By Adrienne Barlia and Melissa Aronson, EWG 2011 Teen Ambassadors

Did you know that your cosmetics could harm your health? Your makeup is probably laden with dangerous chemical ingredients that could potentially cause long-term damage.

Are you having trouble getting rid of old cosmetics you don't use anymore? Do you find yourself buying the same unhealthy products every time you go to the store? Here are some tips to help you start buying safer and healthier products:

1. Rid your bathroom and makeup bag of the products you don't use. Make sure you recycle packaging!
2. Evaluate all of your cosmetics on the Skin Deep database. Check the scores on your products then learn about the different ingredients and the dangerous effects they may have on your health.
3. Take the information you learned from Skin Deep into consideration when buying new products. Read labels and ingredient lists on products you find in the store.
4. Instead of buying cheap products to save money, try buying fewer products that are safer and have a low score on Skin Deep. The fewer products you use, the lower your exposure to chemicals and contaminants.
5. Don't trust all products that say they are natural or organic. Always check with Skin Deep!
6. Donate to Skin Deep and get our free Quick Tips to Safer Cosmetics wallet guide to use on-the-go while shopping.
7. Spread the word to your friends and family, and join the conversation about safe cosmetics on Facebook.

By Adrienne Barlia and Melissa Aronson
EWG's 2011 Teen Ambassadors

Hey teens! We know you probably wear make-up and use cosmetics everyday, but do you have any idea what's inside these products? Many personal care products may include dangerous chemicals that can build-up inside your body and pose risks to your health.

Here's a video about this issue just for you - made by teens, for other teens. Just take a look and think about evaluating your products for safety. Just think about it!

We're not asking you to throw out all of your make-up. But once you've watched this video, the shocking facts you'll learn may change your opinion on the safety of your cosmetics. The truth behind the beauty industry is definitely not pretty.

After you watch the video, check out EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database and get to work learning about your make-up and personal care products. Then spread the word!

By Jason Rano, EWG Senior Legislative Analyst

The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011, introduced June 24 by Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) has a simple aim: to give the federal Food and Drug Administration the authority to protect consumers from dangerous ingredients in cosmetics.

What the FDA Can - and Can't Do
The Obama administration recently classified formaldehyde a known human carcinogen. Yet the FDA does not have the power to require a recall of Brazilian Blowout and other formaldehyde-laden hair-straighteners. EWG fans will remember our April 2011 report "Flat-Out Risky" that turned up reports of hair loss, blisters, burning eyes, noses and throats, headaches and vomiting among salon workers and customers using these products.

The federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) gives the FDA authority to require pre-market testing, recall dangerous products and restrict ingredients in prescription drugs and medical devices. Just last year Congress extended the agency's powers so that it could mandate safety inspections of food facilities and recall products. But despite the law's name, the FDA's authority over cosmetics is severely limited by the two pages of the cosmetics title of FFDCA that have not been comprehensively updated since 1938. Under current law, FDA can't require a recall of dangerous products from store shelves, can't force companies to disclose what ingredients are in the fragrance, colors or dyes in a product, and can't require pre-market safety testing.

The Safe Cosmetics Act Would Make Personal Care Products Safer
The Safe Cosmetics Act would require safety tests of all ingredients in personal care products. It would empower FDA to prohibit and restrict the use of certain dangerous ingredients, including carcinogens and reproductive and developmental toxins. The agency could recall products that fail to meet safety standards and require product labels to list each ingredient, including those that make up fragrance. Currently a loophole in the law allows companies to just list fragrance on a product label despite most fragrances being composed of multiple, possibly dangerous, chemicals.

Fragrances can contain chemicals linked to serious health problems. In a 2010 study the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and Environmental Working Group found that 17 popular fragrance products contained an average of 10 chemicals linked to allergic reactions and four chemicals linked to hormone disruption. In fact, most chemicals found in fragrances have never been assessed for safety. We have a right to know all the ingredients we use on our bodies and we have a right to know they are safe.

The new bill is similar to the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, sponsored by the same House members, but with some important changes designed to help small personal care product companies.

Under the new version of the legislation, hobbyists and microbusinesses would be exempt from registering with the FDA. Those small businesses that make less than $10 million in annual gross receipts would not be required to pay a registration fee. The 2010 version set the bar at $1 million in annual gross receipts and required all businesses to register.

