Introduction

You've been dying to try that new shampoo that’s supposed to make your hair thick, lush and shiny. You can’t wait to use that new exfoliating scrub because the label tells you that it’s going to make your skin soft and glowing. You love that new cologne, every time you wear it you get so many compliments on how great you smell!

You love these products and how they make you look and feel, but did it ever occur to you that what you put on your hair or your skin could make you sick? Did you know these products contain chemicals, toxins and hormones that can cause anything from an unsightly rash to learning difficulties to birth defects and even cancer? Even though each product may contain a limited amount of these toxins, please keep in mind, most people use several products each day, from the moment they wake up ( soap, shampoo, conditioner, shave cream, deodorant, toothpaste, hand soap, make up) until they go to bed. After many years of daily use, these toxins accumulate in your body to cause the ailments I've listed above, among many others. If they cause these concerns for adults, just imagine the damage they can do to children who are smaller and weigh less. Although each product you may use may contain a restricted amount of chemicals, hormones and toxins, they can, and many times they do cause a myriad of damage to us all.

Not only are these beauty products toxic for humans, they are toxic to the environment, as well. Many of these products are made with petroleum based ingredients which contributes to global warming. Did you know that if you switch just one bottle of a petroleum based product for a vegetable based product we could save 81,000 barrels of oil in one year. How’s that for incentive to switch?

So now you decide it’s time to go “green”, you go to the health food store and purchase “Organic” or “Natural” products and you no longer have to worry about these concerns….or do you?

I have a favorite website: http://www.safecosmetics.org/, which is an online cosmetics-safety database for consumers, called "Skin Deep". Skin Deep highlights ingredients in beauty products that may pose safety risks in humans.
Skin Deep is maintained by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG). It lists ingredients in over 27,000 products, a small chunk of the personal-care products on the market, considering most of us use 15 or more cosmetic and toiletry products each day. I recently found an online article from the Seattle Times which states "The personal-care products we use contain 10,500 different chemicals, according to the Seattle-based Toxic-Free Legacy Coalition." That's a large amount of chemicals in most of the products offered on America's retail shelves.

I think Skin Deep is a great tool. I encourage you to go onto this site and punch in any of the products you use. Skin Deep will tell you how toxic the product is on a scale of zero to ten, and what concerns these toxins cause. I went to the Natural Products Expo East, this past September and after I came home with my "goodie bag" full of products, I went onto Skin Deep to see how these “Natural” products rated and I was amazed how high some of these products scored on the scale. Just because a product claims to be "natural" or "organic" doesn’t mean there aren’t any toxins, chemicals, hormones or synthetic ingredients lurking among the "natural" goods you just purchsed .

A little bit about myself: My name is Julie and I am a product junkie (cosmetics, hair care and the like). I love beauty products and I love to shop. I'm a very young and immature 40, and I have a wonderful husband and a beautiful four year old daughter. I have been recycling for several years, my favorite home cleaning products are baking soda and vinegar and I try to buy organic foods (most of the time..unless the organic strawberries are $7 a pint). I have been concerned about toxins and hormones in our food for a long time, but just recently became aware of the same concerns in my beloved beauty products. I am concerned about the health of my family and my planet, and I am now obsessed with informing you and your family of the dangers of these seemingly harmless products.

The point of this blog: Now that I am committed to buying the least toxic products, how do I know if these low-toxic or earth friendly products work, how do I know if they're any good? Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing how good or bad these products perform, until we spend our hard earned cash and buy it. With that being said, I thought I would make it easy for everyone and take advantage of my love of shopping. I am going to buy a couple of products per week, try them out for a week or two, then give you my critique about whether I think the product is worth purchasing or if I would not recommend the product to you. I will also keep price in mind, (some of these products are pretty expensive), so I will let you know, even if I like the product, whether I think it’s worth the price. I am going to focus on products that score low (0-2) or moderately low (3-4) on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics scale. I also hope that you feel comfortable sharing your opinions with me. I have added a space for comments so if you have tried a product that scores low on the Skin Deep/ EWG scale, please share your opinion with me. If you would like me to try a product, let me know what it is and I'll try it. The only thing I ask of you is that you are honest, if you are affiliated with a company, please disclose your affiliation to the company you are reviewing.

