Natural Personal Care and Beauty Products
Ingesting, inhaling and absorbing are what our bodies do best. Are you aware of how many toxins your body is dealing with every day?
In the modern world, the widespread use of hazardous chemicals, combined with lack of adequate information and control, has brought us to the chemical crisis we face today.
While the occurrence of hazardous chemicals in the environment and in our bodies is increasingly widely documented, few of us are aware that many of the ingredients in cosmetic, personal care and beauty products are toxic and hazardous to your health.
Personal care products are everyday consumer products used to cleanse, enhance, or alter the appearance of the body, including, but not limited to, shampoos, body washes, lotions, and cosmetics. Personal care products can be considered both a drug (mouthwashes, acne medications, steroid creams, lip balms, hand sanitisers and soaps, etc.) and a cosmetic (lotions, makeup, perfume, etc.)
In truth, personal care products are one of the least regulated industries. Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), cosmetic products and ingredients, other than color additives, do not need FDA approval before they go on the market.
The regulations and safety information surrounding personal care products are severely lacking. The laws regulating the environmental fate of these chemicals and the harmful effects they can have on environmental ecosystems or organisms that are exposed to them are even more limited.
The major culprits in cosmetics and personal care products fall under four main classes of chemicals, phthalates, parabens, triclosan, and fragrances.
Many of these chemicals are known endocrine disruptors, and appear in personal care products or the environment at hormone relevant concentrations, leading to adverse neurological, developmental, or sexual developmental effects, which can be extremely detrimental to a fetus or to younger organisms.
Not only are these chemicals and toxins potentially harmful to our personal health, it could also prove to be harmful to the environment, our entire food supply and our planet as a whole.
Studies have shown that the chemicals can have a dizzying array of health risks, including diseases on the rise in human populations such as diabetes, obesity, autism, ADHD, learning disabilities and other neurological disorders, infertility, and some cancers.
Many of these health effects have also been observed in other organisms exposed to these chemicals in the environment. Some exposures have even been shown to be toxic to certain species at high enough concentrations.
The skin with its glands, hair, nails and other structures make up the integumentary system. It forms the external covering of the body and constitutes THE LARGEST ORGAN OF THE BODY with several functions. The skin is in constant contact with the external environment and is subject to continuous wear and tear, yet fulfils the most important task, WHICH IS TO PRESERVE THE INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT.
All toxins that you take in through living, breathing, eating, RUBBING & SPRAYING STUFF ON YOUR SKIN, etc. all gets absorbed into the body and directly and indirectly effects your overall health and the proper functioning of your entire human body.
Applying creams, serums, gels or sprays is NO DIFFERENT from eating them, because they enter the blood-stream regardless if they are ingested in the mouth or absorbed through the skin! Many cosmetic chemicals are designed to penetrate into the skin’s inner layers, and they do.
Research conducted by the Herb Research Foundation, revealed that the skin absorbs up to 60 per cent of the chemicals in products that it comes into contact with directly into the bloodstream.
The toxic chemicals found in our COSMETIC, PERSONAL CARE AND BEAUTY PRODUCTS is such a huge concept and the implications are massive. There are thousands of chemicals in your products, many of which are being absorbed into your body.
When a person is told that their COSMETIC, PERSONAL CARE AND BEAUTY PRODUCTS contain toxic and hazardous chemicals the reaction is usually one of anger, even being appalled that chemicals in cosmetics, personal care and beauty products are still not regulated. (In truth, personal care products are one of the least regulated industries). Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), cosmetic products and ingredients, other than colour additives, do not need FDA approval before they go on the market. Because there are no specific safety tests required for chemicals used in personal care products, the manufacturer can really pick and choose which tests are performed and what conditions are considered safe. Not surprisingly this can cause worry and panic for most consumers.
The truth is that it is impossible to avoid every single synthetic chemical used today, but you can do your part in limiting the amount of toxins your body is exposed to and that of your family’s.
The information I am sharing with you here is not intended to make your fearful or to cause you to spend the rest of your life in, paranoia and deprivation. In fact you have options, you don’t have to compromise on the luxury and choice when you start using natural and organic products.
This information being shared here is about being informed and being aware of what actually goes into your cosmetic, personal care and beauty products so that you will be empowered to make more intelligent and conscious choices for yourself, your family, and the planet as a whole.
Everything little thing we do to assist an eco-friendly lifestyle promotes our healthy and help the environment. Our choices today matters.
We can either decide to continue to contribute to the staggering amount of chemicals we expose ourselves to on a daily basis or we can decide to replace hazardous substances with safer alternatives for a healthier and happier you.
- First and foremost, DON’T PANIC! Consumers have options when it comes to what we put on our faces and bodies.
- Evaluate simple changes you can make moving forward.
- Replace hazardous substances with safer alternatives.
- Steer clear of products without an ingredients list.
- How sustainable is your lifestyle, do you promote living a life that promote the health and wellbeing of humanity and our earth of do you contribute to breaking it down even further?
- Think about it this way, why would you give your money to businesses and corporations who don’t give two cents about how their actions and inactions are harming our earth? Yes, every business and corporations main goal is profit but at what cost to our mother earth? If we continue to destroy and harm her until nothing is left, where are we as humans going to live?
- Review the list of products to avoid below and start making conscious choices for yourself, your family, and the planet as a whole.
- Online resources like OH MY HEALTH NATURAL PRODUCTS are a great way to find items that will keep you looking great, without risking your health in the long term.
Some companies like OH MY HEALTHY NATURAL PRODUCTS are responding to increasing consumer awareness of synthetic chemicals in products and are setting in place policies to phase out and replace certain harmful chemicals.
Such companies prove that an innovative approach, leading to a new generation of safer products, can equally lead to commercial success.
Changing your way of shopping for cosmetic, personal care and beauty products to support your health and that of your family involves not a single step, but is AN ONGOING PROCESS THAT BECOMES AN INTEGRAL PART OF YOUR JOURNEY.
You can best make stable and lasting changes in your personal care regime THROUGH STEP BY STEP CHANGES in what products you choose to purchase, to care for and clean the human skin.
To make this shift into harmony REQUIRES MAKING A CONSCIOUS DECISION TO CHANGE the way you shop for these products.
Instead of overhauling your entire bathroom, cosmetic and beauty product cupboard all at once, start by replacing essentials that you use on a daily basis and purchase on a monthly basis like body and hair-care products for instance body wash, body cream, deodorant, shampoo & conditioner, toothpaste etc. This will be a first huge step forward.
Once you have made this change in your essentials, you can slowly start replacing COSMETIC AND SKIN CARE PRODUCTS as you run out by REPLACING THEM WITH HEALTHIER AND SAFER PRODUCTS.
A recent study, led by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, showed that it is possible to reduce our body burden of certain toxic chemicals – in as little as three days, simply by avoiding products known to contain them.
You have one life to live and one body. If you don’t take care of yourself now, you may pay for it later in sickness.
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