This document summarizes a student's goal to research minerals in everyday accessories that may be harmful and suggest alternatives. The student's goals are to identify potentially harmful minerals in makeup, hair products, lotions, sunscreen and jewelry and suggest replacements. The document outlines topics studied including mascara, nail polish and minerals that can be harmful (e.g. parabens, phthalates) or helpful (e.g. oxidizers, magnesium, sulfur). It provides examples of harmful effects and safety tips during pregnancy/nursing. The overall intent is to raise awareness of dangers from long-term cosmetic use without inducing fear. A wiki lists additional researched harmful minerals.

1. Avoiding Dangerous Minerals in
Everyday Items
By: Rachel

2. Goal
• My long-term goal is to find out what minerals
are in everyday accessories and find out if any
are harmful to us and if there is something we
could do to replace the harmful ones.
• I also want to come up with alternatives for
people with allergies to certain minerals

3. Original Topics
• Make-up
– Hair Products
– Lotions and Sunscreen
• Jewelry
– Watches
– Bracelets
– Rings

4. Grow Topic
• Make–up
– Harmful minerals and ingredients
– Positive minerals and ingredients
– General idea of what some of these harmful and
positive minerals can do
– Mascara, nail polish, face creams, perfume, hand
lotions, and lip gloss/stick (I did research on all of
these but I did not include them all in the
presentation)

5. Make-up
• General Cosmetics: Harmful-
– Parabens: mess up human hormones, growth ad
damage DNA
– Phthalate: Is used to prevent the nail polish from
getting fragile
– Parfum (fragrance): can trigger allergies, asthma
and in rare occasions, have been associated with
cancer and neurotoxicity

6. When and what to avoid
• When nursing or pregnant try to avoid any
phthalates
• Many nail polishes have phthalates and
parabens in them. This can cause damage to
your blood cells and nails
• Companies are not required to list all of the
ingredients, but if the label says fragrance, it
probably means there are chemicals and/or
phthalates in it

7. Make-up
• General Cosmetics: Helpful
– Oxidizers: Oxidizers are commonly used in hair
product to make hair have more volume
– Magnesium: commonly used in lotions. Can help
treat eczema or a condition known a vitiligo.
Vitiligo is when you get exposed to sunlight, the
pigment of your skin reduces
– Sulfur: helps with eczema, acne

8. The point of this presentation was not to scare
you but to open your eyes a little to the reality
of the dangers of general cosmetics. All of the
products I listed will only have ill affects on you
if you put them on three times a day for ten
years straight. If you have that much makeup on
all the time anyways it might be a problem.
I made a list of harmful minerals and I posted it
to the wiki if you want to look at it.