Your Skincare Is Lying to You (And Your Hormones Are Paying the Price)

Let's start with something uncomfortable: the average woman puts 168 chemicals on her body before she even leaves the house in the morning. That number comes from the Environmental Working Group, and it's been floating around holistic circles for years because it refuses to stop being true.

Most of those chemicals live in places you'd never think to look. Your "clean" moisturizer. The fancy serum your friend swore by. The lotion that smells like a warm hug and promises you'll wake up glowing. Hiding in plain sight, under words like “fragrance”, “methylparaben”, “propylparaben”, or “parfum” which is legally just a cover story for up to 3,000 individual chemical ingredients that brands are not required to disclose because they're classified as trade secrets***.

***A trade secret is defined as all forms of financial, business, scientific, technical, economic, or engineering information, including formulas, patterns, compilations, methods, or techniques, that derive independent economic value from not being generally known and are subject to reasonable efforts to maintain secrecy.

Do you realize the weight of that cover word?. A thousand unnamed chemicals that go on your skin, and get absorbed into your body like the food you eat.

Skin absorbs everything.

Here's what we know from the science: phthalates and parabens -two of the most common preservative groups in mainstream skincare- have been linked to endocrine disruption, meaning they interfere with how your hormones function. Research published in 2024 confirmed what holistic practitioners have been saying for years that these compounds mimic estrogen in the body, binding to hormone receptors and throwing your natural balance off. The EU has banned over 1,300 chemicals from cosmetics. The United States has banned 11. If you're in México, you're navigating the same lax regulatory environment, with almost no requirement for brands to prove their products are safe before putting them on shelves.

And then there's “fragrance.” This one word can legally conceal phthalates. That's the same chemicals linked to reproductive issues, developmental problems in children, and hormone disruption. You won't see "phthalates" on the label. You'll just see "fragrance," and assume it's fine.

Well, it is not fine. Not in this house.

I own Nuda, a natural skin care brand born in México. When we at Nuda say we hide nothing, we mean it. What you read on our label is what is in the product. No aliases, no loopholes, no cover words. My two main products are tallow and herb based. Natural infusions, organic ingredients, all ethically sourced. Check it out here: Website/Instagram

So what do you do now?

Start reading! Not skimming through- reading. Look for anything ending in -paraben. Look for "fragrance" or "parfum" listed anywhere that isn't a pure essential oil. Look for phenoxyethanol, which some "natural" brands have started using as a paraben replacement, and which has its own concerns around reproductive toxicity. If you can't pronounce it and can't find it growing in the ground, it's worth asking why it needs to be on your skin.

The skin is your largest organ. It absorbs what you put on it. Studies have detected parabens, phthalates, and triclosan in blood and urine samples,  proof that what you put on your skin gets absorbed into your body like the food you eat.

Your skincare should work with your body. Not confuse it, disrupt it, or quietly undermine the hormones that regulate your mood, your cycle, your metabolism, your sleep.

You deserve to know what you're putting on yourself. And you deserve products made by people who believe that transparency isn't a marketing strategy,  it's the minimum standard of respect.

All my love, Xoxo,

Stella (aka Barbara, fundadora de @nudanatural)