Personal Care & Hygiene

We use cosmetics, toiletries and personal care products as part of our everyday grooming routine, but what exactly is in these products? Look at the ingredient label and you will probably see a list of unpronounceable chemicals.

Many of these ingredients are toxic and some are even known to be carcinogenic. The cosmetics industry is only partially regulated. American law requires that the ingredients be tested for safety, but not the finished cosmetic product.

More than half of any substance applied directly to the skin surface is readily absorbed. Many women absorb more than 5lb of chemicals from beauty products every year. Evidence is emergin that these chemicals can build up over time and can even be passed from mother to baby via the umbilical cord.

You wouldn't eat most of these chmeicals and products found in cosmetics, yet we let them be absorbed into our body in other ways. Your skin is an organ and you must think about what you put on it.

Organic Ingredients...or not?

Shop for Organic Products

Be careful of the wording on beauty products. Terms like natural, organic, derived from and naturally inspried are thrown around in the cosmetic industry, but what does it really mean?

Natural

There is no legal or scientific definition. To be labeled natural, a product needs to contain only 1% natural ingredients.

Naturally Inspired

What does this even mean? Very unspecific.

Derived From

We often see long chemical names followed by the phrase "derived from coconut oil". For instance, to create cocoamide DEA from coconut oil requires the use of the carcinogenic synthetic chemical diethanolamine (DEA).

It is therefore no longer natural and to imply it is a natural substance by adding the phrase "from coconut oil" is at best misleading. Vodka is derived from potatoes, but it doesn't mean it's good for you! from ChooseOrganics.com

Hypoallergenic

This means the most common allergens, such as fragrance, lanolin, cocoa butter, cornstarch and cottonseed oils are removed, but as allergies are individual, it doesn't necessarily mean its allergy free.

Organic

This is the only term that actually means "chemical-free".