The Cocktail Equation

Every cosmetic ingredient on the market was declared "safe" based on a test that never accounted for the other ingredients sitting next to it on your skin — or the thirty years you'll spend using it. In this episode, Lia Cardoso breaks down the real math behind toxic exposure in the beauty industry: the cocktail effect, where chemicals that are "safe" in isolation become active when combined, and time, which turns a negligible daily dose into decades of accumulation the body can't fully clear. Drawing on hormone-disruption research and recent studies linking chemical hair straighteners to uterine cancer and fertility issues, Lia unpacks what "safe at this concentration" actually means, and why it's the wrong question to be asking. Educational content, not medical advice — full sources in the show notes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.