Chemicals in cosmetics

How toxic are common cosmetic products?

Ever wonder how toxic those ingredients are in your everyday shampoo? How about that scented bar of soap or body scrub?

Go over to toxnet (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov) and run a search against those ingredient names. I'm sure some of them will surprise you...

Chemists typically look at MSDS sheets (Materials Safety Data Sheets) to get an idea of the dangers associated with chemicals they need to use. MSDS also provides info on physical properties of the chemical, handling and disposal procedures, and carcinogenicity, among other things.
Many websites (often chemical suppliers) provide MSDS search.
Again, go ahead and run those cosmetic ingredients through the msds search. :)

Just to get things clear, I'm not against the cosmetics industry. After all, the world would be a lot stinkier were it not for the aid of cosmetic products. What I am against, however, is the use of certain additives that contribute negligible benefit or that are outright toxic, bioaccumulative, or hazardous to the environment.

Don't get me started with those microbeads... http://www.beatthemicrobead.org/en/

Certainly with all that money being pumped into the industry, we could afford to develop products that are safe, yet effective.
Then again, you can't charge consumers loads of money for a soap made of the basic ingredients (fat treated with lye (or a base such as NaOH, KOH)) can you?

Notable mention
The EWG (environmental working group) cosmetics database has a site that lists common cosmetic products according to their "hazard" level (which they define according to the chemicals contained within).
http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/