Getting Started: Beauty

Getting Started: Beauty 
Why Do-It-Yourself Beauty?

Do you know whats in your face cream? Your lipstick? Your aftershave? I didn't either. After I stopped using chemically laden commercial home cleaners it occurred to me that my body and hair products could be as dangerous as what I had just worked so hard to get rid of under the sink. And, the more I read about the ingredients in my soaps and cosmetics the more I found this to be true.  Did you know that the cosmetics industry, which also includes hair products and personal hygiene products, is only loosely regulated? Its true. What this means for us as consumers is that the ingredients in everything from our shampoo to deodorant to eyeliner can be dangerous to our health but we'd never know it. The ingredients in your foundation for example may or may not all be listed on the package as there are no regulations requiring companies to fully disclose ingredients. The amount of the ingredients in each product is also only loosely regulated. So, there may be more of something not-so-good for you in that bronzer you are wearing than would make you comfortable. If only you had that information available. According to the Environmental Working Group, a measly 11% of the over 10,500 ingredients in your cosmetics are actually tested for safety. Holy cow! And here we are rubbing these mystery chemicals directly into the biggest organ in our bodies; our skin!

Did you know that our skin absorbs whatever it comes in contact with? This is why our lotion works to rehydrate dry skin and why aloe soothes sun burns. It also explains skin allergies to certain foods and chemicals just by touching them. And because your skin is an organ anything it absorbs can work its way down to your blood stream. Additionally, just like your home cleaners, what ever you wash up with or wash off goes down the drain and into the water system. Plants and wildlife use the same water systems we do and are negatively effected in the same ways we are by dangerous ingredients. Knowing this, why would we want to use products that are full of dangerous chemicals, additives, and dyes that aren't closely regulated or even tested by any government agency? Now I'm not suggesting we all ditch our makeup, soap, deodorant, and aftershave to avoid the potential dangers lurking there but we can certainly make some easy changes.  There are some great things you can make at home that work just as well if not better than store bought products for a lot cheaper. You can find a lot of great recipes on This.Herban.Life to replace some of the things you use on a daily basis. But, for those products you would still like to buy, here are some ingredients you can start to avoid when purchasing all those things that clean you up.


 Yikes!
What to avoid like the plague

The non profit Environmental Working Group is a fabulous and ultra useful resource when learning about the ingredients in everything from toothpaste to conditioner. Their data base SkinDeep allows you to search any ingredient or product and learn about its safety, testing, and other ingredients. Use it. Love it. The EWG has identified a list of top 7 hazardous ingredients to most avoid that I list bellow. The first step to greening your beauty and hygiene routine is getting a little education about what you already have.  If anything you have at home contains one of the following ingredients on this first list I might just chuck it. In upcoming weeks I will post additional lists of other ingredients to be wary of so look for those. The upcoming lists will have a few other ingredients that are also dangerous and should be avoided but you could probably use up what you have and avoid them in the future depending on your comfort level.  Exposure to a harsh chemical once or twice is probably not going to cause any lasting effects but the things you use daily can so start with those.

A couple quick tips:
Be wary; when products claim to be "natural" it does NOT mean that they are. Also, just because a product line claims to be organic or has the word "organic" in the title it does NOT mean that it is. Read your labels. Organics will always be certified if indeed they are.  

EWG Top 7 Hazards:
Avoid like the plague!

• Coal Tar: Coal Tar is most often found in dandruff shampoos and anti-itch creams. The coal tar based dyes FD&C Blue 1 (found in toothpastes) and FD&C Green 3 (found in mouthwash) should also be avoided. Coal Tar is a known carcinogen and rates at a 10 on a scale of 1-10 where 10 is the most dangerous on the EWG's website. The European Chemicals Agency has stated that Coal Tar is a carcinogenic and/or toxic "substance of very high concern."
• Fragrance: The word "fragrance" is used by cosmetic and soap companies to cover a myriad of ingredients including phthalates which are strongly suspected of a number of reproductive dangers including developmental disruption and endocrine damage.
• Hydroquinone: Hydroquinone is found in skin lighteners and face moisturizers and is highly suspected to be a strong neurotoxin. It can also cause allergic reactions.
• Aluminum: We have seen a lot about Aluminum in the news lately. It is found in deodorants and often an ingredient in eye shadows. There is strong suspicion that Aluminum is not only a neurotoxin but also carcinogenic which has brought it to the attention of the general public lately due to its potential connection to breast cancer. 
• Triclosan: Triclosan is found in virtually all antibacterial products including soaps, cosmetics, and oral care. Triclosan often contains dioxins which not only weaken your immune system but can effect fertility and are highly carcinogenic.
• P-Phenylenediamine: This is the ingredient found in regular hair dye. This ingredient can cause severe allergic reactions, lung irritation, and can damage your nervous system.
• Lead and Mercury: Lead is a neurotoxin found in toothpaste as a natural contaminant of hydrated silica. Mercury is also a neurotoxin and skin irritant found in a preservative called thimerosol.

