At this point, you've probably already heard way too often how parabens are present in many of your everyday products and how they're supposed to be bad for your long-term health. For decades, many companies have been using this ingredient to increase the shelf life of their products. While it's efficient for them, it poses serious risks for their market. This is why it's so important to choose the brands you buy your products from, especially when it comes to your skin and personal care needs. While the majority of self-care brands still rely heavily on questionable ingredients, there are still a few out there that have seen the light and chose to be more conscious about the welfare of their market and even the environment. 

Here at Zafra, we've always been very selective about the brands that we feature. We make sure that each holds true to our own values of providing clean and safe beauty products to the rest of the world. While we continue to work on that, we also want to further educate people, and this time, we're doing that by providing you more information on the adverse effects of parabens on your health. 

Parabens are considered as fake estrogen. When you have this so-called synthetic estrogen floating around inside your body, it will definitely disrupt your hormone system. With too much estrogen, your body is at risk of certain life-threatening disease like breast cancer. In fact, there have been some studies that found parabens in cancerous breast tissues. The risk is ever higher in hereditary breast cancer. 

If you're trying to get pregnant, many doctors will advise you to stay away from products containing parabens. Many studies show that parabens are linked to birth complications and growth abnormalities for children. It also heightens the link to cancer when a child is exposed to parabens from even before he or she is born.

If you notice some skin issues recently, it may be because of the products that you put on your skin. Check if the products have parabens or preservatives on their ingredients list. For instance, contact dermatitis, a type of eczema that's triggered by contact with a particular substance, is a very common skin condition and is usually caused by applying products with parabens on already broken skin. 

We hope we can all continue making the shift to paraben-free skin and personal care products!