I'd always listened with one ear half open when people would go on and on and blah blah blah about toxic crap in everyday products.
Yeah yeah yeah...tree-huggin' hippy crap I'd think...
And again, the Lord laughs at me and teaches me a painful lesson.
One night last week, the kids were playing (read: practically bathing in) some of Amanda's lotion.
Within minutes of Stephanie applying it, she lost much of her function. She stopped speaking, and began hand flapping, growling and barking. Difficult to deal with and eventually just had to go to bed.
So. After some detective work regarding what's actually in that crap...I went crazy and threw it ALL away. All my Bath & Body Works...that was hard. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, sprays...all gone.
I did a lot of research on this website: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ and learned some interesting things...
I've been using this on my hair for years. Holy crap:
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/product/159040/Back_to_Basics_Sunflower_Leave-In_Conditioner/
Hey sure...maybe it's not THAT bad cause it's small amounts...but I know how MY kid reacted. And it was NOT pretty. If that means I don't get to smell nice like B&BW anymore..so be it.
Did you know that many bath and body products have gluten in them? (Hydrolized wheat protein) Really?? Aveeno does. I thought about that at first, till I looked at the label...no thanks!
Eventually, I'm going to make my own things for us to use.
I know I sound crazy. But I am, so it works out well. But really...consider what that what you brush your teeth with, rub on your skin, and put on your kids may have effects that we see generations down the road...
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6 comments:
i'm always shocked what people are willing to rub on the largest organ of the body - their skin! It's terrifying.
Check out http://storyofstuff.org/cosmetics/
I have allergies that mean I can't use most of the lotions and sprays and other chemicals that most people use, never have. I can't even apply gentle baby soap or simple shaving cream to my face/neck/buttock/other sensitive places (i found out about the shaving cream thing during a youth night 'war game' that went terribly wrong... oops)
I have always bought natural products, you'll be suprised how much there is in health food stores that contains nice ingredients you actually recognise. But recently I began looking into making my own, as even the health food store ones aren't always as natural as I might like, or still contain sodium lauryl sulphate (usually the particular ingredient someone will be alergic to if they are alergic to 'soap').
I have actually had a lot of fun recently looking for recepies for beauty products which are 'edible'. (not enjoyable to eat, obviously no one wants to eat baby oil, but it is safely edible, and actually present in some of your processed food, particularly candy)
The only thing that stops the soap I am using from being edible is the actual 'Soap'. See, soap at its core is the chemical reaction between a fatty acid, like oil, and lye (now also called sodium hydroxide, and while it is a chemical, it's a chemical even your grandma may be familiar with using in her own kitchen or seeing her mother use when people actually made stuff at home). Lye is caustic and dangerous in it's pure form before the reaction, the actual soapification process requires special caution. After the reaction it is safe and stable but I'm not entirely sure lye ever becomes edible. (also, if you want to make your own soaps you CAN buy bases where the lye reaction has already been done, and you melt it down and start the process from there. More and more of these 'melt and pour bases' are becoming natural. Also, in looking for natural items I have learnt lately that just because something has a big chemical name dosent mean it's bad or even unnatural, sometimes manufacturers just feel the need to be scientific about their ingredients. Just as an example, this base is not natural, but it is much less scary than normal soap labels - http://www.brambleberry.com/Honey-Melt-And-Pour-P3186.aspx. The prodlem with melt and pour bases is if you're like me and are avoiding certain oils because of genetic modification, you have to be careful which 'natural' oils are used. If you make it yourself you have full control over whats put in.)
You can get 'soap' which does not contain lye, and will work perfectly fine as soap, like many of these vegetable soaps on the market now, but it is not actually soap by definition. Without the lye and oil reaction it's more a cleansing lotion.
I recently made some wonderful, and completely edible body scrub exfoliating bars. With a brown sugar and oil/butter base I then added chocolate essence for scent and beeswax to solidify it (the wax is diluted enough by the oil/butter that it will 'melt' in contact with body heat). It took about half an hour to make, and cost next to nothing for my basic batch. But the result is a beautiful smelling, completely safe scrub bar that works just as well, if not better, than the exfoliating scrubs in the shops. You could also use, say, shea butter or an essential oil to make it better but more expensive, (essential oil is not edible, but it is safe to ingest in the very small quantities needed for this). I also made a lip balm that dosen't make me cringe at the thought of licking it off my lips by using a simple oil base. It took about 20 minutes to make a batch, and I think ended up costing me only 50c for each little tub I made.
Anyways, I have rambled on, I apologise, this is just a 'pet topic' of mine right now, and I wanted to let you know there is a lot out there, and encourage you if you are thinking of making your own items, it's no where near as hard or scary or even expensive as it first seems.
Sounds like it's worthwhile. I need to go through my products again - I get bad reactions to all sorts of things!
Cxx
plugs ears - there's nothing wrong with my bath and body works stuff, there's nothing wrong with my bath and body works stuff, there's nothing wrong...
;)
I totally agree with the shock factor. I work for a company that sells products that are kid friendly and skin friendly though and thank God I found them!
Thanks for your sharing!
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Sorry for the bother, God bless you.
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