Now What?

Don't worry, clean up!

So, now you want to inspect every last item in your cabinet or in the tub. And reading those ingredient lists can be a chore. Just think of all of that money you spent on all of those cosmetics and products that contain things you now want to avoid! And what about all those other ingredients you don't know about yet? Yikes! It can feel very overwhelming and frustrating. But here's the deal. You are now armed with a bit more knowledge and the ability to chose what to keep and use up and what to ditch. The list above has the biggest and baddest hazards on it. The lists to come in my follow up posts will have a few others to look out for but for now worry about the 7 listed above and get those out of your life in whichever way you chose. That makes the task a little easier. Now get excited about learning to make your body products yourself or find some great new natural ones. Just like any change you'll need to give yourself a little time and patience.  Starting small is totally o.k. Nothing good happens overnight.

Good luck!

Summer Scrubbin' : Grills and Great Legs!

Getting Started: Tools and Supplies

Getting Started: Home
Tools and Supplies

All of the recipes you will find on This.Herban.Life will require just a few ingredients and tools. Many of these things you will already have at home and a few you will need to pick up. Making your own cleaners is easy, quick and can be made in large batches to save you money and time.

Tools:

Try to reuse spray and squirt bottles whenever possible.
Just wash them really well and you are good to go!   

• A few clean spray bottles: I used ones that had previously held my commercially made products.
• A couple air tight containers: plastic or glass will work 
• A couple plastic squirt bottles
• A non reactive mixing bowl: glass or plastic
• Measuring cups and measuring spoons 

Ingredients:

• Baking Soda- I use good old Arm and Hammer
• Vinegar - I keep both Apple Cider Vinegar and White Vinegar on hand  
• Borax- you want this to be just borax, no detergents or added scents. Borax is made from water, oxygen, boron, and sodium. It is a powder that you can usually find in the laundry soap aisle but also online.

• Castile Soap - this is one of my favorite ingredients. Castile Soap is an olive oil based soap that you will use often. I use Dr. Bronner's castile soap but there are certainly other brands. It can be found in health food stores or the green living area or personal care aisles of most grocery stores. 

• Essential Oils* - Essential oils are basically a highly distilled and concentrated oil that holds the "essence" or healing and volatile properties of a plant. Essential oils have been used since the beginning of herbalism to help heal wounds and maladies, clean, and for aroma therapy. You can pick up essential oils at your local health foods store or online. I like Mountain Rose Herbs for all of my essential oils because they have great prices and many are organic! Keep in mind that you want to get undiluted essential oils and you will use small amounts at a time so no need to keep bigger amounts on hand unless you wish to. They often come in small brown or blue glass bottles and should be kept in a dry cool place.

*Safety - Do Not apply an essential oil directly to your skin. Although they are entirely natural they are highly concentrated and can cause skin irritation. If you get a little on your hands while making your home cleaning products don't worry just wash your hands off right away. You will see other posts here that use them in skin care however in those cases they are diluted before use. In cleaning recipes they are also diluted. Keep your essential oils away from children or pets. If ingested please contact poison control. Even the best and purest ingredients can be harmful when ingested in excess. 

Essential oils are used in virtually all of the recipes I will share for both home and beauty. Different oils have different purposes. As they arise in posts I will explain what they do. They are wonderful and super effective ingredients and I hope you enjoy them! 

Now you are set to go! Lets get started!

Heavenly Commode

Toilet Bowl Spray

This is a great recipe I borrowed from Karyn Siegel-Maier

in her book The Naturally Clean Home. It makes the bathroom smell great 

and is a big germ buster!

What You Need:

Plastic Spray Bottle

2 Cups Water

1/4 Cup Liquid Castille Soap

1 Tablespoon Tea Tree Oil

10 drops Eucalyptus or Peppermint Essential Oil

What To Do:

Give your spray a clever name that makes you hate scrubbing toilets a little less and so that you always know what it is. Write all ingredients on the bottle in case you need to reference it later.

Add all ingredients to the spray bottle and shake.

Just like that, your done!

Why It Works:

Castille soap is a vegetable based soap and works by surrounding the dirt and oil molecules left on the toilet surface and allowing it to be dissolved in the water and removed when you wipe it away.

The Tea Tree oil is an antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and antibiotic.

Eucalyptus and Peppermint oils are also antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and antibiotic. 


Good Luck! 

Getting Started: Home

Getting Started

Squeaky Clean?

When I first started learning about the ingredients in my cosmetics and household cleaners I was totally overwhelmed. My transition to a more herban life began after I had read an article explaining some of the most common ingredients in household cleaners and how they effect our bodies and the environment. There are quite a few ingredients in cleansers that are proven to be harmful but most are still being investigated. There is a different and equally shocking list in soaps and cosmetics that I will touch on in other posts. I have sensitive skin and I tend to be pretty environmentally conscious so it got me thinking. If we have identified that there are serious risks to our health in the short and long term from exposure to the most common of cleaners and the effect on the environment is farther reaching than we can fathom at this point, isn't there a better solution? My great-grandmother wasn't using Downey, so what was she using? And, even if we aren't 100% sure of the extent of the harm a common cleaner can cause, if there is a safer alternative that will do the trick, why risk it?

