Quickly scanning the ingredient list for offending substances is probably the most important skill you have to master. Being able to quickly decipher the ingredients list instead of listening to a salesperson's chatter will save you money, time, and frustration.

Most often, the worse the formulation is, the harder the box is to read. To discourage curious customers from prying into cosmetic secrets, they print ingredient lists in all-cap dense letters with very small spaces between lines, so the whole area looks like one grayish square filled with chemical jabber. Often the lavish design masks the most noxious ingredients. Some of them may be hiding under natural-sounding names or abbreviations. Cocamide DEA may sound natural, but in fact it is coconut oil diethanolamine, and we already know that diethanolamine, along with triethanolamine, may be contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals. Read more of this post