Nasties in your personal care products

Have you ever taken the time to read through the list of ingredients on the back of your sunscreen or moisturiser? Chances are you’ll see a jumble of chemical names & numbers that are hard to pronounce & understand.

You might also notice that sometimes only the active ingredients will be listed, leaving you questioning what else is in the product

Our amazing skin

Our skin is our body’s largest organ, & it plays a critical role in keeping us healthy. Not only does it protect everything on the inside, but it also helps to keep the nasties out. However, it is also very permeable at a chemical cellular level, & many of the nasties we are about to look at are readily absorbed through our skin into our bodies.

Studies have found that our skin absorbs around 64% of what we put on it, & that it takes only 26 seconds for those products to enter our bloodstream.

Some parts of the body have more delicate skin, such as the face, underarms, neck & genitals, which are 2-6 times more permeable than other areas like the torso & thighs. Often, these more delicate areas are the places where we are using many of our products.

Beauty

Being healthy is inherent to looking beautiful.

An enormous amount of time & money is invested in the quest for youthful glowing skin & luscious hair, by both manufacturers & consumers.

But consider: if much of what we are applying to our bodies contains toxins, what is that really doing to our skin & bodies, & is that counterproductive in our quest for true health & true beauty?

Perhaps a deeper, less superficial beauty can be obtained through using simple low-tox products that also care for the health of our planet.

Living with a clear conscience is a wonderful beauty balm, & your halo will make you even more radiant!

Chemical body burden

Not all chemicals are bad, & many may not be detrimental to your health when used occasionally. However, think of all the different ways we are exposed to chemicals in our modern life. These chemicals accumulate in our bodies, leading to “chemical body burden”.

Chemical body burden is the cumulative load of residual chemical toxins & contaminants in our body, that our body is either storing or struggling to process.  

These accumulated chemical toxins are harmful & can lead to some serious health impacts, including allergies, irritations, endocrine issues & even cancer.

Endocrine disrupters

Many of the chemicals we are about to look at are endocrine disruptors. You may have heard of this term before, but put simply, endocrine disruptors are a bunch of nasty toxins which mimic or interfere with our hormone system (or endocrine system), affecting the way it works.

No one needs that!

Our endocrine system is made up of a series of glands that create hormones, which are our body’s chemical messengers. These hormones are released into the bloodstream carrying information & instructions from one set of cells to another.

Our hormones control mood, growth & development, organ function, metabolism, immune health & reproduction.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC’s) can imitate, block & interrupt hormone flow, creating signalling issues, which can lead to fertility problems in men & women such as low sperm count & infertility, reproductive health problems such as Endometriosis & Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, foetal development disorders, as well as thyroid disorders & increased incidences of breast & other cancers. Just to name a few. Yikes!

It is estimated that there are approximately 1000 man-made chemicals that have endocrine disrupting properties. It’s no stretch to assume that some poor health outcomes correlate with the plethora of synthetic man-made products now available to us.

Cruelty-free

 All these & many more toxic chemicals and personal care products are tested on animals before they are allowed to be used by humans. This practice can be argued as being necessary to establish the safety of a product.

However, harmful testing on animals is not necessary when there are plenty of natural alternatives available. Indeed, it is cruel. Our intention to make positive change underpins all our choices, so please consider making kinder choices & look for cruelty free products

It's not all bad

That might all seem a bit scary, and realistically all those toxic chemicals are a bit scary. But it’s not all doom & gloom. Being better informed means you can make better choices, and that is a big positive!

Now you are armed with some insight as to what to avoid, let’s look at some things you can do to have a healthy bathroom cabinet. You will soon discover that you don’t need very many products to feel fresh and be glowing with health and vitality from the inside out. You will save heaps of money, and be looking after our precious planet too.

Keen to learn more about how to keep your skincare natural without spending a fortune?  Check out our Sustainable Skincare ebook for easy download or our Online workshop Natural Skincare Skincare now.