I began researching everything I had under the sink. I was shocked at what I discovered and once the initial repulsion at what seemed like recklessness on my part for exposing myself and my loved ones to such horrible stuff wore off, I began learning how to make my own alternatives. You may begin making your own cleaners at home for a variety of reasons; it's cheaper, it's healthier, allergies, your children, the environment etc. All of these are true and all are good reasons. Good home made cleaners or some eco-friendly store bought ones are just as effective as what you are used to. 

Why Switch?

Weighing the options

Why spend your hard earned money on a product that could cause cancer or is toxic if your child swallows it? Thousands of calls are put into poison control each year due to small children ingesting household cleaners. Thousands more are made by adults who are experiencing other awful effects from the same products.    Making your own cleaning alternatives at home may take a few extra minutes and sometimes finding a few extra minutes can be hard. But in the long run, you may find cleaning the kitchen sink isn't what it used to be. You may almost LIKE it!  I decided the extra "garbage" my synthetic, toxin laden cleaning products brought into my home wasn't worth it to me or the planet. Awareness is the first step to making any big change. The internet is a great resource when it comes to the ingredients in common cleaners and what they do. Much of it can be very dry and full of technical terms and chemical compound names so I've tried to lay out a few of the most common to give you an idea of what we can avoid.

You can have the same clean home without all of the extra toxins and hazards. Switching can be a process and take some time. It takes a little bit of patience and some dedication so expect an adjustment period. Please don't go strait to your cabinet and dump out the products you already have that contain the following ingredients even though you may want to. You can contact your local waste management and find out how you can safely dispose of them.

Common Ingredients in Cleaners

I'm going to keep this pretty basic here. I will explore individual types of cleaners in separate posts but this should give you a place to start from. You will often see the word "may" in regards to the effects toxins have on our bodies. This is primarily because we are just discovering the damage these chemicals can cause as safety testing of household cleaners is not required for manufacturers to market their product. In just the last 15 years or so we have begun to really research these ingredients.  Please do some of your own research on what products most interest you. Pull out the window cleaner or detergent you've been using and start plugging the ingredients into the awesome search engine Scorecard that gives you chemical profiles and its effects. You get to drive this bus, I'm just helping navigate!

Remember, fish and other wildlife that use the same water our household chemicals drain into can get the same diseases and have the same problems we can from these chemicals. Toxins that effect our reproductive health or hormones will have similar effects on them just from our run off.

 

• Methylene Chloride (Dichloromethane)- Often used in stain removers, Methylene Chloride is a reproductive toxin, a carcinogen (cancer causing), and a neurotoxin. It is a serious skin and eye irritant and has been known to cause irregular heart beat, heart attack, and brain damage once inhaled.

• Amonia- Found in a wide range of products, Amonia is a severe eye and respiratory irritant that can cause extensive damage including chemical burns, extreme burning pain, and corneal damage. Kidney and liver damage had been reported as well as bronchitis and pneumonia due to prolonged exposure. When mixed with bleach a poisonous chlorine gas forms.

• Diethanolamine (DEA)- DEA is used in a wide selection of products and is a known eye and skin irritant. The state of California lists it as a suspected carcinogen.

•  Parabens- Parabens are used as preservatives in a wide range of cleaning products and cosmetics. It is known to cause dermatitis and is still being investigated. You will see it listed as the word "paraben" with one of the following before it : methyl-, ethyl-, butyl- or propyl.

• Monoethanolamine- This chemical is an ingredient in a number of cleaners including laundry pre-soaks,  tub and tile cleaners, oven cleaners, and carpet cleaners. Inhaling a large amount of this chemical while cleaning your oven or tub can cause dizziness or coma. It may also cause damage to the nervous system, kidneys, and liver.

• Bleach (Sodium Hypochlorite)-  Bleach is found in many cleaners and also as a stand alone product. It can be fatal when swallowed. It is a sensitizer and a know skin and eye irritant. It is especially dangerous for people with heart conditions and those with asthma. It may cause liver damage and be a neurotoxin.

What Now? 

One thing at a time...

So, you've decided. So long Windex! Peace out Comet! I want a more Herban Life! Now what? One of my favorite ways to explain making big changes to a more green or toxin free life is an idea presented by Sophie Uliano in her book Gorgeously Green.  She suggests that we start with one thing at a time. For a week or a month depending on how long you think you will need to transition do just one thing differently until it becomes easy. Then, the next week or month do one more thing. Now you are doing two things every month or in this case, using two home made products. After 2 or 3 things it takes off and you wont miss the old stuff you used to use. Look to my post Getting Started: Tools and Supplies for everything you need and a great recipe! Good luck!