Save your skin, warn make-up experts

WOMEN who regularly use cosmetics are absorbing almost five pounds of chemicals through their skin every year, a new study has found.

Many use more than 20 beauty products a day while nine out of 10 apply make-up that is past its expiry date.

Biochemist Richard Bence, who has spent three years researching conventional beauty products, is concerned that the chemicals found in them could be causing unknown damage.

“We really need to start questioning the products we are putting on our skin and not just assume that the chemicals in them are safe,” he said.

Mr Bence, an advocate of organic beauty products, believes that absorbing chemicals through the skin is more dangerous than swallowing them.

“If lipstick gets into your mouth, it is broken down by the enzymes in saliva and in the stomach. But if chemicals get straight into your bloodstream, there is no protection.”

The chief chemical suspects are parabens — preservatives that are widely used in skin and hair products, including soap, shampoo, deodorant and baby lotions.

Parabens can mimic the hormone oestrogen.

Traces of the chemical have been found in breast tumour samples but the link with cancer is, how-ever, strongly disputed.

Sodium lauryl sulphate, used to help create lather in soap, shampoo, shaving foam, toothpaste and bubble bath, can cause skin irritation.

Professional make-up artist at Make Up Forever in Dublin Sara Golding said women were becoming more concerned about what they were putting on their skin and cosmetics companies were responding to the growing demand for natural products. There were also stricter EU rules requir-ing products to be safe.

Ms Golding warned against women contaminating their skin with old make-up. Mascara should be discarded after six weeks, while foundation and lipstick should only be kept for up to a year.

“But no matter how many warnings people are given about make-up, there will be those who will continue to use cosmetic products without giving a second thought to what they are putting on their skin,” she said.