“Skin Perfector.” “Balance, brighten, renew and protect.” “Anti-aging.” The ads sound too good to be true. BB (stands for beauty balm) and CC (stands for color corrector or complexion corrector) creams claim to be all-in-one moisturizer, concealer, foundation and sometimes sunscreen. What are they, really? Do they contain harmful chemicals? Are they better than the…

By Johanna Congleton, EWG Senior Scientist Allergies are an increasingly serious health issue for millions of Americans, especially children. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  estimates that the number of American children and teenagers reported to suffer skin allergies more than quadrupled, from 2 million reported cases between 1999 and 2001 to nearly 9 million…

Ingredients matter – learn if your brand leaves you overexposed to damaging UVA rays, if it breaks down in the sun or if it contains potential hormone-disrupting compounds. Read more

April 2011 For the past four years, some celebrities and fashionistas with $250 to $600 to drop at a hair salon have raved about “Brazilian-style keratin” hair straighteners purported to transform frizzy, unmanageable hair into flat, silky-smooth locks. In fact, those chemical concoctions are loaded with formaldehyde, which numerous prestigious health bodies, most recently, a…

May 2010 A rose may be a rose. But that rose-like fragrance in your perfume may be something else entirely, concocted from any number of the fragrance industry’s 3,100 stock chemical ingredients, the blend of which is almost always kept hidden from the consumer. Makers of popular perfumes, colognes and body sprays market their scents…

How many personal care products do you use in a day? According to our survey of 2300 people, on average, respondents use nine products daily. These contain 126 unique ingredients. One man in 100 and fully 25 percent of women surveyed apply 15 or more products each day. Your grooming ritual probably includes shampoo, toothpaste,…

January 2011 A key independent science advisory panel has voted to confirm federal researchers’ conclusion that retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A found in two-fifths of U.S. sunscreens, speeds the development of skin tumors and lesions when applied to the skin in the presence of sunlight. The conclusions of the NTP and its advisory…

November 30, 2011. Hundreds of companies have fulfilled the Compact for Safe Cosmetics pledge to make safer products and have earned the title “Champion” from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. EWG is a founding member of the Campaign. Since 2004, EWG has helped hundreds of companies meet the pledge by providing technical support and tools…

June 2004 …women who used permanent hair dyes at least once a month experienced a 2.1-fold risk of bladder cancer relative to non-users… We estimate that 19% of bladder cancers in women in Los Angeles County, California, may be attributed to permanent hair-dye use. (Gago-Dominguez et al. 2001) The use of hair color products appears…

May 2010 Environmental Working Group president Ken Cook urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) to speed their analysis of a seminal investigation of possible toxic and carcinogenic risks of retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A added to many sunscreen products. read more…