This is a great review article on what chemicals are safe & not safe for your skin & your kid’s skin by Dr. Brod.
At this point in time, there seems to be discordance between what dermatologists know about the science of the skin and what is being disseminated to consumers through the clean beauty movement. The EWG’s safe skin database scores thousands of products based on the putative toxicity of their ingredients,17 but these claims are not always uniformly agreed on by a broad consensus of experts, and can cause confusion to consumers. For example, the EWG has assigned a hazard score of 5 (moderate hazard) to the common ingredient PEG-2 soyamine, despite acknowledging that, “data available: none.”18 Although the EWG remains a powerful force driving the clean beauty dialogue, their method for assessing risk does not seem to be data driven. The EWG also profits from participating in affiliate programs where they receive a percentage of the sale when a consumer makes a purchase through their website, which may be a notable conflict of interest. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR), on the other hand, is an alternative resource, which consists of experts in a number of disciplines including dermatology and toxicology. Claims made by the CIR are backed by scientific evidence that is visible to readers. After extensive review of the evidence, they determined that propylene glycol, parabens, sulfates, and many other ingredients demonized by the clean beauty movement were nontoxic and noncarcinogenic.19