Clean Beauty Products

I have been reading Green Blogs this morning and found several with lists of what the authors thought were fairly clean products. One listed several that had a toxicity level of “under #3”  on the Environmental Working Groups Skin Deep site. I don’t know about you but I do not want ANY toxic chemicals in my products that I use.

I decided to make a list of my favorite products and where to find them.

I make my own skin cleanser; here is the recipe;

MILLIE’S WONDERFUL CLEANSER

3 cup water
2 cups baking soda
1/2 teaspoon almond oil
2 drops lavender essential oil
1 ½ cup honey
1 Tbsp. Dr. Bonners Almond liquid soap
2 teaspoon vegetable glycerin
1 teaspoon ascorbic acid powder
1 teaspoon Salicylic acid
3 Tablespoons Xantham gum

On low heat, combing all ingredients except honey. Remove from heat and let cool. Add honey. Let the recipe mellow a day, then refrigerate most of it. I keep about a cup of it in the bathroom in a glass jar. Apply to the skin like a soap and rinse off with tepid water.

I make my own exfoliator by adding extra baking soda (a fruit acid) to my cleanser to make a paste.  I use baking Soda mixed with fresh lemon juice as a mask to fade brown spots and even out my complexion. Prior to making these products I had used Retin-A and glycolic acids on my face for about 15 years.  I find these inexpensive, non-toxic products just as affective.

Jane Iredale– her loose powder, mascara and lipsticks are simply the best and cleanest available. And her products are packaged in metal, not plastic. Pricey, but luxurious.

EveryDay Minerals – Great powders, average packaging. GREAT prices!! And free samples, so you can try them. They let you order FIVE generous samples in different colors so you can find a match. I like thier blushes and eye shadows also.

Evans Garden– waxy,ineffective cleansers and chalky powders, but GREAT moisturizers. I use their Light Cream for Oily Skin for daytime, Crème Rose and Rose Facial Serum at night.  I don’t think there are any finer moisturizers on the market. 

Burt’s Bees has the best Lip Balm I’ve ever found.

Aubrey Organics has wonderful Rosa Mosqueta Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner. They are awesome for permed or colored hair. Their Rosa Mosqueta body lotion is the most luxurious and wonderful body lotion I have ever used! However a VERY close second is Burt’s Bees Carrot Moisturizer Lotion (the smell is a heavenly vanilla scent!)

Neem Powder- this toothpaste and mouthwash is my favorite; cleans, whitens and is a natural disinfectant.

UVNaturals is the only sunscreen I have found that I am willing to put on my skin!  Although I hardly ever wear it, there are tomes I do need it; sailing, long bike rides…I can even wear it under makeup. Recent medical research is indicating that certain sunscreen ingredients are in fact having a detrimental effect through cumulative use.

Greener Beauty Products

If you have been reading my blog awhile, you know I am serious about not using any chemicals on my body.  However…every once in a while, especially in the summer, I love to paint my toes red.  I have tried a few polishes from the health food store with no luck finding good quality ones…  Here is a post from TryingToBeGreener;

I feel pretty, oh so pretty! March 20, 2009

I would say that I keep things pretty basic with the daily beauty products I use. I don’t have a ton of makeup that piles up or multiple shampoo bottles to choose from in my shower. I do, however, like to wear perfume and nail polish occasionally. In fact, I’ve found that when I do wear nail polish, it helps me to want to keep my hands from looking like they wash dishes all day long – it reminds me to pamper them a bit more. The problem is that I stopped wearing nail polish after hearing how much of  it contains formaldehyde, toluene, and dibutyl phthalate.

Nicole, made by OPI, is free of DBT, toluene, and formaldehyde and their glass packaging is recyclable. The Nicole line comes in both the traditional nail polishes in the glass jars, called Nail Lacquers, and brush on pens, called Nail Sticks. Both options come in many, many colors and are available at Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Meijer, Longs Drugs, and Harmon Discount Health and Beauty.

I tried the Nail Stick alone without a top or bottom coat and found it to last respectably for 5 day. Pretty good, if you ask me.

Nicole Nail Sticks

I also purchased Soy Polish Remover from a local “green store” near where I live made by Pritti. Its ingredients are soy ester, corn ester, orange oil, and vegetable glycerin. Their DBP, toluene and formaldehyde free nail polish and polish remover can be purchased through Amazon.

Priti Nail Polish Remover

Cut the Risk of Cancer with Sunshine?

One specific treatment for cancer brought to the “research forefront” is sunshine. According to a study, men with higher levels of vitamin D (typically obtained through sunshine exposure AND grass-fed meat, eggs and butter, which are your best source for Vitamin D) in their blood were half as likely to develop aggressive forms of prostate cancer than those with lower amounts.

Experiments also suggested vitamin D inhibits cell growth. Yet despite sunshine’s apparent health benefits, doctors are not entirely comfortable with prescribing the “sunshine vitamin,” though many see little harm in getting the 15 minutes of exposure time a day the body needs to make enough of this vital nutrient. (It is recommended people get a daily vitamin D amount of 400 international units.) Doctors warn, however, that there must be a “happy medium” to receiving vitamin D: Too little won’t do any good, while an overload can cause critical health problems such as skin cancer.

