Our beauty regimens may be poison -- and I don't mean the expensive perfume of that name. Revelations of toxic ingredients in cosmetics, lotions, nail polishes, shampoos: They lead women to wonder about the safety of stunning.
Being the obsessive individual that I am, I had already swept the cupboards of lethal household chemicals. Now no floor will exude that "sparkling clean" glitter, but at least I might stave off lung cancer. And I no longer have to hold my breath while scrubbing the shower.
After greening the cleaning, it was time for my bod.
A quick Google of "safe cosmetics" led me to Skin Deep, which calls itself a cosmetic safety database and rates everything from Vaseline Petroleum Jelly to the most expensive designer stuff out there. I typed the brand names of what I was using into the search box, confident that the contents of my bathroom cabinet would score well -- after all, I frequented a rather upscale salon for my makeup and skin salves.
I couldn't have been more deluded: As rated on a scale of zero to 10 -- 0-2 being low hazard for health issues, 3-6 moderate and 7-10 high -- it seemed that several of my daily routines could be killing me, even if moderately. Shockingly, all of these products were touted as "pure," "organic" or "natural."
I began to sweat (but discovering my deodorant to be poison, couldn't use it) until I noticed a column that links to a list of products that are safer. Whew. And there it was, a line of perfectly pure facial and body cleansers, toners and vital anti-aging potions. Even the line's name sounded like I'd be showering under a waterfall in the Garden of Eden.
I ordered it all -- facial serums, B5 moisturizers, rejuvenating cleansers and probiotic brighteners. Days later, boxes arrived on my front porch. I tore open the cardboard and unwrapped the recycled paper and Earth-friendly "popcorn" from around the bottles and tubes.
I showered with sunflower body wash, massaged with garnet exfoliant, slathered on intensive body cream, shampooed with desert flower and rinsed with avocado hair conditioner. Then I spritzed my head with B5 hair repair and worked organic aloe gel all over my scalp.
For my face, I followed the five-step fingertip application of mixtures containing adzuki bean, wheat grain, aloe leaf juice and rose-hip-seed oil, topped off with an eye-dropper essence of tamanu nut oil, neroli citrus flower oil, Calendula oil, Carrot CO2 seed and rosemary leaf.