Thanks,
Julie

Monday, December 24, 2007

Terressentials is Essential

Anyone who knows me will agree that I'm a "germophobe". I don't touch door handles, I clean the grocery cart handle prior to using it and I am constantly washing my hands. Needless to say, my hands are forever dried out, or at least they were until I tried Terressentials Real Soap for Hands. It comes in four scents. I purchased three out of the four.
The Jammin Spice Tea Tree smells delicious, I swear I could eat this stuff. Made with organic aloe vera juice°, organic coconut oil° castile soap, essential oils of organic sweet orange°, organic cinnamon leaf°, organic tea tree° and organic clove bud°, organic extract° of organic calendula°. You can really smell the cinnamon and cloves, it's perfect for the Fall and the Holiday Season.
The Zingin Citrus with tea Tree Oil is made with organic aloe vera juice°, organic coconut oil° castile soap, essential oils of organic sweet orange°, organic lemon°, organic lime° and organic tea tree°, organic extract° of organic calendula°. It smells of a delicious cross between orange and lemon. The Chillin Mint Tea Tree smells just like Wrigley's Gum, sort of a cross between the Peppermint and Spearmint. It's made with organic aloe vera juice°, organic coconut oil° castile soap, essential oils of organic peppermint°, organic spearmint° and organic tea tree°, organic extract° of organic calendula°. Yummy!!
As far as performance...The pro's are 1. The scent, I could truly sit around all day and just smell myself, it's that good. 2. They are very moisturizing. My hands feel great right after I use it and to be honest, in the winter my hands are usually so dried and cracked, they bleed, but this year is different. I've been using this for about 6 weeks and my hands are almost a soft as a baby's bottom. No kidding, this stuff really moisturizes! 3. Cleans well, a little goes a long way.
There is one issue I have with this soap though. It is very loose and runny. If you've ever added water to an existing bottle of liquid soap, you know what I mean, it's just like that. It's hard to dispense without making a mess all over the counter & mirror and it often squirts all over me and my husband when we use it. If you are wearing nice clothes, be careful because it will more than likely squirt all over. If you have company you may want to warn them of this or switch soap until they leave, it's that bad. The dispenser seems to clog easily too. I emailed their customer service from the website to ask them about this annoyance and they responded within a couple of hours, so needless to say, I was thrilled to get such quick feedback. Here is the response:

Hi, Julie,

When you craft a traditional soap from coconut oil, depending on how
you make it, you either have a very hard bar, or a liquid with the
consistency of our hand soaps, and nothing in between. There are
thickening agents of various kinds, both natural and synthetic, which
could be used. Of course, we would not use a synthetic thickener such
as carbomer or xanthan gum. As for why we do not add a natural type of
viscosity-modifier, it would increase the cost of the end product with
no increase in its cleansing properties.

If you'll take a look at the Left Coast Body Wash that you recently
purchased, you'll see that it is similar in its constituents to the
Zingin' Citrus Hand Soap, but it is thicker, due to the addition of a
special type of natural clay, and it is a bit more expensive. If you
wish, you can use it as a hand soap. A body wash requires a certain
amount of viscosity so that it will stay on your wash cloth or sponge
as you bathe. This is not really necessary for a liquid hand soap.
Thank you so much for your interest and support. Have a terrific
holiday!

The Terressentials team
OK, this is a fair answer, and to be honest, it's annoying, but not enough to tell you I don't love the product because the pros outweigh the cons and I love everything else about it, so this one is a big thumbs up...just watch out for flying soap!
*Terressentials is a Compact for Safe Cosmetics signer, which means "The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics — of which EWG is a founding member — is a coalition of public health, educational, religious, labor, womens, environmental, and consumer groups working on the ground in communities, in the halls of lawmakers, and directly with cosmetic manufacturers to encourage reformulations and safer ingredients. Over 500 companies have voluntarily signed a pledge called the campaign's "Compact for Safe Cosmetics," a pledge to formulate products that do not use ingredients that are known or suspected to cause certain health harms within three years of signing. Read the Compact document or see a complete list of the signers. If you're a cosmetics company, find out how to get involved."
*All four scents of the soap are zero's on the Skin Deep/ EWG scale.
*The Terressentials website is: http://www.terressentials.com/. According to their website, all Terressential products are °USDA Certified Organic.
*Real Soap for Hands is well worth the $7.25 for 8 oz.

*As of Dec 2007, Terressentials products are available in stores in the following states: Arizona, California, Maryland, West Virginia and Wyoming. They are also available in Toronto, ON.

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