The 2011 version would give priority to food-grade ingredients - ingredients that have already been determined safe as food additives- for use in cosmetics without limit.

The Personal Care Products Council, the hired gun of major cosmetics makers, has argued that its clients need business certainty. We couldn't agree more. We're confident that the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011 would do just that by requiring all personal care products to meet the same standard for safety.

Learn More & Take Action!
Want to learn more and get involved with this vital legislation? Click here.

Emily Ion with Rebecca Sutton, PhD

Question: How do I avoid germs when I can't wash my hands in a sink with running water?

The absolute best way to fight germs and prevent infection is good old-fashioned hand washing. But when you can't scrub up, you can turn to waterless hand sanitizers, those convenient little bottles for on-the-go.

But there are risks involved with some of these products (not to mention the disposable plastic containers): many expose you to potentially harmful chemicals and may compromise your long-term immunity. So read the labels - not all sanitizers are created equal.

By Jane Houlihan and Thomas Cluderay

Blowouts can be as diverse as a shredded rear tire on a busy interstate, BP's infamous spew of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, or, we've recently learned, a hair-straightening concoction from California-based Brazilian Blowout, a product that some call a "life changer" but that turns out to be laden with formaldehyde.

Salon workers and people seeking straighter hair, read up. Formaldehyde is a potent irritant, can spur allergic reactions and may cause cancer over the long term. Laboratory tests turned up lots of the toxin in Brazilian Blowout, even though it's marketed as "formaldehyde free."

The government has us covered, right?
You might think that the federal government is ferreting out products like this, mislabeled and laced with hazardous chemicals in amounts far above what the industry itself considers safe (in this case, up to 60 times industry's recommended 0.2 percent limit). You might think regulators would keep products like this out of stores and salons through tight safety standards and rigorous inspections and testing.

But no. The formaldehyde in Brazilian Blowout was uncovered the hard way, by a salon worker in Oregon who'd been sickened by the mixture. She notified her state occupational health agency, which did the tests that exposed the truth. The samples they tested were up to 10.6% formaldehyde.

During the 90-minute hair-straightening process, toxic formaldehyde likely escapes into the air from the goopy mixture that's applied to every strand of hair when the salon worker blows her customer's hair dry and then presses it with a hot flat iron.

When legal isn't safe
Sure, formaldehyde is legal at any level in personal care products sold in the U.S. -- legal, but clearly not safe.

You might hope that the federal government - in this case the Food and Drug Administration, which has authority over cosmetics safety - would be following up to get these formaldehyde-laden hair relaxers off the market.

But no.

The FDA says it will "continue to monitor this problem and will report on any new developments." In contrast, the Canadian government is already working to halt distribution of Brazilian Blowout and warns on its website:

"Stylists who use Brazilian Blowout treatments should immediately stop using the affected product."

If the FDA won't act, EWG will
The Environmental Working Group cited the Brazilian Blowout case in a recent letter to the FDA, urging it to put greater focus on cosmetics safety as it develops a new five-year strategic plan. We also submitted two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests about this product in November, 2010: one to the U.S. FDA and another to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

In this country, blowouts take a long time to fix, whether the stakes are an ecosystem or the health of salon workers.

Jane Houlihan is senior vice president for research at Environmental Working Group; Thomas Cluderay is EWG's Stabile Law Fellow.

Enviroblog readers are fully aware that there are toxic chemicals in personal care products, and many turn to EWG's Cosmetics Database to find less toxic products.

But how aware are we of the just plain gross ingredients in our personal care products? Find out on this ABC News segment with EWG's Senior Vice-President for Research, Jane Houlihan.

Teaser: There is most certainly beetle juice in your....

It's a busy time for the multi-year effort to make cosmetics safer in the U.S.

In July, the 2010 Safe Cosmetics Act was introduced into Congress and Annie Leonard's videoThe Story of Cosmetics was released.

This recent conversation on Democracy Now - with Stacy Malkan of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (and author of Not Just a Pretty Face) and John Bailey of the Personal Care Products Council - will bring you up to speed on what's going on, and who thinks what about it all.

Not surprisingly, they don't all agree.

EWG is a founding member of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.