Sunday, February 10, 2008

Have you read your body lotion label lately?

I love Burt's Bees new campaign line: "How do you get all the soft without the suspicious?" They go on to describe a comparison of the ingredients Milk & Honey VS DMDM Hydantoin. Maybe spelling all this out to consumers in a flashy (half naked woman) ad will wake people up to the fact that the mainstream drugstore products are just chemicals in pretty bottles. And that maybe everyone should be reading the ingredients on them before buying.....just like we do at the grocery stores.
Six years ago when I became pregnant with our first child I started reading about the cosmetic and beauty industry and what goes into all the products we use. It is scary! What woke me up was learning that our skin is our body's biggest organ and 60% of what we put on our skin is absorbed back into our blood stream. So the theory is if you wouldn't eat it, you shouldn't wear it. And that is when I started buying organic, natural products from the health food store. And boy, have I gone through a lot over the years! ha ha Like drugstore products, the natural products all work differently, and it has taken me awhile to settle on products that work best for us. You also have to beware of some of the so-called 'natural' products. Just because a company puts 'natural' on their bottle doesn't make it natural. For a list of ingredients you should avoid in products you can visit http://www.searchforthecause.org/documents/dirty_dozen.pdf
You can see posts from previous months on the beauty products my kids and I are currently using. And finally I have converted over the hubbie!! Pictured here are 3 brands of men's products.....products that I found here in our city. I'm sure there are a million on the web to try....but my husband is new to this stream of products, so I didn't want to overwhelm the guy.
Herban Cowboy: He loved this line of products the best - mostly because of the scent. I got him the 'Wild' and 'Dusk' scents in shave cream, aftershave balm, and soap. He has no opinion on the efficiency of the product vs the others...go figure...he based his preference entirely on smell. All are organic and vegan.
Burt's Bees - this company just launched a men's line late last year. I prefer the smell of this line to the Herban Cowboy because it is a lot more subtle in smell. I have been using the body wash on him! ha And lastly is the Weleda after shave lotion. My husband found the scent too floral and the consistency too greasy.
Some health food stores will give out samples if asked - so don't be shy to explain that you are looking at finding more natural products for your family and don't know where to start.

4 comments:

Chile said...

The ingredient that freaked me out in store-bought lotion was urea. Very good for leaving you with soft skin. Except there's a catch. Urea is cow pee. I don't want cow pee on my face or anywhere else on my body. Ick.

meg said...

I hate to bring this up. It was really a blow to me when I found out. But...Burt's Bees has been bought out by the Clorox Corp. This may have absolutely no impact on what goes into their products, but the fact that they are now a part of the labyrinth of big business gives me pause. I will not be purchasing any more of their products even though I am a long-time fan. Why does everyone sell out?

Hippie Girl said...

ahhhhh, that SUCKS!! guess I won't be purchasing any more of Burts Bees either then.....

UrbanHippieMama said...

Just found your blog from Simply Green Living... I love it! :) Wanted to add there is an amazing online database that is cataloging all skincare products and so you can look them up easily to see if they have harmful ingredients-- it is:
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/.
Hope it's helpful!!