Disposable Wipes - a costly convenience?

As a make-up artist, face wipes and wet wipes are a staple in my kit. They are quick and convenient to remove make-up after a job and are great for mopping up spillages and helping to keep the kit clean. With a huge amount of skincare brands offering their own facial wipes, they are also a favourite for many women to use at night and on holiday. Wipes are also fast becoming a regular in handbags and such as an alternative to washing hands on the go.

I recently found a very interesting read, 'Behind the label' is a column in The Ecologist, written by the editor Pat Thomas, he looks at everyday household products and their ingredients. For one issue he focused on Wet Ones Ultra Soft with Camomile Extract which are one of the highest sellers in the UK for adult wipes. Thomas says the wipes are meant to be effective against E.coli, Salmonella and Listeria on the skin, but once an unwashed hand touches the inside of the packet the germs can start breeding inside the packet. To deal with this, eight of the 25 ingredients are preservatives and antibacterials which can cause skin irritation, sensitisation and dermatitis as well as breaking down the skin's own protective barrier. Propylene glycol is high on the ingredients list, this is found in many cosmetic products as it alters the structure of the skin therefore allowing better penetration of products, it is also a main ingredient in anti-freeze and as you can imagine is a known skin irritant! I had a look at the ingredients in a few of the different wipes I had in my kit and it wasn't good, with many of the long listings featuring the whole of the paraben family, as well as propylene glycol and a whole host of other unpronouncable chemicals.

On top of the fact that these wipes are not great for our skin, they are also not good for the environment. Thomas' column also said "Figures from North America suggest that if you were to load all the disposable wipes purchased there last year on to 18-wheel lorries, the convoy would number 9,000 trucks, stretch for 68 miles, and would be carrying 83,000 tonnes of used convenience cloths". That is a lot of cloths! They also take a long time to biodegrade so although a quick cleanse for us, not for the environment, who knows how long they will be in the ground after they have been used.

Now we are used to the convenience of wipes it would be hard to stop using them completely, luckily there are alternatives available. I have been using baby wipes from Nature Babycare, these wipes have minimal chemicals and are biodegradable too. Beaming Baby also have a good range of wipes including facial cleansing wipes. So we don't have to give up our wipes just yet, as long as we make good choices in the ones we use and don't use too many!

Nasties ?

Since 1930, more than 75,000 synthetic chemicals have been introduced into our environment (How to survive on a toxic planet, Dr Steve Nugent). Ok, there is no denying that many of these have revolutionised our lives but just what else are they doing to us? When you consider that our skin can absorb around 60% of what we put on it, it is quite a scary thought when you look at the never ending lists of unpronounceable, quite possibly toxic ingredients in some of our skincare and make-up products.

There are lots of new brands coming onto the market claiming to be 'clean' skincare, in that they don't contain certain chemicals and preservatives. Likewise lots of already established brands are deciding to remove these ingredients from their lines. There is much debate surrounding these so called nasties and it can be confusing in knowing what to believe.

One of the most talked about is the infamous paraben family, these chemicals are used as preservatives in many beauty products and food. They get a lot of bad press, including possible links to breast cancer and low sperm counts due to their ability to disrupt hormones. In various studies, parabens have been found in human tissue and many people believe this is due to the use of beauty products containing them being applied to the skin. However, none of this has been proven and many reports claim that the amounts used are insignificant to us. The European Union allows the use of parabens in cosmetics and food but only in amounts that are considered to be safe, and many companies continue to use them. There are also many companies who have decided not to use them, and have seeked out and are using alternatives, making them much easier to avoid.

We seem to be living in a toxic world, if we can eliminate some of those toxins by choosing our beauty products wisely it's a start.

For more reading on parabens check out The Organic Pharmacy's website, they have some some great (eye-opening) factsheets.