Cleaning with Marie Kondo!

Hi Everybody,
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming on natural body care products to discuss tidying and decluttering your home.  I have been KonMari'd.  It's from the book by Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.  Marie “KonMari” Kondo runs an acclaimed consulting business in Tokyo helping clients transform their cluttered homes into spaces of serenity and inspiration. Marie has been taking the world by storm with her international bestseller about the KonMari method of cleaning up.  Get the book!  It revolutionized my thinking on cleaning and tidying. Once I started reading I couldn't put it down.  I read it in two days and jumped up and started cleaning and organizing the very next day.  I first cleaned my kitchen and bathroom thoroughly.  Then the next weekend I tidied my linen closets and then took on my youngest son's room.  We got rid of 10 bags of linens and toys for charity, and threw away countless bags of garbage.  Even my son is happy now because he knows where all of his toys are.  I am eagerly eyeing my next tidying project.  : )



Keep it Clean!
Michele

Why Are Phthalates So Bad?

Phthalates are found in plastics and artificial fragrances.  (I pronounce them THAL-lates, I can't manage the PHTH). :-)  One of their uses is to make plastics softer and another is to carry fragrances.  We are exposed to them in a number of ways - through vinyl shower curtains, new cars (you know that new car smell that we all love - phthalates!), perfumes and some children's toys.  They are among a class of chemicals known as endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors interfere with our body's natural hormonal system and cause subtle changes in our bodies.  Some possible health effects are: sperm mutations, interference with puberty and masculinity, interference with fetal development and tumor promotion.

One way to avoid them is to avoid artificial fragrances and vinyl shower curtains. I use cloth shower curtains, natural fragrances and avoid cooking in plastic containers, which can contain them also.  A great article on how to avoid phthalates can be found on the Huffington Post website.

A study of 9 pregnant women by the Washington Toxics Coalition showed that all of the women had at least 4 types of phthalates in their bloodstreams.  The CDC did a study from 2001-2010 of exposures to chemicals as measured by levels of metabolites in urine (http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/), and among Americans many phthalates were found in our urine at varying levels.  The CDC asserts in its phthalate fact sheet that human health effects from exposure to low levels of phthalates are unknown. Another study by Manikkam, M., et al, showed that phthalates caused multigenerational effects in rats, such as obesity, reproductive disease and sperm mutations.  Hmmmmmmmm.  I'm not liking it. :(

Keep it Clean!
Michele

How Much Have I Lowered My Chemical Body Burden?

With my switch to more natural body care products, my chemical body burden has dropped from 227 to 63 chemicals and the average EWG Hazard is down from 4.0 to 1.5.  If you remember from one of my earlier blogs, the EWG is the Environmental Working Group and they have a cosmetics database with assigned hazards from 0-10.  I think 63 is still a lot of chemicals, but I can drop it further by switching my lip-gloss, mascara and leave-in conditioner. (See my June 12th and 29th posts)

So, I think I'm getting the hang of this.  Let me know if any of you have switched to cleaner, more natural products and what you think!

Keep it Clean!

Michele

Let's Take the "Cosmetics Challenge" Again!

Hi Everyone,
I'm back from a weekend with family!  So, I have switched to a much more natural body care regimen.  I will show you what I am now using and the numbers of chemicals in each product.  I am using Face Naturals and Nubian Heritage products now.  Here is my new "Cosmetics Challenge" in the table below.  I used the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Database, www.ewg.org/skindeep/ to evaluate the relative hazards of the new products that I am using.  What is kind of interesting is that Burt's Bees, which has a reputation for being "natural," has a lot of chemicals in it and a fairly high EWG hazard.  Tarte make-up is supposed to be natural, but it has a lot of chemicals and the same EWG hazard of 3 as Almay mascara, which is the drugstore brand.

More Natural Care Products	# chemicals	EWG Hazard
NH Shea butter soap	4	1
FN face soap	0	0
FN lavender deodorant	1	1
NH Shea butter lotion	6	2
FN face moisturizer	2	0
FN Plum perfect eye cream	2	0
Burt's Bees lip-gloss	14	4
Tarte mascara	14	3
FN Peppermint toothpaste	1	0
Alaffia Black African Soap	1	1
GF Leave-in conditioning hair cream	10	4
NH papaya&coconut hand cream	8	2
	63	1.5

*EWG Hazard, 0-2=low hazard, 3-6=moderate hazard, 7-10-high hazard

You may notice from my June 12th blog post that I kept the same hair conditioner. Some things just aren't worth the fight. :) Finding things that work on my hair is one of those fights that I'm just not up to right now.  Maybe in the future.

Talk to you later!

Michele

Kookie says "Keep it Natural!"

Well, I have family coming into town this weekend, so we'll take a commercial break.

Kookie says "Keep it Natural!"

Why is Lowering Your Chemical Body Burden Important?

• It is important to lower both the amount of chemicals that you are exposed to in your cosmetics and the hazards of the chemicals used.
• Small exposures can add up when they come from many different sources and products that you use.
• We do not know the effects of multiple additive exposures over a lifetime.
• For example, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, a research organization sponsored by the cosmetics industry, says that parabens are safe at the levels used in cosmetics.
• However, what if you are getting parabens in 10 of the products you use?  Do the effects add up to be more of a health concern?
• Women of child-bearing age are especially susceptible, because they tend to use a lot of beauty products in the teens and twenties.
• Also many chemicals can be passed on to an unborn child.

Keep It Clean!

Michele

Face Naturals Skin Care Products

Getting more natural is a process.  It doesn’t have to happen overnight.  I fully intend to use up all of my conventional products and gradually switch over to more natural products.  What do I hope to gain?  -Hopefully less irritation and less risks of cancer.

One of the companies I discovered lately that sells wonderful, natural, personal care products is Face Naturals, based out of Georgia: www.facenaturals.com.  (Please put referred by MichelesNaturalCare in the comment section)  I found them through the EWG Skin Deep database: www.ewg.org/skindeep/ (see my June 10th post), when I was looking for some lip-gloss that wouldn’t irritate my lips.  (Most lipsticks and glosses make my lips peel)  I bought a couple of lip-glosses from them that I really liked.  They kept my lips nice and soft during the brutal Chicago winter.  I’ve since tried the Lavender stick deodorant, the Hibiscus facial wash, the Superfruit facial cream and the Plum Perfect eye cream.

Photo courtesy of Face Naturals

Here’s what I think of their products:

The deodorant is wonderful; it smells like a meadow.  However, it’s baking soda based, so it’s a little crumbly.  It works well in cooler weather.  I’ll have to let you know once the weather gets hot.  My sister really likes the Grapefruit and Bergamot Cream Deodorant, and she lives in the sunbelt, where it's hot.  I think the facial wash is nice, not too drying.  The eye cream is good in the winter months to keep my eyes dewy.  I haven’t tried the facial cream, yet.  It’s spring now and I don’t really need face cream now when it’s warm.  When winter comes I’ll try it out and let you know.

Keeping it Clean!

Michele