Sunscreen Found to Generate Harmful Compounds that Promote Skin Cancer

A team of researchers from the University of California has found that sunscreen can do more harm than good once it soaks into the skin, where it actually promotes the harmful compounds it is meant to protect against.

The research team found that three commonly used ultraviolet (UV) filters — octylmethoxycinnamate, benzophenone 3 and octocrylene — eventually soak into the deeper layers of the skin after their application, leaving the top skin layers vulnerable to sun damage. UV rays absorbed by the skin can generate harmful compounds called reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can cause skin cancer and premature aging. The researchers found that once the filters in sunscreen soak into the lower layers of skin, the filters react with UV light to create more damaging ROS.

The Cal team’s research is the first to indicate that sunscreen filters — intended to protect the skin from the very UV damage they apparently promote — have reacted in such a way.

The researchers found that the filters only become damaging when they are soaked into the skin and another layer of sunscreen is not applied.

"This research confirms what the natural health community has been saying for years: That sunscreens are harmful to your health," said Mike Adams, a consumer health advocate. "The best sunscreen is actually achieved with a diet high in antioxidants," he explained. "When you eat berries, superfoods and fresh produce on a regular basis, these natural antioxidants are utilized by your skin to protect you from excessive ultraviolet ray exposure. Sunburns are caused more by poor nutrition than by UV ray exposure."

Unilever takes a bite out of your face cream

Evan’s Garden

I wanted to tell you also about a mall company that makes small batches of amazing skin care products.

Evan’s Garden

I use their light moisturizer for day, La Crème de la Crème at night.  I use The Perfect rose about once a week.  It is a very nourishing oil for the skin. 

The ingredients are amazing, look at the ingredients for their light moisturizer;

aloe vera gel, apricot kernel oil, black currant seed oil, calendula extract, callophyllum inophyllum oil, Co-Enzyme Q-10, comfrey extract, cucumber hydrosol, DMAE (amino acid), emulsifying wax, Ester-C© Topical Concentrate* (Mineral Ascorbate [Vitamin C] Complex in natural vegetable glycerin & sorbital), evening primrose oil, fragrance (pure essential oils), German chamomile hydrosol, citrus seed extract, grapeseed oil, gravel root extract, hazelnut oil, horsetail extract, jojoba oil, lavender hydrosol, liquid trace minerals complex, lipoic acid, lobelia extract, marshmallow root extract, Montmorillonite clay, mountain spring water, mullein extract, neem leaf extract, neem oil castor oil, neroli hydrosol, oak bark extract, oat tops powder, palm stearic, Roman chamomile hydrosol, rose hip seed oil, rose hydrosol, rosemary extract, skullcap extract, Swedish Flower Pollen Extract, sweet almond oil, vitamin E ( mixed tocotrienols & mixed tocopherols), walnut bark extract, walnut oil, witch hazel hydrosol, wormwood extract, yarrow hydrosol.

Ingredients so clean you could eat them!  I have very oily skin and this moisturizer is great for daytime, either under makeup or by itself.

I do not care for thier Dream Soap, it is waxy and doesn’t leave my skin feeling clean.  And the mineral make-up is not good; too powdery and doesn’t apply evenly.  But, their moisturizers are the best thing that ever happened to my skin. (other than great nutrition!)

Making your own skin care products

Some of you asked where I got some of the ingredients I use. 

I use salicylic acid from The Personal Formulator.  I also buy Hyaluronic Acid, and  some oils from them.  I get ascorbic acid from the health food store, I like Solgar.  Be sure to not get the buffered kind.

I get Xantham gum from the health food store, it is used in gluten free baking, but is a great thickener.

I also make my own flower waters by distilling organic flowers.  I mostly use lavender and rose. I get them from Southern Nutrition here in Jacksonville, they have a huge selection of dried herbs and flowers.  I have recently planted lavender though, so will soon use fresh.  I add essential oils and use it as a perfume, and use them to nourish my skin.  Use as you would a toner.

To make flower waters;

Set a 2 quart saucepan on the stove.  Put a one cup Pyrex measuring cup in the pot. Carefully pour 3 cups of water outside the cup, leaving the cup empty.  Now place about a half a cup of flowers in the water.

Take you pot lid and turn it upside down on top of the pot.  Now turn on the heat, gently bring it to a simmer, then dump a tray of ice cubes into the pot lid.

The water will steam and stick to the lid and then drip into the cup.  Replace the ice as it melts, when you have about a half cup of liquid in the measuring cup, your done.  Cool and keep in refrigerator until use..

You have just made a stove top still!

my wonderful skin cleanser

One of the things I realized years ago when studying skin care, was that it made no sense to use a product packed with active ingredients for washing your face. Glycolic cleansers, vitamin c cleansers…seems they always cost 20.00 a bottle.  I could never find a cleanser I loved. Either it stripped my skin of essential oils, or was too creamy and didn’t clean. 

Then 4 years ago my daughter, Rachel, became an esthetician.  She brought me home info on parabans and their link to breast cancer.  Even my cleansers from the health food store had them.  I gave up, decided to make my own.  I wanted it to clean, didn’t want my skin to feel dry or tight.  I wanted it clean enough to eat.

Here is the recipe, I have a few clients who purchase it from me, I make it for my 3 lovely daughters and myself.  I make about a quart at a time, keep a small amount in the bathroom, the rest I put in the fridge.  It keeps for months.

WONDERFUL CLEANSER

3 cup water
2 cups baking soda
1/2 teaspoon almond oil
2 drops lavender essential oil
1 ½  cup honey
1 Tbsp. Dr. Bonners Almond liquid soap
2 teaspoon glycerin
1 teaspoon Vitamin C
1 teaspoon Salicylic acid
3 Tablespoons Xantham gum

On low heat, combine water, honey, almond, Dr. Bonners, oils.  Remove from heat and let cool about a minute. Add honey. Whisk.  While whisking, add ascorbic acid and salicylic acid.  Whisk slowly, do not inhale powders.  Now add baking soda, a little at a time, it will thicken this mix a tad.  Add xantham gum a tablespoon at a time to thicken.  Let sit a few minutes, adjust thickness.  I like it to be kind of thick, like a hair conditioner.  Apply to the skin like a soap and rinse off with tepid water.

You will notice your skin feels incredibly clean, soft with no tightness or dryness.  The honey is a humectic, a good moisturizer and an natural preservative.

How safe are your skin care products.

Reduce your cancer risk by cutting toxin exposure in your home and on your body.

Remember- what you put on your skin is the same as eating it!  Our bodies absorb very effectively through our skin!

It might make you mad to know that you are a guinea pig for the effects of carcinogen exposure and its effects on the human body. You would be shocked to learn how many known – and suspected – carcinogens are you are using in your home and on your body!

A five-year EPA study of over 600 households revealed that contaminant levels in the average home are up to 70 times higher than those found outdoors!

The Environmental Working Group, a public interest research and advocacy organization, has revealed that more than one third of all personal care products contain at least one known carcinogen. The average woman is exposed to approximately 126 such chemicals on a daily basis. In combination, these products are even worse; some “penetration enhancing” skin care products, for example, allow harmful ingredients to be drawn further into the body.

Penetration enhancers have been used to effectively deliver patch drugs deeper and faster through the skin and into the blood vessels. Although rarely added to cosmetics for the purpose of enhancing penetration, many ingredients used in cosmetics are found to have penetration-enhancing properties. The concern with penetration enhancers in cosmetics lies not in the toxicity of the enhancer itself but in the fact that the enhancers open the skin to greater absorption of carcinogens, toxins, and other harmful chemicals that the product may contain.

.EveryDay Minerals –  Great powders, average packaging.  GREAT prices!!  And free samples, so you can try them.  They let you order FIVE generous samples in different colors so you can find a match.  I loved the three colors of powders and the two blushes I tried.

Evans Garden–  ineffective cleansers and chalky powders, but GREAT moisturizers.

Burt’s Bees has the best lip gloss with color and Lip Balm I’ve ever found.

Aubrey Organics has wonderful Rosa Mosqueta Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner. They are awesome for permed or colored hair.  Their Rosa Mosqueta body lotion is the most luxurious and wonderful body lotion I have ever used!  However a VERY close second is Burt’s Bees Carrot Moisturizer Lotion (the smell is a heavenly vanilla scent!)

Toms of Maine are wonderful non-toxic toothpastes.   But then so is baking soda!

UVNaturals is the only sunscreen I have found that I am willing to put on my skin!  I can even wear it under makeup.  recent medical research is indicating that certain sunscreen ingredients are in fact having a detrimental effect through cumulative use.

These ingredients can mimic oestrogen, create free radicals, or accelerate the production of free radicals in the body. The can also damage DNA within the cells.

Sunscreens are divided up into two groups: Chemical (toxic) and Physical (safe).

The Chemical sunscreens work by absorbing the UV radiation – this process creates extremely dangerous and active free radicals.  The Physical sunscreen work by reflecting the UV light.

Zinc and Titanium are classed as the only Physical sunscreens, in fact, Titanium only reflects 30% of UV light and ABSORBS 70%.  It functions more as a Chemical sunscreen rather than a Physical one. So it should not be grouped with Zinc at all.  Titanium also acts as a “photoactivator” meaning, that in the presence of light, it will activate (catalyse) free radical activity and production, including cancerous and precancerous activity.

So next time you see a natural sunscreen labeled “safe and natural for your Baby” have a close look at the ingredients.

When you go read the label on most of the personal care products that you are probably using, you will find parabens and phthalates. These chemicals have been definitively linked to breast cancer.  Here are two excellent articles on the subject. 

Cosmetics, Parabens, and Breast Cancer

Here is a direct link to EWG’s page that will let you see what products are highest in toxic chemicals.