Free B00AFU6252 EBOK by Jessica Alba Page A

“oil free”
    WHAT IS IT? A moisturizer
    WHY IS IT SKETCHY? Using a lot of petroleum-filled products can cause breakouts because they block your pores; dermatologists recommend an oil-free, water-based formulation if your skin is sensitive or acne prone (shea butter and jojoba are great plant-derived alternatives).
    Long-term, we don’t totally understand how petrochemicals in personal care products affect our health, but petroleum distillates may cause cancer—and anyway, this stuff is used in paint, antifreeze, and gasoline. Does that sound like something that should go on your face?
SUNSCREEN
    Last thing, before I start my makeup, I always put a thin layer of sunscreen all over my face and neck. Everyone hates wearing sunscreen—but these days, you just have to: It prevents skin cancer and it’s anti-aging. The key is to find one that actually feels good on your skin—and this is finally possible with new formulations. Shani suggests looking for an oil-free formula if your skin is oily or a hydrating moisturizing one if you have normal or dry skin (layer it on top of your regular moisturizer if you’re super dry). I love CellCeuticals PhotoDefense Anti-PhotoAging Daily Skin Protector because it doubles as my tinted moisturizer on super-sunny days. You also can’t go wrong with a dab of our basic Honest Sunscreen with a dime-size squirt of your foundation—it’s completely nongreasy and absorbs easily so you can wear it on your face without looking like a lifeguard.
    The average personal care product contains around 126 ingredients. The government doesn’t require pre-market safety testing on any of them.
TOOTHPASTE
    Most regular toothpastes are packed with—irony alert!—artificial sweeteners, plus preservatives, dyes and artificial flavors that you just don’t want in your mouth. And while we do need fluoride every day to help fight cavities, we don’t need a lot of it. There is also some concern about the long-term health effects of fluoride, so if you know your community fluoridates your drinking water (like ours does), you may want to choose a fluoride-free toothpaste—Honest now makes one—to avoid overload, which can lead to white spots on your teeth. Otherwise, fluoride toothpaste is a good bet because we all need some for cavity prevention
    FRAGRANCE
    FOUND IN: Almost everything—unless a product is specifically labeled “fragrance free”
    WHAT IS IT? Synthetic perfume components (parfum, dyes, and synthetic musks) that give a product its scent (or mask the smell of other ingredients, so the product can be billed as “unscented”)
    WHY IS IT SKETCHY? Product manufacturers don’t have to tell you what’s in their fragrance formulas because they’re considered “trade secrets.” But many do, in fact, contain phthalates, which can interfere with hormone function, plus synthetic fragrances are one of the top-five known allergens.

    MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH RETINOL
    While I steer clear of a lot of Hollywood beauty trends, there is one that I pretty much can’t get enough of: retinol or retinoids, which are compounds derived from retinoic acid, a form of vitamin A. What’s the big deal? Vitamins come from nature, right?
    Well . . . the retinol products on the market today, whether prescription (Retin-A, Renova, Atralin, etc.) or over the counter, are made in a lab, not squeezed out of carrots. And retinoic acid is on California’s Proposition 65 list of known human toxins because some research suggests it can harm our reproductive health and cause birth defects, so pregnant women—even those who think they might be pregnant—should
absolutely
avoid it. Additionally, retinol works by exfoliating your skin, so it can make you extremely sensitive and prone to sunburn.
    But here’s the thing: Retinol works better than anything else I’ve tried—it prevents signs of aging and can even help minimize the wrinkles you already have. Plus it erases acne. So for me, this is a case where the