You care so much about the quality of ingredients you put in your body, but what about the ones you put ON your body?
Can the lotion, face wash, makeup, toothpaste, and all other personal care products REALLY affect us?
Absolutely.
Our skin is our largest organ! What we put directly on it gets absorbed into our cells!
The average woman puts on at least 12 products per day (and men aren’t all that far behind, they average 8 per day)! These small amounts of chemicals all add up over time The United States has introduced over 80,000 chemicals since 1938 and only 10% of those chemicals have safety data. The link between these chemicals and chronic health issues (hormone imbalances, cancers, and much more) is astronomical!
These chemical ingredients are mostly untested and largely unregulated because there is no government agency responsible for defining or regulating their manufacture. Even if a label on your body lotion claims to be 100% organic and natural, it isn’t FDA verified.
Reading your product labels isn’t nearly as easy as reading nutrition labels. If you’re anything like me, you can’t even pronounce them! Luckily you don’t have to do your own research. Instead, you can use the ThinkDirty app to scan the product label to check your products (tip: check them before you buy them!) You can also use the EWG “Skin Deep” Cosmetics Database
If you are feeling overwhelmed by all the information around potentially harmful ingredients in personal care products, I completely understand! I don’t know much about what makes a good performing product BUT what I do know, is that there are companies who are doing the work for us and advocating for change in the personal care industry. The biggest one is Beautycounter.
Beautycounter has done the work for you creates non-toxic personal care products, for instance, has a NEVER LIST of over 1,500 ingredients that are not permitted in their products. (I was shocked to learn that the European Union has spent the last two decades banning over 1400 ingredients from personal care products while the United States has banned or restricted only 30 to date!)
In order for companies like Beautycounter to continue to make huge strides in the industry by providing us with safer high-quality products, we must support them. After all, we do vote with our dollars and if we keep paying for crap we are only going to keep getting crap.
As I learn more about environmental toxins and the impact on our health (as well as the lack of legislation), it compels me to make changes in my own life and to educate others. That is the biggest reason why I joined Beautycounter. So that I can help spread the message to as many people as I can!
Please take a few minutes to watch the video below-I hope that it opens your eyes and inspires you to make a few changes in your own life.
Beautycounter has a full line of skincare, cosmetics, baby and kids products. We’ve matched the European Union and have banned over 1,500 chemicals from the products we offer. If you’re interested in trying anything, we do offer a 60 day return policy, no questions asked. (Shop here)
But first and foremost, take the time to scan your products using the ThinkDirty or EWG apps to see where they rank in toxicity. I understand it seems overwhelming to replace all of your personal care products but you can start by making a clean swap for your 1-2 products that rank the highest in your app (the higher on a scale of 1-10 the more harmful!), then once you run out of products you use daily start to look for better alternatives instead of buying what’s fast and convenient.
Your future self will thank you!
