It all started innocently enough - I got an email. This email was from a green/healthy lifestyle website that I must have visited once and signed up for their online newsletters. Now I get an email from them almost everyday with various information about healthy eating, shopping, etc. I often don't read them all, not that I don't support this idea but I get a lot of emails of this nature so I often just skim through them. Today I made the mistake of actually reading it. The article that got my attention was "7 Ingredients to Ban From Your Bathroom". I clicked on it - now 30min later I have 3 windows open to pages and pages of info about chemicals used in cosmetic and skin care products. I am going through lists of ingredients and finding out which products I use may or may not kill me. Basically I'm in it all the way at this point. What could have been a casual article has turned into an all out life overhaul.
Fuck.
I should say that this is by no means my first jaunt into the world of natural vs. standard cosmetic items. I'm aware of the debate and have often told myself it is something I should make an effort to be more aware of. But now I'm doing full on research into the matter. We are talking reading databases of companies who are all natural and those that aren't, looking up side affects and reading reports. Clearly I know this is something I should do. Logic tells us (or at least me) that products from nature are better for our bodies then those that are created in a lab. Not that I think all man made ingredients are bad - some are great breakthroughs that are indeed beneficial. But I feel in many cases the choices companies make are motivated solely by profit and not the overall health benefit of the products.
The thing that has kept me from doing this in the past is basically laziness. It is more work to check if a product is natural then to just buy what is around. Though I would say that that is becoming easier as there are more and more brands that are 100% natural and free from a lot of the worst ingredients. Also money is a factor as these products are usually a bit more expensive. This all being said I think I will start to make an effort on this front. I'm not committing to going cold turkey (I already have enough new years resolutions going on) but I will start shopping for natural products - with the help of my research today.
I have kindly provided you all with the links as well, in case you also want to spend the rest of your day in guilt and fear. Just kidding! It's good stuff.
The article that started it all.
Campaign for safe cosmetics.
Skin Deep Database. Here you can look up products you currently use and learn that they can give you cancer. Fun!
Compact for safe cosmetics. This is a listing of companies that have vowed to stop using many, believed to be dangerous, chemicals in their products.
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