Photo by Geoff Livingston

As if it weren’t bad enough that makeup companies rarely offer enough shades for women of color, a new review found that women of color also face the greatest risks of unsafe chemical exposures from personal care products.


The paper is titled The Environmental Injustice of Beauty, and points out that we usually look for clusters of chemical exposure on the basis of geography: who lives near a polluting factory, for example, or a busy road. But often people of color are in these more dangerous areas, and are the target market for beauty products with potentially dangerous ingredients. These are the worst offenders:


Face Creams Containing Mercury

Photo from the FDA

Skin lightening creams, sometimes labeled as being for “spot correction” or for “blemishes”, can contain mercury. The FDA regulates mercury content in products sold here, but face creams made elsewhere (brought from overseas or sold here illegally) can contain shockingly high amounts of mercury.

For example, one study traced a California woman’s high mercury exposure to face cream she bought in Mexico. And in a study of mercury exposure in New York City, Dominicans who used face lightening creams had the highest levels of mercury in their urine. As part of that study, the researchers found 12 imported products being sold illegally in local stores despite high mercury content.


Yes, mercury poisoning has been linked to mercury-containing beauty products. Mercury can cause damage to your kidneys and nervous system. And if you’re pregnant, mercury in your system can interfere with your baby’s development (especially brain development).

These mercury-containing creams tend to be marketed specifically to darker-skinned women, with advertising that sells the idea that lighter skin means you’ll be prettier and more professional. So not only do they put women of color at risk specifically because of the color of their skin, they also do so in service of an idea that is explicitly colorist and racist.


Hair Relaxers With Endocrine Disruptors

1964 ad via Classic Film


Relaxers, straighteners, and other hair products often include ingredients that mimic or contain estrogen. For example, animal placenta supposedly nourishes skin and hair, but also contains estrogen and other hormones. And parabens, used as preservatives, can mimic estrogen in the body.

We don’t have clear evidence proving a link between these ingredients and health outcomes; for example, the FDA tentatively considers parabens in cosmetics to be safe, but they are keeping an eye out for new studies. That said, there is circumstantial evidence—not proof, but hints—linking breast cancer to African-American women’s use of hair products, and specifically estrogen-containing ones.


Black women are far more likely than white women to use straighteners, and to use a larger number of hair products in general. And at least part of this discrepancy is to comply with dress codes or stereotypes of straight, smooth hair as more beautiful or professional.

Douches and Other Feminine Hygiene Products

Photo by Shattonbury-commonswiki


Yep, this one disproportionately affects black women too, thanks to stereotypes and marketing that portrayed them as dirty and smelly. Even today, black women are more likely than white women to use douches, wipes, and talcum powder in or near their vagina.

These products have potential links to cancer and health problems. The evidence connecting talc use to ovarian cancer is mixed. The authors of the environmental injustice paper point out that women who douche have higher levels of phthalates in their body, but phthalates aren’t conclusively linked to cancers or other health concerns.


Even besides chemical concerns, there’s the fact that douching just isn’t good for you. It messes with the natural bacteria that live in your vagina, and can lead to irritation or infection.

Simply dropping these products, if you use them, is easier said than done. For one thing, the potentially problematic chemicals aren’t always listed on labels in a way that lets you easily discern what’s safe and what’s not. In the big picture, risk may really just boil down to the number and amount of products women of color use.




But in the even bigger picture, these products are popular among women of color because of racist ideas of what counts as beautiful, professional, or acceptable. And so, for example, skin lightening creams won’t go away until preference for light skin goes away.