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I was unsure of the efficacy of the preservative system, she says.
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Her instinct turned out to be right.
(Its the first option under the “Ingredient Preferences” tab on sephora.com.)
An informal poll, for sure.
There have even beenrumblingsthat the Clean at Sephora program might be quietly going away.
So… should we bring back parabens?
TL;DR: Maybe.
“Parabens have really been maligned by misinformation,” says Dobos.
And this misinformation has been wielded as really good marketing by beauty brands.
Without mincing words, cosmetic chemistPerry Romanowskisays, fear marketing is really effective.
That doesnt make it true.
But enough investigation can poke holes in that marketing story.
The industry removed them for marketing reasons, not for safety reasons.
In beauty products in particular, propylparaben, ethylparaben, methylparaben, and butylparaben long reigned supreme.
Then, in the mid-2010s, beauty brands started avoiding parabens.
The headlines ran with it: Parabens can increase your risk of breast cancer!
The study in question, however, didnt conclude anything of the sort.
Off the bat, this study led to some low-key drama in the world of chemical toxicology.
The aim simply was to determine whether parabens can be measured in humanbreast tissueat all.
(Remember: They are in some foods.)
I have been saying for decades, consumers should cut down on products, not simply hound one chemical.
Twenty years later, Dr. Darbre is still clearing the record.
(Estrogenic chemicalsare ones that can mimic estrogen in the body).
In other words: Its not as simple as saying a face cream can increase breast cancer risk.
There are a lot of different factors at play, and they go way beyond parabens.
So then, wait, why did parabens get this terrible reputation?
Romanowski’s answer to that questions: The industry removed them for marketing reasons, not for safety reasons.
Its not like smoking cigarettes.
So what exactly does fairly weak evidence mean when youre talking about something like cancer?
Secondly, the size of the effect is very small.
Even when parabens are linked to cancer, You’re not tripling your risk of cancer, he says.
You have a very small association with cancer when it’s been reported to be positive.
It’s not likesmokingcigarettes.
And finally, theres the matter of causation.
The mechanism is not entirely clear.
We don’t really have that for parabens.
Okay, thenbut what about parabens messing with hormones?
Credo Beauty, for one, groups parabens with phthalates under hormone disruptors on theirThe Dirty List.
This is Dr. Darbres biggest concern with parabens.
The EU doesnt even allow paraben-free labeling on beauty products, since that implies that parabens are harmful.
And these arent widely used in cosmetics, says Romanowski.
Even if they were, he adds that theyre easily replaced with other parabens.
In other words, the goal is to avoid unfairly demonizing all parabens.
Parabens are probably safe doesn’t grab you like Parabens found in breast cancer tumor, says Dobos.
And parabens are kind of a unicorn preservative.
Plus, they can be affordable, says Plescia.
If you want a paraben-free formula, you might instead use benzoic acid, says Dobos.
A foundation that smells like farts?
Not a great marketing strategy.
And simply swapping them out for alternative preservatives hasnt been, well, simple.
Theyre useless in alkaline formulas (ones with high pH levels), like depilatory creams and some cleansers.
Thats a very high percentage when youre talking about consumers wholl react to a product.
Changes in color, odor, any separationthose are indicators of microbial instability.
Theyve caused an epidemic of allergic contact dermatitis worldwide.
You get away with it, says Romanowski.
Those microbes can actually have big consequences for your skin.
Although, quick caveat here: Actual fuzz is a sign that your product is positively teeming with microbes.
Most contaminations are too small for you to see, says Dobos.
Changes in color, odor, any separation, those things will be indicators of some microbial instability.
She and two other editors could easily recall having to recently shake up a separated foundation orsunscreenbefore using it.
(None realized that this is a sign ofpotential contamination.)
(This is not very common, she says, but it can happen.)
In truth, I see MoCRA as kind of window-dressing regulations.
It’s just that these newer ones fail more frequently.
And this is the biggest impediment to removing parabens from the product-to-body pipeline.
Even Dr. Darbre agrees.
And again, removing just one chemicallike parabensis not the whole answer, she says.
Are parabens going to make a comeback?
Its in brands best interests to listen to their customers.
Our industry is very sensitive to the whims of what consumers want or what marketers say, says Romanowski.
Case in point: The$8.9 billion settlementthat Johnson & Johnson is paying over its talc lawsuits.)
Fear is a very powerful motivator.
Whatever the evidence on their safety might show, fear is a very powerful motivator, says Dobos.
It can skew how you might manage your risk for things like cancer.
In that case, youre not really doing much to lower your cancer risk.
(In fact, doing the math, youre probably increasing it.)
And, parabens or no parabens, there’s always a risk, says Dr. Rebbeck.
You take out one thing because you’re afraid that it might be associated with cancer.
Now you’ve increased the risk of infections.
And removing parabens is probably not one of them.
To read more about preservatives in beauty products:
Now watch Cindy Crawford’s 10-minute beauty routine: