Do you want fossil fuels on your face? Neither do we! Believe it or not, even luxury skin creams contain synthetic fragrances, endocrine disruptors, emulsifiers, problematic preservatives, and even artificial colorants and dyes.

It's estimated that around 60% of what you put on your face gets absorbed into your body and your bloodstream. Even though these ingredients might or might not cause immediate problems in the short-term, there is little safety data on the effects over time. Considering many people use an array of personal care products (all potentially containing a mixture of questionable ingredients with a cumulative exposure), applying once or twice a day for decades, nobody really knows what the side effects of that can be over a lifetime. These potentially harmful substances can cause skin reactions, inflammation, and premature aging — all in the name of beauty.

Many ingredients commonly used in the beauty industry are byproducts of petroleum production, as those ingredients are cheap to produce (but are often marketed to the customer at an elevated price). Fossil fuel-based ingredients don't belong in your body and on your skin. Furthermore, in the light of the current climate crisis, it is an indefensible practice. Beyond requiring crude oil to be produced, these ingredients can also go into our landfills and waterways and pollute ecosystems. It is essential for the beauty industry to reduce its reliance on fossil fuel-derived ingredients and begin formulating with mindfully crafted ingredients from renewable sources.

We shouldn’t have to choose between products that work and products that potentially harm us and/or the environment over time. Read on for an extensive list of ingredients we intentionally leave out of our formulas. LXMI’s labs only use ingredients ranked no higher than a “1” on the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Index (the leading non-profit authority on skincare safety). Some of our skincare products are even safe enough to eat.

A - F

Benzalkonium chloride

Benzophenone

Bisphenol A (BPA)

BHA And BHT

Chemical Sunscreens

Coal tar

1,4-Dioxane

Disodium EDTA

Ethanolamines

Formaldehyde

G — P

Gluten

Glycol

Hydroquinone

Lanolin

Methyl Cellosolve

Methylisothiazolinone

Microplastics

Mineral Oil

Nitrites

Parabens

PEGs

Phthalates

Q — Z

Retinol

Silicones

Sulfates

Synthetic fragrance

Talc

Toluene

Triclosan and Triclocarban

Synthetic colorants

Sources: CosIng, EWG Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, SafeCosmetics.org, National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences, Health Canada, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange