Showing posts with label cosmetics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cosmetics. Show all posts

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Clean Cosmetics Pocket Guide

In the past I have discussed my viewpoint on the health and beauty industry and about ensuring that you are using products that are safe, nontoxic and non-carcinogenic. I found this handy pocket guide to choosing clean health and beauty items.

Instead of printing out these guides and having to ensure that they are in my wallet/purse/etc., I visit the websites on my cell phone and download the PDFs directly to my phone's hard drive for reference no matter where I am.

In the past I have posted similar pocket guides including a safe seafood selector and the shopper's guide to pesticides (dirty dozen vs. clean 15).

Also, for parents out there, you can download the Parent's Buying Guide that details how to shop for your little ones.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

BPA

Everyone needs to read this Enviroblog post about BPA and Coke. There is some very scary stuff going on in Washington right now. Let's hope that the chemical companies do not win.

We, as a country, need to fight for tougher standards and regulations on the food and household/beauty industries to keep toxic chemicals out of our homes. Why is it that Europe is ahead of us on this trend? Why does the U.S. keep lagging behind them in regulation? Isn't our people's health more important than wealth? Apparently not.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Building Your Support System

A couple days ago I was talking to my good friend, Laura, about subject matter for blog posts and she suggested that I write about the importance of having a strong support system. When I got to thinking about it, I would not be where I am today without a sound support system.

Support is crucial to success. It is essential for building character, encouragement, inspiration, and originality.

Fortunately, support can come in many shapes, sizes, and mediums and as we develop our own personal network of support we end up knowing exactly where to turn for codling, a shoulder to cry on, advice, the hard truth, or motivation. Support systems keep us accountable to our goals and facilitate conquering them.

Unfortunately, our network of support can become detrimental to our success. It is important that our support system shapes into a positive place where we can be ourselves and get advice that is significant. We need to be strong enough to identify the positive and negative places to go to for support and keep moving ourselves toward the positive type of support. Oftentimes it is much easier to hear someone tell us what we want to hear rather than what we need to hear. BUT without the truth where would we be?

As I said earlier, support comes in all shapes, sizes, and mediums. What works for one person may not work for you - sources of support are not one size fits all. Many of us work on several unrelated goals at once and will need many types of support for each of these goals. Be careful not to put all of your eggs in one support basket – but don’t spread yourself thin with too many sources of support or you will run the risk of not benefit from each resource and simply becoming burnt out.

Here is a look into the support system that I have built for myself by goal/area of interest:

1. Christianity – I believe that nothing is achievable without God and it is through Him that all things are possible.
  • Daily Bible Verse Subscription
  • Church Community, specifically the Choir (I am a Member and regular Soloist)
  • Christian Radio
  • Family Members that are believers (specifically my husband, Allan; my parents, Al and Trish; my godparents, Becky and Jim)
  • Close Friends that are believers (specifically Natalie and Sam, Melissa, Carrie)

2. Music – I am as much in love with singing as I am with Clean Eating.
  • Church Choir Member and Soloist
  • Christian Radio
  • Sharing my love of music with family (specifically my dad, Al and my husband, Allan)

3. Clean Eating and Fitness – I can’t imagine my life without this beloved interest, however, it was not long ago (August 2008) that my friend, Melissa, introduced me to Tosca Reno and Alwyn Cosgrove.

4. The Environment, Organic Foods, Organic Cosmetics/Health & Beauty, Sustainable Food Chain, etc. – I am a huge supporter of sustainable and organic food. I think that this topic goes hand-in-hand with Clean Eating. Why spend the effort to Eat-Clean and workout if you are not actually making yourself healthier inside and out? Pesticides and chemicals will kill you.

5. Design and Art – I am in love with simple, modern art of all forms… architecture, furniture, interior design, color, museums, screen printing, drama/musicals, etc.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Pangea Organics

As many of you know, I have been searching for Clean Cosmetics that fit a strict set of rules that I have outlined for myself to replace my Clinique products that are on their way back to because they are not clean.

I think that I have found a winner! I purchased the following Pangea Organics products from Organically Happy last week and am in love! First of all, Organically Happy was offering a nice discount on the products and I ended up saving over $20! In addition, I found the following promo code: supergreen.

What I love most about the products are the choice of essential oils, they smell amazing and are really refreshing - especially in the morning!


Egyptian Calendula & Blood Orange Facial Cleanser

Italian Green Mandarin with Sweet Lime Toner

Nigerian Ginger, Sweet Lavender & Thyme Facial Cream


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BTW, Annie over at Foods that Fit is compiling a Blogger Cookbook - keep your eyes open for more information.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Toxins in Cosmetics

Lately I have been doing research on the safety of cosmetics and beauty products. Unfortunately, I found out that the items that have been a regular part of my life for years are not as safe as I had thought. I have always been a regular user of Clinique products and have now moved away from using them due to the ingredients that they choose - some of which are known carcinogens.

After doing my research I found out that there is little United States FDA regulation of Health and Beauty products. During this process I found the following PDF on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics website that does a great job at outlining the "problem" with the US Cosmetics industry - including the top ingredients to avoid. You can also check out the Skin Deep website to research the various products that you use and see which chemicals and (possibly) carcinogens are in the products that you use. It is very eye opening.

In addition, if you are interested in doing your own research on the safety of the products that you use, here are a couple links:

Unfortunately, simply buying products that are Labeled Organic or Natural does not mean that the products are safe. Here is an article about a suit that Dr. Bronner's has raised against some manufacturers that claim that their products are organic when they very well may not be.

Be sure that you check out all of the products that you intend to buy, not just a few from a certain manufacturer; because I have found that a line or brand of Health and Beauty products may have one or two items that are safe, but the rest of their products are junk! An example of this is Boots No. 7 - they have a few products that I would consider purchasing; however, many of their powders contain Talc - which is a carcinogen.

Here are some links to products that I have researched and found to be safe:
Please let me know if you have additional questions about brands, ingredients, or the safety of products that you like to use.