animals, fish, water, land and air.

Hydrocarbon is a synthetic chemical compound containing only carbon and hydrogen atoms. This large group includes paraffins, olefins, acetylenes, and alicyclic, and of course, petroleum. They are potentially allergenic and phototoxic as described above.

Sodium laurel sulfate is a popular ingredient used as a detergent, emulsifier, and surfactant in over a thousand cosmetic products including shampoos, toothpastes, lotions and creams. It may be labeled "natural" but it's not. And it is produced synthetically and is hardly ever made from coconut oil (even when the label says it is).

In a world with so many artificially produced ingredients it would be difficult to completely abandon all our fav products. But what we can all do is educate ourselves and eliminate or cut back our everyday bad products and replace them with natural and 100 percent ECCO certified organic ones. Do your research and know what's on the label.

Start by trying KOSMEA, an all-natural skincare line.

Buona giornata and God bless the United States of America.

Read prior weeks' "All That Zazz" columns at www.allthatzazz.com. Mary is a third-generation cosmetologist and a Massachusetts distributor of Kosmea brand rose hip oil products. She may be contacted at (978) 470-8183 or mary@mary4nails.com.

Attention: Eyebrows

Attention: Eyebrows

Ciao bella,

Your Eyebrows frame your face. They instantly bring forward a dramatic prelude to the rest of your look.

Today, more Eyebrow is stylish and becoming. There was a time in the Madonna craze when she looked like she didn’t pluck or wax a hair. So I decided to grow mine out. It was certainly a look. However, I love the arch of the Brow and the clean circumference you can create with shaping by tweezing or, better yet, waxing. NADS is the best way to achieve that clean look. It is a sugar-based Brow wand depilatory with no sticky, gooey mess! Any residue washes off with water.

A quick makeup rule is: to look decent, all you need are well shaped Brows and lipstick! For professional advice, I would make an appointment with a Brow specialist. They will be able to show you how to create a Brow for you. Home care is essential.

Remember when I grew out my Madonna Brows? Well, where are all those hairs now? Another trick of Mother Nature tapping on our door to let us know who is boss! Defi nitely, it’s her. So, to outmaneuver all her tricks we must combat and overcome to be the best we can be! There is so much professional help out there, take advantage of it.

After cleaning up and shaping my Brows, I use Wunderbrow to fill in and shape. Comes with a brush to perfect shape. Stays on until you wash it off. No smudging or dripping. This is a liquid-type liner that you may choose in your color. I learned way back NOT to use a pencil. It drags out delicate Brow hairs that stay gone forever. So no pencil to shape Brows.

Recently I noticed a FB acquaintance who never really had Eyebrows. Lately I noticed the last dozen or so pictures of her with these dark painted Eyebrows that looked hideous! Is this a college “dare” or what? This prompted me to write this column!

Take care of your Eyebrows! There are also serums you can apply everyday to regain hair growth. Take it from me that they work following the manufacturer’s directions.

So my Glamazons, hope you are inspired to give the proper attention to your Brows!

Buona giornata and God bless the United States of America!

Mary N. DiZazzo-Trumbull

Read prior weeks' "All That Zazz" columns at www.allthatzazz.com. Mary is a third-generation cosmetologist and a Massachusetts distributor of Kosmea brand rose hip oil products. She may be contacted at (978) 470-8183 or mary@mary4nails.com.