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Consumption: Week 1 of Curbing my Chemical Dependency
It's Responsible Consumption Month at The Interdependence Project, and as my personal commitment to lessen my environmental impact, I made a pledge to kick my "Chemical Dependency" by replacing the chemical-based products I love with more natural alternatives.
I'm a pretty conscious consumer already, but I thought that this would be a really great opportunity to step it up a notch, and solidify my intention to stop purchasing toxic products.
The moment after I signed the petition I felt a surge of panic. I immediately wanted to bleach my bathroom and get my nails done quick before the pledge went into effect.
It sounds funny, but I have an intense attachment to certain "chemical products" in my life. From my experience, there are certain things that just work better than their herbal counterparts.
Tea Tree oil doesn't make my toilet shine, and herbal mascara melts into raccoon rings around my eyes before I even hit the subway. Even though I know that chlorine is a neurotoxin and waterproof mascara contains such nasties as petroleum and mercury, I've let these products nestle up with my plant-based products, reconciling that perfectionism is the arch nemesis of good effort, and that a handful of toxic products doesn't really make THAT much of a difference, right?
I became aware of how harmful our every day products can be about five years ago when I read an article online uncovering the ugly side of my beauty routine. I started right-mouse clicking myself down the rabbit hole, until hours later I emerged shocked and horrified.
What I discovered is that most mainstream makeup companies (like Cover Girl, Revlon and NARS) use dangerous levels of lead in their lipsticks to help the coloring bind, there's mercury used in mascara to thicken the lashes, and Formaldehyde in shampoo to give our locks that squeaky clean finish. Not to mention a bevy of other known and suspected carcinogens and endocrine disrupters (ie: cancer-causers and hormone imbalancers) lurking in our every-day household products.
As it turns out, The current estimate is that women slather upwards of 120 harmful chemicals on their skin before they even grab their keys and dash for the office in the morning. And that- i was told- is a conservative estimate.
Say what?!
Our skin is considered the body's largest organ, so even though most of us don't eat mascara, everything we apply topically is absorbed directly into the bloodstream: with such speed and efficacy that many pharmaceutical companies are investing in topical "patches" to administer medicine.
I guess I had just always assumed that the FDA (or some government office) has a a hand in regulating our cosmetics and personal hygiene products to keep us safe. Like, you can't just put lead in lipstick without somebody pulling the plug.
As it turns out.. the FDA is totally out of the picture.
An official release from the FDA website confirms that:
“The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act defines drugs as those products that cure, treat, mitigate or prevent disease or that affect the structure or function of the human body. While drugs are subject to a review and approval process by FDA, cosmetics are not approved by FDA prior to sale.”
“FDA does not have a premarket approval system for cosmetic products or ingredients”.
And there's no requiring these ingredients to be listed on the box.
Oh boy.
So I began the process of swapping out my favorite lotions and potions for their less harmful counterparts. Safe for my body, safe for the environment; and It feels good to align my buying power with my values.
It sounds funny, but I have an intense attachment to certain "chemical products" in my life. From my experience, there are certain things that just work better than their herbal counterparts.
Tea Tree oil doesn't make my toilet shine, and herbal mascara melts into raccoon rings around my eyes before I even hit the subway. Even though I know that chlorine is a neurotoxin and waterproof mascara contains such nasties as petroleum and mercury, I've let these products nestle up with my plant-based products, reconciling that perfectionism is the arch nemesis of good effort, and that a handful of toxic products doesn't really make THAT much of a difference, right?
I became aware of how harmful our every day products can be about five years ago when I read an article online uncovering the ugly side of my beauty routine. I started right-mouse clicking myself down the rabbit hole, until hours later I emerged shocked and horrified.
What I discovered is that most mainstream makeup companies (like Cover Girl, Revlon and NARS) use dangerous levels of lead in their lipsticks to help the coloring bind, there's mercury used in mascara to thicken the lashes, and Formaldehyde in shampoo to give our locks that squeaky clean finish. Not to mention a bevy of other known and suspected carcinogens and endocrine disrupters (ie: cancer-causers and hormone imbalancers) lurking in our every-day household products.
As it turns out, The current estimate is that women slather upwards of 120 harmful chemicals on their skin before they even grab their keys and dash for the office in the morning. And that- i was told- is a conservative estimate.
Say what?!
Our skin is considered the body's largest organ, so even though most of us don't eat mascara, everything we apply topically is absorbed directly into the bloodstream: with such speed and efficacy that many pharmaceutical companies are investing in topical "patches" to administer medicine.
I guess I had just always assumed that the FDA (or some government office) has a a hand in regulating our cosmetics and personal hygiene products to keep us safe. Like, you can't just put lead in lipstick without somebody pulling the plug.
As it turns out.. the FDA is totally out of the picture.
An official release from the FDA website confirms that:
“The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act defines drugs as those products that cure, treat, mitigate or prevent disease or that affect the structure or function of the human body. While drugs are subject to a review and approval process by FDA, cosmetics are not approved by FDA prior to sale.”
“FDA does not have a premarket approval system for cosmetic products or ingredients”.
And there's no requiring these ingredients to be listed on the box.
Oh boy.
So I began the process of swapping out my favorite lotions and potions for their less harmful counterparts. Safe for my body, safe for the environment; and It feels good to align my buying power with my values.
I've found that most natural products on the market work just as well, if not better, but 5 years later, there are still a couple of products that I cant seem to jettison. It's super-attachment at its best. So this month my intention is to find (or make!) alternatives that are just as effective as the products I cling to, and kick my chemical dependency for good.
Here's the list of my top offenders:
-OPI nail polish (with their cheeky little names and 5-day staying power)
-Nail polish Remover
-Clorox Bleach
-Waterproof Mascara
-Whiting Toothpaste
-Deodorant (I'm a sweaty girl, and the rock-crystals and lavender talcs have just left me with pit-stains in the past.)
And at the end of the day, I may just have to reconcile that there are no "perfect" alternatives, but those that are "good enough".
We're 6 days into April, and last week's manicure is officially trashed, so this feels like the perfect opportunity to start.
Any recommendations?
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Thanks for contributing your
Thanks for contributing your experience with us about chemical dependency. Nowadays beauty and body care products manufacturers are careless of creating products for their consumers. They just looking for profits and this is very risky for us. I appreciate you for making all of these points as a great recommendation to users.
http://www.superstrands.com/virtuemart/clip-in-hair-extensions.html
Glad to discover this
Glad to discover this informative post! I'm quite excited learn some positive lessons about latest trend and beauty care improvement. This post is just perfect match for me. Keep up allocating fantastic posts.
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deo
those herbal deodorants and crystals did bupkis for me, too. Hands down the BEST deodorant I have ever used is from Cali, Benedetta brand. The stuff is phenomenal. I don't smell ever, even if I'm sweating buckets. And if Earth Day discount code is Earth22 --just google deodorant and benedetta.
Their other killer product is the creme cleanser. They are expensive, cuz the founder is obsessed with quality and small batches and biodynamics and total organics, but totally worth it.
Let's hope raccoon eyes never go out of style
Great post, Adreanna! Mascara is a big problem. Please let us know if you find alternatives that don't streak and smear. This might be helpful:
http://www.goodguide.com/categories/205495-eye-makeup##products
Haven't tried any of them yet, but this is on the responsible consumption website I'm reviewing this week. It's a tidal wave of information. I think I just went into responsible consumption overwhelm. ;-)