We like to focus on health! Yet one part of our health seems to always go to the wayside. Our toiletries, specifically our makeup.
Through the years I have experienced a great deal of so called “organic natural ” makeup. Yet when you begin to dig deeper into ingredients there are many that are harmful and questionable to say the least.
Natural, or Au Naturel?
A woman does not have to go completely without makeup, but she does need to consider and if possible reduce the quantity of toxins she dumps on her face daily.
Since the 1930’s there have been no real restrictions on what goes into the toiletries we use.
There is however one company that more recently has started standing up and holding the cosmetics industry accountable for their ingredients.
Beauty Counter
I want to introduce and thank Beauty Counter for giving us all a greater understanding on just what some of the ingredients really means.
Many of us see the “NO PARABENS, NO SULFATES, oh and vegan free on many natural products. But did you ever hear that there are over 1500 OTHER harmful and questionable ingredients?
Beauty Counter is setting new standards and lobbying our government hard to get some laws changed when it comes to being more transparent with what is truly in ingredients and their side effects. You the consumer should know!
The “NEVER ANY” List
Beauty Counter is one company that is leading the way to finally setting standards for cosmetic ingredients. They have a “NEVER ANY” list which we can all appreciate. These are the ones you really want to avoid.
There are over 1500 harmful and questionable ingredients used in cosmetics. Below is a list of just SOME of the more common ones.
Beauty Counter’s NEVER ANY list includes: Benzalkonium chloride, BHA and BHT, coal tar, Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), Ethanolamines (MEA/DEA/TEA), Formaldehyde, Hydroquinone, Methylisothiazolinone and methylchloroisothiazolinone, Oxybenzone, Parabens, (methyl-isobutylene-propyl and others), Phthalates, Polyethylene glycol, (PEG compounds), Retinyl palmitate and Retinol ( vitamin A), Sodium lauryl sulfate and Sodium laureth sulfate (SLS and SLES), synthetic flavorings or fragrances, Toluene, Triclosan and Triclocarban.
Now many of these you will take a quick look and say, “Yes, of course I know that I don’t want formaldehyde in my products!”
What about all the others you can barely pronounce!
By making a quick search on these ingredients it is quickly apparent that these are not what you want in your makeup, shampoo and body wash!
Toxins, Toxins Everywhere!
Listen, toxins are everywhere! Sometimes they cannot be totally avoided … we just have to be smart and question why are they there, for what, and are they ultimately more damaging to our health?
Are there other options to relieve our body of some of the daily ingested toxins, whether they come through our skin, mouth or lungs?
Can we avoid everything toxic and live in a bubble? Of course not … but when you know you can simply change a few things to lighten the toxic burden on your body, you would be foolish to not consider such an option.
You can take action by shopping BeautyCounter.com, which operates mainly through online distribution, and through local retailers who stock natural and organic cosmetics.
By searching out other companies that are changing their ingredients to include more natural and fewer toxic ingredients, you can have a pocket list of bad ingredients to print out and take with you to compare when buying at cosmetics stores and retailers.
Healthy Living App
You may also want to go with as modern option and add an app called EWG Healthy Living to your smart phone. EWG stands for Environmental Working Group. This app is perfect for scanning products to get ratings on what their ingredients are from great to really bad.
You can download and install it from both the Apple App Store, and from Google Play. You will find the links at https://www.ewg.org/apps/ .
The EWG Healthy Living app is wonderful to have for checking all those toiletries products, and for checking detergents, be it for clothes or dish washing. This is another area we forget about in our change of health needs.
Live Better
We hope the information we add here is helpful to make a easier transition to a healthier less toxic lifestyle.
May God give us wisdom in keeping his ingredients pure and unadulterated!