Gorgeously Green

I got out a book my sister let me borrow called "Gorgeously Green" by Sophie Uliano It has SOOOOO much helpful information and resources for someone who is trying to be better with their health and the environment. I am going to basically copy some stuff she has for skin care type products and what she says isn't safe and what is potentially dangerous and what is good for you. She says to take all of your products and put them on the table ( including your kids lotions and shampoos and what not ) As you read the labels you will make 3 piles.
1-throw away immediately
2-go ahead and finish but don't buy again
3-should be safe but may need further investigation ( which I will tell you how later )

SO get ready for a lot of useful information to help you sort through your stuff. She gives a million web sites to go to and tells you what products she has found to be safe for us ( or just go buy the book because I am only covering like 6 pages of info and its a 300 page book. :) But please at least read this post because it is very important, useful information

RED ALERT ( things to throw away immediately ) Look at the ingredients for these products:

1. Coal Tar
2. Fragrance ( which is pretty much everything! but they write this on the label to mask a hundred different ingredients including phthalates which disrupts the endocrine system and could cause reproductive and developmental harm.
3. Hydroquinone
4. Aluminum
5. Triclosan ( this is found in most antibacterial products like soaps and toothpaste. Its usually contaminated with dioxins which are carcinogenic and can also weaken the immune system, decrease fertility and cause birth defects
6. P-Phenylenediamine ( this can also be listed as 1,4-Benzenediamine, p-Phenyldiamine and 4-Phenylenediamine
7. Lead and mercury

All the above need to be thrown away and never used again!

if you want help when at the store getting ready to purchase new products to replace the ones you threw away, you can download a cheat sheet from www.gorgeouslygreen.com/cheatsheet

Orange Alert:
Use up but do NOT buy again ( try to avoid these products when at all possible )

1. Cocamide DEH
2. Lauramide DEA
3. Cocamide MEA
4. Triethanolamine (TEA)
5. Diethanolamine (DEA)
6. Mineral oils which are PAH's and are often found on the label as petroleum or liquid parafin and should be avoided
7. Parabens ( which I mentioned before ) it comes in these different form's
methyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, butyl-, isobutyl- so in other words it will appear like this on the label 'methylparaben' and so forth
8. Phthalates ( these are often one of the things hidden under the term fragrance )
9. Sodium Lauryl (SLS) and Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate (SLES)
10. Polyethylene Glycol (PEG)
11. Formaldehyde-producing preservatives some examples of these are hydanatoin, imidazolidinyl urea, and diazolidinyl urea
12. Talc
Acrylates and Methacrylates
13. alcohol, isopropyl (SD-40)
14. Tocopherol Acetate
15. Phenonip
16.Quaternary Ammonium Compounds (Quats)
17. Cationic Surfactants ( these are found in conditioners and can also show up as stearalkonium chloride, benalkonium chloride, cetrimonium chloride, cetalkonium chloride, and lauryl dimonium hydrolyed collagen
18. Benzyl Alcohol
19. Silicone derived Emollients ( this includes dimethicone, dimethicone copolyol and cyclomethicone
20. Carbomer 934, 940, 941, 960, 961C

I know it is a lot so as she tells you in the book, get rid of the red alert things for sure and try not to buy the orange alert things in the future. Also if something has a HUGE list of ingredients and you can't pronounce any of them,. chances are you do NOT want to buy the product.

So who is confused? ME too ( especially since I am not giving you all the info she has on each product like she does in the book ) so go here www.safecosmetics.org and type in what product you have that you are concerned about and it will tell you the scoop on it. It ranks products with a 0 to 10 ( O being the best and 10 being the worse ) The author of the book says she stays clear of anything above a 5. If the product you are looking up isn't listed you can go to www.scorecard.org and click on "Chemical profiles" You can check a NUMBER of things including where the safest place in your town is to live...yup you read that right, so go and check it out.

A quote for us to think about :
"a substantial and growing body of evidence indicates that exposure to certain toxic chemicals and hormone-mimicking compounds contribute to the development of breast cancer" -The Breast Cancer Fund

So what can we buy? here are a list of products and their web sites she gives in the book. Remember that organic products are usually more expensive to purchase but whats more important? The price of what it will do to your health. I would rather spend 2 to 5 dollars more on my facial cleanser then have all the toxins in the other stuff.

Suki- www.sukinaturals.com
Pangea Organics- www.pangeaorganics.com
Dr. Hauschka- www.drhauschka.com
Kuumba Made- www.kuumbamade.com
Juice Beauty- www.juicebeauty.com
Gorgeously Green- www.gorgeouslygreen.com ( her own makeup line )

here are some more companies that sell beauty products that are safe for use.

Aubrey Organics- www.aubrey-organics.com
Juice Beauty- www.juicebeauty.com
www.Jason-naturals.com
Also you can go to Target and they have a couple of organic products like Burt's Bee's and Kiss my Face. They also have an organic no paraben children's soaps and lotions in the baby section. They are kind of pricey but again, think of the alternative. also, if any of this interest you seriously go buy this book. She has serisouly about 10 pages of safe products and web site and I don't have the time to type it all out as she does in the book. I only listed a few. Also when shopping for products be aware that just because some says organic or "looks" organic doesn't mean it doesn't have any of the toxins in it. Still read the label just to be sure. I hope SOMEONE who reads this will find it helpful, useful information. I felt it was important enough to let those I love know about what I have learned. I hadn't really paid attention to any of this stuff until I watched Oprah's Earth Day episode and was amazed at everything we do to ourselves and our environment. Again, this is only one part of this book. It is broken down into 8 categories:
Beauty
Home
Fitness
Style
Food
Travel
Gardening

And one more thing before I go...it's important to not get over whelmed when trying to be green. There are sooooooooooo many things that can be done to save our health and the health of the environment. Pick one or two areas to work on and once you have perfected those, pick another to start working on. Just as an example, Julia Roberts is a good friend of the women who wrote this particular book. Julia was on the Oprah show I talked about seeing and she said one of the things it says in the book is to get rid of paper towels and to use cloth ones. Julia said that whenever her friend comes over, she hides the paper towels because she just can't part with them yet! haha But she does other things like uses the green bags for grocery shopping. I aspire to do this someday! haha Plastic bags take 100 years to break down in our land fills....just so you know. alright I have got to go before this turns into an OUTRAGEOUSLY long post ( like it isn't already! )

Oh and one more note, if you look something up and it is spelled different then how I spelled it, chances are I just spelled it wrong. Most of these words are NOT in the computers vocabulary and everything has red lines under it in my version! :)