Who knew buying a face wash and mascara could be so complicated. From the ingredients manufacturers are formulating with to the packaging surrounding your night cream, there are so many decisions to make and warnings to heed. Question everything, right? Right. Consumers and manufacturers are started to question personal care ingredients and what has been commonplace for years in packaging and formulating is more recently raising a brow, as alternative, eco-friendly natural solutions are becoming more popular.

Here are a few “questions to ask":

You Put What in My Shampoo? Yep, petroleum, tar, formaldehyde … they’re all in there. Anti-freeze—that word your mechanic throws around—is also used in shampoos, antibacterial solutions and saline solutions. Extreme skin conditions such as psoriasis use tar-based ingredients. Beetles, those fun-loving creatures we’ve all learned to love, have been crawling into cosmetics for years. Pregnant beetles are crushed to make bright red lipsticks. And, many of the “beetle-juiced" lipsticks have also reported traces of lead, another ingredient that has no business going on your lips.

Peeling Back the Layers: Mariève Inoue, in her Daily Divine blog, suggests a few useful packaging tips. As a manufacturer or a consumer, opting out of cardboard packing is a smart move. It eliminates the waste; even if recycled packaging is used, no packaging is better than recycled packaging. Also buying in bulk or larger-sized products may be a more economical choice; however, depending on how fast you use your products, the product may expire before you can use all its contents.