A few months ago, I sat down to organize my thoughts and research on personal care products. This is a topic I’ve grown more and more passionate about over the last few years. There is a disturbing lack of regulation in the personal care product industry. As a result, a large majority of the products on the market are filled with questionable and toxic ingredients. As the consumers, we are left with the responsibility to ensure that the personal care products we use are safe. Unfortunately, that can get quite overwhelming if you don’t know the key red flags to avoid when looking at product ingredients. But, my friend, it doesn’t have to be that way!
Our first guest appearance
As I was getting all my thoughts together, I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to welcome my first guest here at Healthy Mama, No Drama. My sweet friend, Brittany Maillet, shares my passion for clean products and has a beautiful talent for simplifying information and empowering action. As an advocate for Crunchi, she lives and breathes this stuff and is so knowledgeable when it comes to what to look for and what to avoid in products, especially personal care products. So, without further ado, take it away, Brittany!
Toxins in personal care products 101
Did you know that the average woman puts 168 toxic chemicals on her body every day? These are igredients that are linked to big scary things like cancer and infertility. Europe has banned over 1,300 toxic chemicals from their products, while the US has banned only 11. ELEVEN.
This is where I come in… Hi, my name is Brittany, and I am a CRUNCHI Advocate! I’m passionate about educating others on the importance of choosing SAFE personal care products. CRUNCHI is a high end line of clean cosmetics, skin care & MORE!!
Where it all began for me
I came to learn about the clean beauty business as I was purging my house of all the toxins and chemicals that seem to be added to everything. It’s absolutely BONKERS what is allowed in our products! My husband was battling cancer and we knew this purge was crucial for his health, and ours! I’m so excited to share that he’s coming up on THREE years remission!
My goal is to spread the word about safer products, helping you LOOK and FEEL your best!
Baby steps are best
Switching to a toxin-free lifestyle all at once can be overwhelming and expensive…BUT it’s critical to begin taking steps today in order to reduce our body burden (level of chemicals in our system at any given time) and increase our quality of health.
Here are my top 3 tips for transitioning to toxin-free products in a realistic manner while being gentle on the pocketbook!
1. Swap out the products you use most, first!
Take a look at your daily routine. What products do you use most often? Face wash? Shampoo? Deodorant? Lotion? These are the products that you should focus on swapping out first as you are exposing yourself to these repeatedly. I also recommend to use what you have, then buy different! Unless you just feel really strongly about getting started right away, then you have permission to THROW IT AWAY!
2. Focus on the small wins
Sure it would be nice to have a top of the line home water filtration system, but that’s expensive and requires saving up for. Try starting out with a shower and kitchen filter that will help to eliminate the most concerning toxins from your city water. Any progress is winning when it comes to reducing our body burdens. And this benefits your entire family.
3. Recognize and avoid the greenwashing
This one gets me fired up! Don’t waste your money on greenwashed brands!
The green living industry is booming! As such, many companies are looking to capitalize without actually making actual changes to their ingredients. They simply slap non-regulated phrases like “all natural” or “hypoallergenic” on the label and call it good. What?!
This makes it difficult as a consumer to know what is TRULY clean. Another reason why I LOVE what I do – it’s so important to continue educating women (as THE primary consumers in most homes) on toxin-free alternatives! There are wonderful options out there! Don’t be discouraged.
Forget-it-5
So, how does one know when reading a label if a product is greenwashed? How do you know if a product is as clean as it may seem? Familiarize yourself with my “Forget-It-5″ ️ingredients to quickly look for and avoid. This makes it easy peasy as you are shopping, because if it doesn’t have any of these ingredients, then usually most of the other ingredients are great too! If you are looking at a product and considering purchasing it, look for these ingredients. If you see one…”forget it” and walk away!!
- ️synthetic fragrance
- parabens (anything ending in “paraben”)
- phthalates
- ️dyes
- formaldehydes (often labeled as: formaldehyde, quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, polyoxymethylene urea, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate, 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-
diol (bromopol) and glyoxal)
What are you waiting for?!
You can do this! Your future self will thank you. Start with baby steps. Just one safe swap here and there can drastically reduce your body burden and your family’s as well. You may even notice headaches go away, dry skin disappearing, along with other benefits to helping your body not be weighed down by toxic ingredients.
There you have it, my friend! Some simple steps you can take, and a few key ingredients you can start to avoid. All of which will greatly help you clean up your personal care products! And, let’s note that this isn’t just for adults. The truths shared above apply to children just as much…no, honestly, even more. Children are even more vulnerable to the effects of body burden. Read more about that here.
But, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1000 times: baby steps really are the way to go. So just pick one or two of your most-used personal care products to swap out for safer alternatives first.
If you don’t know where to start, or want some recommendations of cleaner, safer versions of a product or two, for particular products, comment below or reach out to me!
