By Stacy Malkan

Just tell me what not to buy. Just tell me which ingredients to avoid. 

It’s the most common reaction people have upon hearing my story. “My story” is every woman’s story — and every man’s story, every child’s story, even the ones not yet born. My own tale has to do with being a teenage make-up diva. Each morning was an elaborate ritual involving various skin creams, eight types of face make-up and multiple hair products, topped off with a generous cloud of Aqua Net Extra Super Hold — all applied before leaving the house to catch the school bus.

Twenty years later, thanks to the modern wonder of the Skin Deep report (cosmeticdatabase.com) — a comprehensive safety database of chemicals in cosmetics created by the Environmental Working Group — I was able to investigate my former teen routine and find out what I was exposing myself to on a daily basis: 200 chemicals in all, many of them toxic, just from the personal care products. 



Some highlights from my former beauty regimen:

• 22 daily doses of hormone-disrupting parabens, which can mimic estrogen in the body
• 17 hits of chemicals linked to cancer
• 15 exposures to “fragrance,” an unspecified mix of chemicals likely to contain phthalates, which are linked to reproductive harm
• More than 100 exposures to chemicals that had not been assessed for safety.

Even if you have never marked an eyelash with mascara, even if you are a Whole Foods shopping, careful consumer of all things “natural,” even if you are a man, this is your story. It’s your story whether you live in New York City or the most remote regions of the Arctic Circle; no matter your age, race or income level. It’s your story and mine because all of us alive on the planet today share something in common that was unshared by countless generations of humans who lived before us: we carry man-made pollutants inside our blood, urine and breast milk.