If you’re a Black or Latina woman in Los Angeles, there’s a 53 percent chance your daily beauty routine includes a chemical linked to cancer, like formaldehyde. These cancer-causing chemicals are in shampoo, lotion, eyeliner—pretty much every product a woman applies to themselves in the name of beauty.
In a new study published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 64 women snapped pics of the ingredients list on every personal-care product they used over a week. A staggering 1,143 products were accounted for, at an average of 17 per person, with some women using up to 43 products. Some of these women were more chemicals than people.
Over half of these women were using products that contain or release formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen. While Europe removed formaldehyde from cosmetics back in 2009, the U.S. just doesn’t seem to care as much. The FDA flirted with banning formaldehyde in hair straighteners as recently as 2023, but never followed through for reasons that were never made clear
Beauty Products Are Loaded With Cancer-Causing Chemicals
The sneaky part about formaldehyde-releasing chemicals being in so many cosmetics is that they’re not labeled as formaldehyde on the ingredients list. At least not in a way that’s recognizable to most people.
You might see something like DMDM hydantoin on the ingredients list and not realize that it’s a preservative that releases formaldehyde to prevent microbial growth. Formaldehyde-releasing agents aren’t in these products for no reason, after all. They serve a purpose. They also just might give you cancer.
This isn’t just a skincare issue; it’s a socio-political one. Black and Latina women often face pressure to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards, leading to heavier use of straighteners and skin lighteners. Researchers suspect this might be connected to the disproportionately high rates of breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers in Black women.
And just to twist the knife, this junk is often marketed as self-care. When “glow-up” culture meets systemic racism, the result is women bathing in endocrine disruptors and carcinogens.
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