People use skin cosmetics like sunscreen, facial cleansers, and moisturizers, mostly to maintain their appearance or improve it as self-beauty is a major judgement in modern day society. While these products are used by people across nearly all age groups, most daily users lack understanding of their ingredients and their harm. The cosmetics industry is worth a huge market value of billions and grows year on year expanding its merchandise and exporting at cheap low-cost products causing the chemicals inside these products can trigger skin irritation and allergies, as well as cause huge environmental harm by cutting down trees to set up industries in LEDC countries and extracting essential recourses from animals causing many to be endangered . Acknowledging people into this issue can help the public make safer, healthier choices for them and the environment it affects; understanding relevant knowledge about skincare and cosmetic products helps us select the products we apply to our bodies and paying attention to their impacts on us and the environment.  

These types of products are closely related to the basic concepts of biology and chemistry. The skin has a protective barrier, and cosmetics interact with this barrier weakening it and worsening the skin's health conditions over time. The facial cleanser used in daily life is a typical example of this kind of interaction. 
In chemistry, you learn how to make these products with different ingredients for different purposes. Moisturizers are like little sponges that are like water and can hold it in your skin. Cosmetics need preservatives too, because of their long-term life in damp bathroom shelves. These are chemical stabilizers that prevent mold from growing internally of the bottles or spread dangerous diseases to your skin's dangerous bacteria and mold growth inside the bottles. Another important chemical concept is pH. pH measures how acidic or basic something is. Human skin has a slightly acidic protective layer of about 5.5 pH. “pH-balanced” cosmetics are balanced to this natural acidity so they don’t remove your skin or cause redness or irritation.

Furthermore, the skin cosmetics industry has a huge impact on our society, our economy , and the environment. On the social side, cosmetics help people by boosting their confidence and hiding insecurities, but the hidden toxins can cause health issues such as breakouts, hormonal issues, or eczema for women, men, and teens. Not only that, but it could cause and identity crisis as they won’t recognize themselves as they put too much makeup on. Economically, cosmetic companies make a huge profit and provide jobs, but ads that are edited mislead trick customers into buying the product, and poor people are left out as they are not able to afford high quality products. On the environmental side, plastics from the packaging causes sea pollution and danger to the animals, and factories contaminate the surrounding area, killing plants and harming animals. In this system, big companies and governments hold all the power as they control what is used, advertisements, and laws. Meanwhile, consumers have no word in laws and what is being used, and nonhuman groups have the least powers as they have no word in what happens. Moreover, while companies give jobs and benefit financially, human health and the environment etc bear all the harm and end up getting hurt the most.

In class, we did an experiment because we wanted to find out if pricey skin cosmetics are safer and better for your skin than cheaper options. So, our main question was: does paying more mean you’re actually getting healthier and safer makeup? To find out, my group picked three makeup brands, each at a different price point. We set up the experiment using petri dishes with agar, rulers, spatulas, and measuring cylinders. Agar was used as a model for skin. We took equal amounts of each foundation and put them in separate petri dishes, we left it for two days and then we measured their pH levels. Here’s what we found: the most expensive foundation, product 1, had a pH of 5. Product 2 and product 3, which cost less, had pH levels of 10 and 7. According to our graph, some of the cheaper products caused stronger reactions, probably because they had harsher ingredients. Based on all this, we figured that expensive makeup might have a more balanced pH, so it is potentially healthier for your skin. But honestly, that doesn’t mean it’s always safer. We made sure our method was consistent for each product and always used equal amounts. Still, if we’d tested more brands and repeated everything, our results would be more reliable. Even though the sample size was small, the project made us more aware of the kinds of ingredients companies are putting in makeup. It got us thinking about what we put on our skin every day. In conclusion, the experiment gave our petition for safer skin cosmetics a solid case.

Signing this petition is very important and crucial for you for plenty of important reasons! Firstly, it is made for companies to be faithful and truthful to their customers! Also, for them to be more open about all the damage and side effects it can have on skin, especially teenagers or kids’ sensitive skin! Our primary goal is for companies to make higher quality makeup, so the brands don’t have to lie about the quality in the first place or set labels warning the customers about the effects of the products! Many customers buy the products thinking it will have benefits on their skin only to find out that it can make their skin even worse, causing skin irritation or damage in some way. Many teenagers have struggled with insecurity because the makeup does not make them look perfect or like in the advertisements this is why it is crucial for companies to be straight forward about the makeup products! Ultimately, this petition is about growing the trust between companies and customers by promoting transparency through clear product labelling. It’s a stand against being led and a collective voice from pupils standing up for what’s right! 

References

• Impersonating expertise: The ethics of misleading dermatology advertising, ScienceDirect.com
• Umami collective: Is makeup bad for you / March 12 2024  
• Skinportant.co.uk: does daily foundation damage the Skin Barrier / November 28 2025