Something kind of scary I found out...

I have some cuticle oil laying around that I never use because I LOVE my Julep rollerball one! Thinking I would use them more if they had a different container, I ordered some empty rollerball bottles off of Etsy.

That's when I got to thinking- Self, you are gonna make your own nail polish in a month or two. How cool would it be to make your own cuticle oil as well??

Genius, I thought, and how hard could it be? Get a base oil, add some nice smell and boom! Cuticle oil!

Well, this is when my research uncovered some seriously scary stuff!!

(I look so cute and innocent, but read on to find my scary truths!)

One of the main ingredients in "Q-Tickles" cuticle oil (which smells AMAZING) is mineral oil. I never really thought about it, but... rocks aren't usually what I consider oily, and what else could be a mineral?

Go ahead, google "mineral oil". The first thing that popped up was Wikipedia, my usual destination for random facts. However, my eye was caught by the header just underneath that.

"MINERAL OIL AND WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID IT"

Ok, what? I clicked the link (and you can too ^) and found out something rather unsettling... mineral oil is the cheap leftover from distilling gasoline from crude oil. Uh, idk about you gals, but whenever I have to pump gas it really grosses me out. Something about it is really unnatural and I always wash my hands when I get home/to my next destination. Nobody should think "Oh yeah, for my manicure I'd like to soak my hands in crude oil or gasoline. Which one do I want...."

No. Ew.

So the idea is gross, but what's worse? It not only clogs your pores (sometimes you know, you might touch your face) but it clogs your liver too. This stuff, if it gets into your body, will soak up valuable nutrients and can harm you. Go ahead and read the article for all the scary facts, I'm gonna go ahead and skip down to the part that really caught my attention.

The FDA has a limit to how much mineral oil can be in food. These "FDA" people seem to be on our bodies side when it comes to human vs. bad stuff. So if they have a limit to how much can end up in our food (because, since mineral oil is so cheap, it's used as a lubricant in food manufacturing) that says something about what it would do in our bodies. Sure, we've all heard the stories about the FDA allowing a certain amount of rat poop in pepper, but whether or not that rumor is true the fact that they limit the amount of mineral oil stuck out to me.

Even if you don't buy processed foods, if you use this cuticle oil and then touch food, that stuff doesn't even need to be soaked in, you just gave it a fast track to your tummy where it will wreak havoc.

I'm not saying "BY THE WILL OF BATTHUMB NEVER USE THESE CUTICLE OILS AGAIN!" because I'm pretty sure (don't quote or sue me please!) it would take a lot more oil than the amount you apply to cuticles to really do yourself harm, otherwise FDA would have rained down on these companies with the vengeance of a thousand rat-dropping-peppers.

What I'm saying is... always wash your hands before preparing food of any sort. Not just rinse, not just a little scrub here and there-- really wash your hands! Especially if you've applied lotions/cremes/oils. Even if it IS healthy for your skin, unless you do some research you won't know if it's bad for your tummy-tums and other insides.

I'm also saying if I do make my own cuticle oil in the future- trust that I'm gonna use the safe oils, like Jojoba or avocado, ones that are safe on your skin and natural.


Oh, also, don't ah... don't take a bath of mineral oil any time soon. Might be bad or something....


<3 and sunshine all, read your ingredients sometime! It can be really eye opening!