Do you know what goes in your body lotion?

When you buy a lotion for your skin, what are the results you expect? Healthy and moisturised? Improved complexion? Free from blemishes? Studies have found you could be getting more than you bargained for.

Many skin products have been found to contain illegal levels of poisonous mercury. The testing was done by the Mercury Policy Project who found that some products contained as much as 30,000 parts of mercury per million. The legal limit set by the US Food and Drug Administration is 1 part per million! (Source: ewg.org)

Mercury is a heavy metal and highly toxic. Exposure to mercury is harmful to the mind and body. The skin itself can suffer from rashes, discolouration, scarring and worst of all - reduced resistance to infections. These are certainly not the kind of results you want from your skin lotion!

The effects can go beyond skin issues as mercury can damage the kidneys and even cause mental issues such as anxiety, depression, psychosis and much more.

While the FDA has banned the use of mercury since 1973, enforcement is limited. Many products with illegal levels of mercury remain available through regular e-commerce portals such as eBay and Amazon.

Mercury is most commonly used in skin lightening creams, anti-aging products and acne treatments. Hmm… as if someone worried about their skin colour, age or face doesn’t already have enough anxiety. Here you go, have some Mercury loaded product and get depressed!

As if it wasn’t bad enough that mercury is being added to products at dangerous levels, it is not even mentioned in the ingredients! The few that do list it will do so with words such as quicksilver or Hg, among others.

Clearly it is becoming increasingly difficult to trust what companies are adding to their cosmetics. Thankfully, there are is a growing market of natural and handmade products crafted by artists who genuinely care about health.

One great example is Ocean in a Drop. All of their products are handmade using natural ingredients and many of them even contain healing crystals. What's more, they are now on a zero waste mission and have cut out all plastics from the packaging. In their unadulterated form, many of the oils and herbs lighten your skin complexion the natural way through gentle cleansing and nourishing. The crystals have numerous benefits not just for the skin but for the rest of the body and the mind. So now that you know, choose wisely what you apply on your skin!