SHOCKING!

I try to take care of my skin and am not quite successful at it. I get the breakouts from time to time despite religiously cleaning my face twice a day. Unlike mareng Fa who, thanks to genetics, can sleep without washing her face when she's dead tired but never wakes up with breakouts! If I sleep without washing my face, waking up is a nightmare. One time in our last year of college, she had a pimple and told everyone about it coz she hasn't had one ever since she was in high school (if I remember it right.)

Today mom and I tried a new skincare line and one of their dealers chitchat a bit with mom while I check their products. Imagine my horror when she told us about their clinical tests on popular brands such as Clinique and Olay. Clinique positions itself as 'ultra safe, allergy tested, and suitable for all skin types. Of course the best litmus test for that would be the using the products on super sensitive skin a.k.a. my mom. She's allergic to it so she never used any of their products since trying them 10++ years ago.

In my case, I use Clinique eye makeup, makeup remover, and their bronzer especially when Lola brings home lots of goodies from the States. Recently lola gave me a tube of Clinique foundation and I converted it into a tinted moisturizer since I'm not comfortable wearing liquid makeup.

Anyway back to the lab test, the result of the Clinique soap was, to quote Ms. Hazel 'para ka lang nag Safeguard sa mukha mo'. Kalurks! I don't even use Safeguard for my hands (I used to bathe with Safeguard white because the scent is good but it's super drying). She also mentioned Clinique toners are flammable, meaning it's alcohol based. Toners are supposed to be alcohol free (and astringents are the alcohol based ones). Boo. Clinique has mineral oil which is a by-product of petroleum. Would you want that on your face? Also, Ms. Hazel's mother has been using Olay for 15 years (her father who is a seaman would hoard Olay for her mother back in the 90's when Olay was still called Oil of Olay and was not available locally). She told her mom 'Ma, sa 15 years mong pag gamit, diba dapat mukha ka pa ring youthful?' *I silently panic because I use Olay!*

To verify her stories,I researched harmful ingredients on personal care products as soon we arrived home. Clinique did have mineral oil. Olay also contains mineral oil and glycerin which supposedly locks in moisture on the skin. NOT. Fact is mineral oil creates an oil film on the skin, suffocating it and preventing the skin to absorb oxygen and release carbon dioxide.* While glycerin absorbs moisture in the air keeping moisture in creams and other products. When applied on your skin, it'll absorb your moisture, drying you inside out.*

Now I feel so bad I have to ditch Olay and find a safer moisturizer. I like Olay. It wasn't sticky, the scent is light, it has SPF. But the long term effects of its ingredients are just too damaging. I'm also replacing my tinted moisturizer made with Clinique with a Neutrogena base. I looked it up and it's safer.

I'm not super OA with organic stuff- I still eat fast food and GMO. (KFC and McDo, yum!!!!) I still use medicated gels for breakouts. But when it comes to skin, it helps to take extra precautions. Last year I switched to mineral makeup thanks to Fa, and early this year organic soaps. When I get back I'm paying Healthy Options a visit to grab some bottles of 'safe' shampoo and conditioner.

I'll use Olay as a body lotion nalang so I can finish my bottles. Which reminds me I still have unopened bottles of Olay in stock. Oh noes!

Anyway, ika nga ng Nido CHECK THE LABEL! haha :)

source: *http://www.healthy-communications.com/harmfulingredients1.html