COM Major Kayla Decaro Explains How to Use the Yuka App to Determine Whether Your Cosmetic and Personal Care Products Contain Toxic Chemicals

Many of the cosmetic and personal care products we use on a daily basis are extremely toxic for our bodies as they contain tons of harmful chemicals. These toxins are linked to cancer, birth defects, and reproductive harm. Some harmful toxic chemicals are Formaldehyde, Paraformaldehyde, Mercury, Dibutyl, and M- and O-phenylenediamine, just to name a few. A lot of toxic chemicals are banned in Europe and other nations, but many of these chemicals are still sold in United States stores such as Walgreens, CVS, Target, etc.

Click here to Download the Yuka App

I use an app on my phone called Yuka which allows me to scan the barcode on my cosmetic and personal care products for free. After scanning the barcode, the app will give you an overall score out of 100, letting you know if your product is full of toxic chemicals or not. The app gives a list of ingredients and tells you exactly what chemicals are in the product and tells you how harmful it is or not. If a product gets a poor score, the app will automatically give you a suggestion of a similar product that is free of toxic chemicals.

Showing how to use the Yuka app. Photo by Kayla DeCaro

Walgreens. Photo by Kayla DeCaro

I went to my local Walgreens to check for products that are full of toxic chemicals and then compare them with products that have fewer or no toxic chemicals. I also noticed that the amount of toxic products in Walgreens is significantly more than the amount of clean or toxic chemical-free products.

Deodorant with toxic chemicals. Photo by Kayla DeCaro

On Yuka, Secret deodorant for women is rated an 8/100 which they label as “bad.” This product contains Petrolatum which is hazardous for our health because it contains MOAHs which can act as genotoxic carcinogens, which promote the development of cancers and can damage our DNA.

Screenshot of the Secret deodorant rating on Yuka.

Hair care aisle with L'Oreal products. Photo by Kayla DeCaro

L’Oreal products contain many toxic chemicals. In 2008, L'Oreal faced a major lawsuit for selling its products overseas from the USA. The products contained potentially carcinogenic chemicals, but were falsely advertised as “100 percent vegan.” This is an example of how many brands will claim that their products are vegan, organic, cruelty-free, etc., but just because they say those things does not mean it’s true.

Showing some clean shampoos and conditioners. Photo by Kayla DeCaro

Overall, we see a lot of products that contain tons of harmful chemicals, yet we choose to use them because we don’t think they’ll affect us, because the better options are too expensive, or whatever other excuses we make against our health. In my opinion, I would rather spend more money on a product that will prevent me from having health issues later in life, which would be an extreme cost. So, by buying clean products, I could potentially be spending less money because I won’t have to spend money on the hospital visits I might need for having toxic chemicals in my body. Of course, living a clean lifestyle can be challenging with the amount of toxin-full products that are offered to us on the shelves of our drugstores, but doing the best you can with it is what counts. I’m not perfect, I still use a lot of products that contain toxic chemicals, but here and there I will switch out a product full of toxic chemicals for one with fewer chemicals. It's all about trying your best to care for your health, just as you would with food.