Beauty Products Aimed At Black Women Contain More Harmful Chemicals

Beauty Products Aimed At Black Women Contain More Harmful Chemicals

A new report by the nonprofit organization Researchers at the Environmental Working Group, shows that beauty products marketed to Black women are more likely to contain potentially hazardous chemicals and ingredients reports TIME Magazine:

Researchers at the Environmental Working Group (EWG) analyzed 1,177 beauty and personal care products marketed to black women and compared the ingredients to a scoring system used for the EWG’s Skin Deep database of over 64,000 personal care products. The database ranks the safety of cosmetics and similar products on a scale of one to 10 (highest hazard), based on a methodology that is outlined here.

Only 25% of the products that the EWG looked at fell into the “low hazard” category, compared to 40% of products that are marketed to the general public. “As a black woman myself, I was disheartened that black women have fewer options for healthier products when they are choosing from products specifically targeted to them,” says co-author Nneka Leiba, deputy director for research at EWG.

The report also showed that the worst-scoring products marketed at black women were hair relaxers and bleaching products, as well as some lipsticks and makeup products. Read the entire report HERE.