Your skin cares!

What you put on your skin and in your body matters.  The largest organ you have is your skin.  Your skin absorbs everything that you put on it, including all the chemicals, pollutants, known carcinogens, and preservatives that are in many beauty and skincare products.

Why it matters

Did you know that The United States has not passed a major federal law to regulate the safety of ingredients used in personal care products since 1938.  Yes, it’s true.  In the last 20 years, the European Union has banned more than 1,300 chemicals in product formulas of personal care products and restricted the levels of over 250 more in such products.  That is great for Europe, but The United States has only partially banned 30 to date…only 30!  This matters because many of these chemicals and ingredients your body cannot breakdown and get rid of.  As a result, they build up in your body and cause hormonal imbalances and disruptions, skin toxicity issues, neurotoxicity problems, and even cancer.

Did you also know that the Food and Drug Administration is responsible for “regulating” health and beauty products.

There are more than 80,000 chemicals on the market today. Many don’t have any safety data. This is particularly true of those used in the skin care and beauty industry.

Since the ingredients in your common household cleaning products, beauty products, lotions, cleansers, etc. are not regulated well at all it is up to you to do a little digging.  One of my favorite tools is ewg.org .

Through this website you can look up many different products and discover how they rate.  What is the overall hazard rating, cancer rating, developmental and reproductive toxicity level, and allergies and immunotoxicity level. Sadly, I think you will be surprised what your body is absorbing on a daily basis.  Guys…don’t think this doesn’t include you…your Axe body wash contains neurotoxic and ecotoxic ingredients along with many “synthetic scent chemicals”.

I swapped out ALL my make up and cleaning supplies about three years ago after looking them up on ewg.org .  You’d be surprised how easy it is to swap out your cleaning supplies.  There’s really only a couple of items you need to clean your entire house, kitchen, and bathroom (we’ll save that discussion for the Green and Clean blogpost.  I love making lotions, make-up removers, cleansers, etc., DIY projects are a ton of fun!  I also love the convenience of buying the product, there are some AWESOME and easily accessible options out there.  I challenge you to look up a just a couple of your household products and find SAFER and HEALTHIER alternatives.  If you don’t know where to start that is what I’m here for!  Feel free to message me and I can help you find alternatives to current products you may love!

What to avoid…

How do you know what to avoid?  Another great tool is the The Never List™ .  It lists some of the common chemicals you will see in your hair products, bath and body products, make-up ,etc. and it is explained more here!  What I love most, is it tells you how the chemical affects you!

Two Brands I LOVE!

It’s no secret I love my dōTERRA essential oils!  The health benefits of aromatherapy, ingestion of essential oils, and the topical application of them are countless.  Essential oils are derived from nature aka they are natural.  dōTERRA essential oils are Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade, they are made without alcohol, additives, or preservatives.  The oils and their properties are not derived in a lab with chemicals.  In Latin, doTERRA means “gift of the Earth”.  They have been around for thousands of years  Essential oils have started to be more incorporated into beauty products due to their high quality and performance aromatics AS WELL AS they benefits they possess.

The second brand I LOVE is Beautycounter!  I recently teamed up with them to offer you guys easy access to better skin, hair, and beauty products.  Again, guys this includes you…you wash your hair right…maybe even wash your face once and a while…I hope :)?  They have wonderful products for babies and even offer toxin-free sunscreen too.  When using their products you will never have to wonder how they rate or what is in them.  They are all EWG certified and contain none of the 1,500+ questionable or harmful ingredients that Europe has already banned.  They have worked extremely close with EWG and are one of the only brands I never question.  They’re mission is:

To get safer products into the hands of everyone. – Beautycounter

Your environment matters, it can change everything.

-Enlighten Life

References

Comedogenic Ratings. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2016, from https://www.beneficialbotanicals.com/facts-figures/comedogenic-rating.html

National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences, CosIng, Health Canada, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, EWG Skin Deep Cosmetics Database