Women who use make-up on a daily basis can absorb almost 5 pounds of chemicals into their bodies each year.

Some of the compounds present in make-up have been linked to side effects ranging from skin irritation to cancer.

Putting chemicals on your skin is actually far worse than ingesting them, because when you eat something the enzymes in your saliva and stomach help break it down and flush it out of your body.

When you put these chemicals on your skin, however, it is absorbed straight into your blood stream without filtering of any kind, so there's no protection against the toxin. The five pounds of toxic chemicals per year you may be absorbing from the use of toiletries and beauty products are largely going directly to your delicate organs.

It's no wonder that they have been linked to deadly side effects like cancer. Parabens, which may be listed on the label as methyl paraben, ethyl paraben, propyl paraben, butyl paraben, isobutyl paraben or E216, have shown particularly troubling links to cancer.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health stated nearly 900 of the chemicals used in cosmetics are toxic. Women are becoming more aware of this issue, and there are more natural cosmetics available today than in years past. But remember that labels do not tell the whole story.

There are no federal certifications or official guidelines for beauty products, so anyone can claim that such a product is natural or organic. Some "organic" beauty products contain only a single-digit percentage of organic ingredients.

If you want to stay beautiful, it is much better to do it by keeping yourself fit and healthy, rather than covering yourself with toxic chemicals. There are many great natural and safe cosmetic products out there. I hope to highlight some later this year, but in the meantime many of your health food stores are a good start to find them.