When you put chemicals, makeup, skincare products, oils, and basically any other substances on your skin, it absorbs in seconds and enters the bloodstream. For example, you can apply a garlic poultice on a baby’s feet and you can smell it on their breath two minutes later. (Poultice: A soft, moist mass of some substance, applied to the body for some medicinal purpose, and kept in place with a wrap of cloth or plastic.)

Interestingly, the skin absorbs substances more readily than a healthy intestinal tract. Medical science understands this, as medicinal patches containing transdermal medications have been used for decades when oral delivery is poorly absorbed or targeted. Now what’s important to know is when you absorb something through the skin it doesn’t go through the liver first, as it would if you swallowed it. Rather, anything you absorb through the skin goes directly into the bloodstream, does what it’s going to do, and is filtered by the liver later. So personal care products – including makeup, skincare products, soaps, and hair care products – expose you to an unrestricted, repeated source of toxins every day.