Understanding EWG’s Skin Deep

I am addicted to reading the labels on personal care products!  Strange, but true.  Unfortunately these aisles are often quite lonely – by the time I finish reading a label, three others have come and gone, snagging what they need and on to the next item.  Little thought on the life of the product…

But the other day, I had a moment of hope.   As I was intensely comparing two products, I was asked what I was looking for.  I proceeded to share with the fellow shopper that I was looking for greenwashing.  She said, “Oh, I’ve already done that.  I just check my products out on Skin Deep.  Do you know about that website?  It’s brilliant!”

I replied, “Yes, I do use Skin Deep as well.  Did you know that only 11% of all ingredients have even been tested?”

“Really!?!”  She replied.

And I went on to explain the following:

A low score on Skin Deep does not mean that the product is safe at all. There are few points to keep in mind…

1) Skin Deep has only been able to review the “known” chemicals which may have received lower scores… however, the fact is that only 11% of all ingredients have even been tested for human safety, so many chemicals my “not have been assess or human safety” and receive a low or no score.

2) In terms of chemicals, the better number to look at is the “Data Gap” in the top right corner. If that number is high, that suggests that little is known about the ingredient list.

3) Check the ingredients listed – if they are chemicals and the score is low but the data gap is high – that’s a problem.

4) Are the ingredients plants, herbs, etc. If so, the database has not been built for such agricultural items. The database has been built to review synthetic chemicals. Therefore, it is possible for a product certified organic to food grade standards to have a low score and high data gap. So, check if the product certified organic and/or can you identify and understand the ingredient list?

4) Finally, if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin!

Just looking at the score is not the “tell all” of the product safety. Skin Deep even discloses this in the FAQs.

Again, we need to be active in educating ourselves and knowing how our resources work, even the best ones!