Not only do black women buy more personal care products than other ethnic groups, but those products are also more toxic.
Black women buy more cosmetics and personal care products than any other ethnic group in the United States. They are responsible for an estimated 22 percent of the country’s $42-billion-a-year personal care products market, despite being less than 7 percent of the national population. (Total Black American population is around 13.3 percent.)
According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), this is problematic because most of the cosmetics and hair care products aimed at black women contain more toxic ingredients than those manufactured for other ethnic groups. This means that black women experience a disproportionately high level of exposure to chemicals.
“Fewer than one-fourth of the products marketed to Black women scored low in potentially hazardous ingredients, compared to about 40 percent of the items in Skin Deep® marketed to the general public” EWG said.
— source treehugger.com