Beware of ingredient lists that start with the word Infusions or Extracts of … followed by a laundry list of herbs or flowers. This may look very impressive until you scroll down and see a long list of chemicals that follow. An infusion is a way to extract some of the beneficial properties of an herb or flower but there are different types and methods of infusion and without knowing the details, it’s impossible to discern the concentration of the components in the finished product. An aqueous infusion or extract means the herbs were steeped or brewed in hot water (like making a tea). Other types of infusions can include steeping or slow-cooking herbs in the base oil or other bases like witch hazel extract, glycerin, or pure grain alcohol (the latter two are how tinctures are usually made).
The list of synthetic and petrol ingredients is extensive and constantly growing. If you want to better familiarize yourself with them refer to books like Aubrey Hampton’s “What’s in Your Cosmetics?” or Ruth Winters’ “Dictionary of Cosmetic Ingredients.”
There are also several dozen ingredients that have been specifically flagged by watchdog organizations like the Environmental Working Group (EWG), and consumer advocacy groups like the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics as harmful. You can use the Teens Turning Green Dirty Thirty List as a handy cheat sheet to help you quickly identify and eliminate the worst of these ingredients from your life.
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