health – Lab Muffin Beauty Science

Factcheck: Low-Tox Sunscreen Swaps?

Michelle Wong — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 03:47:35 +0000

There’s been a few viral posts about how harmful chemical sunscreens are. The latest one is a post about “Sunscreen Swaps” from @a.glimpse.of.amelia (an Australian “low-tox” consultant) and @jordiepieface (a nutritionist from New Zealand), claiming that “some conventional sunscreens can do more harm than good”. Unfortunately, most of the post is inaccurate, and it’s likely scaring people away from using ...

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Is benzene in benzoyl peroxide a cancer risk?

Michelle Wong — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 11:58:37 +0000

There’s been a lot of stories about benzene contamination in personal care products over the last 4 years. This year, benzene was discovered in benzoyl peroxide, a staple acne treatment. How concerned should we be? Petition and original paper I’ve written about the background behind Valisure’s benzene analyses before, as well as questions about the accuracy of their data and ...

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Parabens, Fragrance, Colorants, Talc: Debunking Bobby Parrish’s TikTok misinformation

Michelle Wong — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 12:37:23 +0000

Bobby Parrish, a home cook and food influencer who goes by the name FlavCity, has made a number of viral TikTok videos recently about dangerous personal care ingredients. As you might expect, there’s quite a lot of misinformation in them. I debunked a couple of them in a recent YouTube video, along with some other TikTok videos – you can ...

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US Sunscreens Aren’t Safe in the EU? The Science

Michelle Wong — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 11:30:36 +0000

There’s been a lot of fearmongering about chemical sunscreens. There were scary-sounding new stories – sunscreen absorbing into blood, killing coral reefs, zinc oxide being toxic, benzene in sunscreens… Related Post: Top 7 Sunscreen and SPF Myths I’ve covered most of these before, and they’re largely just the media taking things out of context and sensationalising them, partly for views, ...

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Food, Diet and Acne: The Science

Michelle Wong — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 12:30:00 +0000

You’ve probably seen hundreds of these sorts of videos and infographics giving you lists of foods to stop eating to cure your acne. Is there any truth to this? Are all these foods actually giving us acne? Here’s a deep dive into the science behind food and acne. A quick warning: I’ve had a lot of requests for this topic, ...

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Do zinc sunscreens stop working and go toxic after 2 hours?

Michelle Wong — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 12:00:21 +0000

There’s a new paper on zinc oxide sunscreens not working and becoming toxic after 2 hours of UV exposure. A lot of people have sent me this paper, so here’s my analysis of it. In short, the researchers found that sunscreen ingredients broke down when mixed with zinc oxide and exposed to UV light, and the degraded mixtures had lower ...

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Do Hats and Umbrellas Protect Well From the Sun?

Michelle Wong — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 12:58:02 +0000

Instead of talking about sunscreen like I usually do, we’re going to dive into some of the things you can use to protect your skin apart from sunscreen (I can feel my sunscreen propaganda shillbucks slipping away right now). As much as we all love sunscreens, they are a bit of a pain in the butt. You have to apply them right, ...

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The “60% of products absorb into your bloodstream” myth

Michelle Wong — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 22:45:05 +0000

The myth that “60% of what’s applied to your skin is absorbed into your bloodstream” is one of my pet peeves. It’s so far from the truth, and it’s cited with such an air of authority that it really ticks me off. It also tends to be cited by the sorts of people who push “non-toxic” products, which is very ...

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Period undies review: Modibodi and Bonds

Michelle Wong — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 12:30:28 +0000

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been trying to get a bit more comfortable talking about normal bodily functions, and I think it’s important that we discuss what works and doesn’t work with reusable period products – about half the population spends about 10 years menstruating, if you add it all up! So I’m reviewing two more brands of period underwear ...

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Should you avoid aluminium in deodorants? The science

Michelle Wong — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 12:30:05 +0000

I’ve recently been approached by several natural deodorant companies to talk about the health risks of aluminium-containing antiperspirants. As much as I’d like that sweet sweet cheque… I can’t. Because the science just isn’t there. So instead, I’m going to debunk the aluminium scaremongering. (Note to deodorant companies: There are valid reasons to switch to natural deodorants. Aluminium ingredients can ...

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