In the Beauty Brains review of the Lil Rinser, someone was kind enough to leave the following message in our comments section…

Interesting post. However I disagree with the statement that “small doses are not dangerous”. Ever heard of Homeopathy ? It uses trace amounts of chemicals, amounts so tiny that theoretically they shouldn’t even have a bit of effect on an ant. But they do have an effect, and a very strong one!

Does the Dose Matter?

The first thing to point out that we never said “small doses are not dangerous”. What we said was

“While we have no reason to doubt the test results, the implication that the presence of tiny amounts of carcinogens makes the product harmful is unfounded. All of the best research maintains that the levels are not dangerous. The dose of exposure matters just as much as the chemical. Pure water will kill you at a high enough dose.”

Small doses of some things CAN be dangerous. This list of the most toxic chemicals in the world demonstrates that as little as 60 nanograms of tetanus can kill an average sized woman. To give you a sense of that number, a single grain of sand is equal to 670,000 nanograms.

But smaller amounts of that same toxic chemical will not have the same effect. The dose + the level of toxicity is what matters.

Dose AND toxicity level matter

Homeopathy

Homeopathic remedies have been around since the late 1700’s when a man named Samuel Hahnemann proposed his “Law of Similars.” Essentially, it says that you can cure a disease by exposing yourself to a teeny, tiny amount of the thing that causes the disease in healthy people. So by the theory of homeopathy, you can cure acne by exposing yourself to a dilute solution of a comedogenic compound like Octyl Stearate. Wikipedia has a good review of homeopathy.

Do Homeopathic remedies work?

While homeopathic remedies are legal to sell in the US, they are not recognized by the FDA as effective treatments for anything. A whole host of reviews of scientific papers about homeopathy conclude time and again that it doesn’t work any better than a placebo. Stephen Barret sums it up best when he says “Most homeopathic research is worthless, and no homeopathic product has been proven effective for any therapeutic purpose.”

What’s the harm?

Sometimes people will defend unscientific beliefs as harmless. They’ll say “Why don’t you just let people believe what they want? Why are you always looking for scientific proof of everything?”

When it comes to cosmetics, believing in unproven treatments is not likely to cause much harm. Sure, you may waste a lot of money or have to live with acne longer than you want, but it’s mostly harmless. But unproven, fake treatments like homeopathy can cause real harm when relied upon for medical treatment. Just look at this list of hundreds of people who have either died or been harmed by homeopathy. It’s a shame people still fall for this unproven nonsense.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Small doses of some things can be dangerous. It just depends on what it is and how much you’ve been exposed to. Homeopathic remedies for cosmetic problems are not dangerous, but they are not effective either. Save your money (and maybe your life) by avoiding the homeopathic hustlers.

Have you tried homeopathic remedies for cosmetics? Did they work for you? Leave a comment and let the rest of the Beauty Brains community know.