Social Effects Of Cosmetics

This research aims to investigate how well college aged women are educated in the production and chemical make up of their cosmetic products, and to find the social drives behind using products that could potentially be harmful to ones health. Cosmetic products are filled with harmful chemicals that can cause negative health impacts on those who use them. A survey will be conducted for women between the ages of 17 and 25 on and around college campuses in order to determine daily use, types of products, knowledge of chemical make up of cosmetics, and the reason behind the use of cosmetics. interviews will also be used to determine the education level of those who are selling the potentially harmful cosmetics. With this, the research aims to

Women all over the world use cosmetics such as lipstick, eyeliner, and mascara on a daily basis without much hesitation or thought. It is part of a social construct of beauty that women have been compelled to follow for many years. While beautifying could be hard to see as dangerous, recent studies have confirmed that cosmetics actually contain harmful chemicals such as paraben, phthalates, petrochemicals, artificial fragrances, sodium lauryl sulfate, and diazolidinyl urea, which have been linked to causing cancer, reproductive health issues, and birth defects. Although the exposure of these chemicals is in very small quantities at a time, the effects pose a threat over a long period of time.

The surveys will be given at random to women between the ages of 17 and 25 on and around college campuses throughout the country. The survey will include questions about daily cosmetic use, brands that are used and whether or not they use organic, the knowledge of the chemicals used in the production of these products, and why they choose to use these products. I plan to analyze the data and throw out any of the cases of women who answer that they do not use cosmetics. A small sample of the data will come from qualitative interviews with sales representatives from the major high end cosmetic stores in the world. The interviews will include open-ended questions that ask how educated these individuals are when it comes to the products they are selling to millions of people every day, and the precautions they may take when purchasing and using cosmetics. Because this is a sample made up only of women who are in their late teens to early 20s, it does not completely analyze the women population as a whole. Also, because it takes place on and around college campuses, the assumption would be that these women are part of the higher education institution and therefore know more about these types of issues than