Villainous Ingredients: Topical Poisons in Today's Beauty Products

We are constantly told to be mindful about what we put in our bodies: "Avoid saturated fats!"; "Banish fast food!"; "Don't guzzle energy drinks." Unfortunately, we don't often consider the things we put on our bodies. Recent news, however, suggests that we should pay just as much attention to the ingredients on beauty product labels as we do to nutritional information.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics recently released a report indicating that a number of Procter & Gamble products—many of them in the Cover Girl and Olay lines—contain potentially harmful, cancer-causing ingredients. For example, formaldehyde-releasing compounds are often used as preservatives and have been found in Cover Girl creams and powders, in Herbal Essences styling products, and in Pantene smoothing serum. Most disturbingly, these chemicals were also found in certain facial cleansers. How ironic to wash your face with a potential carcinogen!

This isn't intended to scare you—or to stop you from buying your favorite beauty products. However, it is crucial that teens—and adults—pay attention to the labels of the products they are purchasing. Of course, this is difficult to do when these culprits are hiding behind intimidating, scientific names. See our chart below for some common aliases.