COSMETICS: ILLUSION OF BEAUTY

Shah Neha*, Jhunjhunwala Amita, Tiwari R. C., Dikshit Manisha, Singh Anoop Kumar and Sharma Ved Bushan

ABSTRACT

As we know, we all are living in the era where physical appearance and the desire to look good and attractive is everyone’s dream and to maintain that attractiveness is like a challenge. So cosmetics as a mediator plays a significant role in fulfilling our dream. Cosmetics not just make us look attractive but at the same time boost our confidence level too. Cosmetics are always associated with women but in the age of social media and level of exposure around the world the men too are attracted towards them. People are getting so much obsessed of these cosmetics that many of them are ignoring its harmful effects and a few of them are unaware of its darker side. Variety of cosmetic products are available in the market even the cosmetic surgeries, laser techniques, medications too have jumped into the market for our rescue. It is obvious that cosmetics improve our appearance but they do contain harmful chemicals like Sodium Laureth Sulphate, Talcum, Parabens, coal tar dyes and some heavy metals e.g, Lead, Arsenic, Nickel, Cadmium, and mercury and bioaccumulation of all substances can lead to deleterious effect on our body like skincare issues (dermatitis, skin allergies, premature ageing), respiratory disorders, heavy metal poisoning, infertility, cancer etc. At the initial stage the use of cosmetics seems effective, but actually they get accumulated in our body in form of toxic substance producing deleterious effects which might not be visible in the early stage but become apparent later.

Keywords: cosmetics, dermatitis, metal poisoning, infertility, toxic, chemicals.