http://www.care2.com/greenliving/green-girl-plays-skin-deep.html
Green Girl Plays Skin Deep
A couple of weeks ago (while still at home), I was in my town’s local health food store with a friend who was visiting from college. She was looking at all of the hair and body products and commenting on how she wanted to green-ify her body care collection. As I watched, she began pulling moisturizers and shampoos and deodorants from the shelves without a glance at the ingredients list.
Well, let’s just say I put a stop to that. “WAIT!” I cried. She looked at me questioningly. She had thought that, because she was in a health food store, every product must be completely green. COMMON MISCONCEPTION!!!!! Common misconception that is very wrong. Very wrong indeed. Many products in health food stores still carry such things as parabens and fragrances–you have to search hard for truly green products. I walked my friend through the process of scouring the aisles for the truly green.
What I realized from this encounter, though, is that no matter how much I may be getting my friends, readers, and peers to think green and want to be green, they don’t always understand what goes into being green. It is not just walking into the health food store. The problem is that they have not done all of the research that I have done. They do not know offhand which ingredients are bad and which are good–which is completely understandable. Not everyone has 20 years of being told that they can’t use that shampoo because it has parabens in it. Most people are just learning!
So, what do I advise those of you who are just learning and need an easy way to tell what is OK and what is not? I advise you to go to this lovely website called Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database. It’s a miracle worker. You literally type in the product, company, or ingredient name into the search, and the item shows up with a hazard score–how toxic it is–from 1 to 10, 0-2 being low hazard, 3-6 moderate hazard, and 7-10 high hazard. If you click on the product, it will give you detailed information about links between it and such things as cancer, reproductive and developmental toxicity, and endocrine disruption.
I just utilized Skin Deep and was shocked to see that a couple of things I had thought were fine were a 6 on the hazard scale (although I was pleased to see that my shampoo is a 2)! Even for the chemically experienced, this site is a lifesaver. So never fear! Now there is an easy way for you to check out what you’re using. It’s quite eye opening, indeed. And my friends who are not so green? Well, I just played Skin Deep with them, too … and I thought my 6’s were bad!
Note to self: Throw away the 6’s and find a new moisturizer.
Lily Berthold-Bond grew up in a chemical-free zone and has struggled her whole life to understand and accept this non-commercial lifestyle. Now a sophomore at Tufts University, she has embraced her green life and hopes to share its possibilities with the rest of her generation.
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16 comments
add your comment »Skin Deep has some solid research included on their site but some of their data about product ingredients is outdated and inaccurate.
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I've been making my own personal products since my cancer diagnosis. You are so fortunate to of had a family who was into knowing about parabens, etc.
I am trying to educate my college age daughter so she'll never get cancer.
Try these good sites for products: www.poofyorganics.com - Skin deep likes them and they have simple ingredients.
Feel free to make your own too: www.naturalrecipes.org
Keep up the good work Green Girl...I'll get my daughter to read you yet!
THanks
Nancy R.
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Skin Deep is a wonderful website, but it's worth checking what can sometimes add to higher scores. For example, things like grapefruit seed extract have high scores because it apparently has the "potential" to be contaminated with impurities. Until I find information that demonizes grapefruit seed extract more than that, I'll trust that the companies I like only use grapefruit seed extract that's free from impurities. Also, ingredients that are "penetration enhancers" raise danger Skin Deep danger scores, but I usually feel that if I'm not using anything I'm worried about being absorbed into my skin, I'm less worried about "penetration enhancers." So definitely check places like Skin Deep, but don't automatically throw away a product without seeing why it may have gotten a higher score than you thought it would!
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I love skin deep, one of the companies I found was Solay Wellness www.natural-salt-lamps.com They have an amazing line of organic moisturizers, face scrubs, soaps, shampoos. I have switched all my products to their brand so far with excellent results. My daughter has acne and love the daily detox soap, my husband has thinning hair and both the green tea shampoo bar and the organic green tea shampoo has done wonders for his hair. And my skin never looked so good. When I first found them, I called and spoke with the owner, Isabella and she sent me samples. She has a great company! Very customer focused and all her products are made by hand in small batches by small woman business, you need to ask for samples or buy them on the website but I cant praise them enough. Really a great company to support with amazing products, by far the best I have tried.
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i've started using dr. bronner's magic soaps for shampoo, body wash, cleaning, everything. they are pure castile and completely organic. i would recommend them to anyone!
i avoid parabens as much as possible. it's incredible how many estrogen-mimicker chemicals are in our hygiene products, and then we wonder why little girls are hitting puberty at 8 years old and breast cancer is occurring at younger ages too.
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I have given up trying to find a decent organic shampoo. The last one that I tried was labeled "moisturzing formula" but it made my dry hair even drier! I only shampoo a couple of times a week. Gone back to using parbens and laurel sulfates. At least it gets my hair clean and it isn't dry anymore.
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What you've shared is also my experience. Many people are being greenwashed by the misleading words of natural and organic. I offer seminars to womend on avoiding hazardous chemicals in their personal care products. The easiest way to quickly find a pure product is to look for the USDA (or other government's) organic certification label on the container. Many companies claim they are made from certified organic ingredients, but the only way you know that 95% of the ingredients are cert. organic and no synthetics are included is to look for the seal. Don't be fooled by seals like ECO CERT where water is included in the percentage of certified ingredients, you are likely getting organic tea water with who knows what else.
For more information on certified organic beauty products go to http://betterchoices.mionegroup.com/en/certifications
In my experience most people don't have the time to read labels as they are shopping, and re-read them whenever a product is "new & improved."
The USDA certification gives consumers a quick seal of approval. If it doesn't have the seal you're not getting the real deal.
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SkinDeep is great for looking up actual ingredients. I actually used it when I worked in a sex shop to help people find personal lubricants that were the safest, or 'greenest', options for them. Not a lot of 'product' listings in that category yet... he he he. A good tip for understanding how to use sites like SkinDeep is to take into consideration the ingredient ratings and risks AND the amount of the ingredient in the product you're researching AND how often and how much of the actual product you use. If something has a danger rating of 4, but it's the last thing on the ingredients list of a product you only use once a month in a small amount, the risk is substantially less of experiencing the yucky effects of said ingredient. Likewise if something has a danger rating of 3 and risks listed include reproductive issues, and it's one of only 7 ingredients in your personal lubricant which you use on an almost daily basis, I'd say that risk is much more substantial and worth not taking.
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I've been using the Miessence brand for years now. All products are ethically made, certified organic, smell delicious and safe enough to eat (not that I recommend it!).
If the company can't get an organic ingredient, they simply won't make the product or they change the formulation. There are no compromises. Ingredients are all visible and explanations for each one is given on the website: www.goodskinforlife.com.
In the process of replacing all my products way back 4 years ago I added in a container of the probiotic superfood which will fix your skin by fixing your bowels. Excellent products, great company.
Hand soap is my all time favorite and completely eliminated my need for hand cream and the air freshener is the most incredible smell on the planet! Even the packaging is well thought out to have the least impact on the environment possible. Corn starch packing peanuts too that I throw in the sink and after a handwashing they dissolve.
If you have a question about a specific product, don't hesitate to email me detoxexpert@gmail.com or just ask here.
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Thank you for the site, I'll have to check it out. Every month I end up replacing a product I use with something greener and kinder.
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