What's in Your Lotion? Hidden Ingredients that Will Make Your Skin Crawl

Lotion is a product that many of us use to keep the skin moisturized and soft. We use it on our face and on our children and to soothe irritations of the skin. It comes in different varieties from Shea Butter to almond butter and in different scents and textures but did you know that your very own lotion could come in animal urine and blood?

One day after hopping out the shower I started to slab on a seemingly normal bottle of Vaseline lotion. While putting on the lotion, I decided to glance at the back of the ingredients list and I was shocked at what I found. The ingredients list read like a rotten recipe for lard pie; Urea, Stearic acid, Lecithin, Collagen amino acids and Keratin. You might not be familiar with these ingredients but they are all derived from animals!

Urea is found in urine and other bodily fluids. Stearic acid is taken from fatty matter from pigs' abdomen but can also be taken from cows, sheep, cats and dogs. Lecithin can be found in animal blood and tissue. Collagen amino acids are taken from animal tissue, and Keratin is found in hair, nails, hooves and horns. Reading ingredients like these on the back of my lotion made me want to run and take a shower.

With ingredients like these it makes you wonder why companies use the scientific terms instead of making it easier for the everyday consumer. Why can't Stearic acid be noted on the bottle as fat from pig abdomen? It is a well-known fact that when preparing instruction manuals for consumers, the writer is supposed to write based on the readers' education level and the majority of everyday readers are not scientist from Harvard. Sunflower seeds are not called helianthus annuus seeds on the package and dandelions are not called Taraxacum officinale. Why, then, are the ingredients so complex on a lotion bottle? The answer is pretty simple the ingredients are too horrid to be blatantly displayed as so. Companies feel as though, if people found out what they were using or consuming they might stop buying the products and seek alternatives. This wouldn't be the first in which people have been misled by companies that provide goods. Everyday food companies label their products as fat free but have fat labeled under a different name; partially hydrogenated oil- a term unknown to many.

Unfortunately animals play a major role in the beauty/skin product industry. Animals are depended upon to make soaps, lipstick, deodorant, shampoos, and hairsprays. Take a look around your house and you might find it surprising to find that your favorite lotion and beauty products are all made from animal glob. If this article has turned you off even just a bit then you might be relieved to learn that there are cruelty free lines of beauty products. Such lines are BWC (Beauty Without Cruelty) and Alternative Outfitters. These companies make cruelty free beauty products that are not tested on animals and do not contain any animal ingredients.