What are the Hazards of the Products I Used?

Hi Everyone,
As a continuation of my previous post "How Do I Learn about the Potential Hazards in the Products I Use?", I looked at the relative hazard of the products I was using, according to EWG.  Here goes a table with a little more detail.  It contains the number of chemicals in my PCPs and the EWG Hazard.  We can see that Aveeno Active Naturals lotion isn’t so bad; it has only 7 non-plant-based ingredients and a low EWG hazard of 2.  However, the facial cleanser and lotion have EWG hazards of 5; not so low.  Dove shampoo has the most chemical ingredients of all, with 38 and an EWG hazard of 5.  So I’ve been exploring Natural PCPs as alternatives to some of these products.  

Personal Care Products	# Chemicals	EWG Hazard
Dove soap, unscented	14	4
Aveeno Active Naturals Positively Ageless Daily Exfoliating Cleanser	13	5
Secret Invisible Solid deodorant	13	4
Aveeno Active Naturals (AN) Daily Moisturizing Lotion	7	2
Aveeno AN Clear Complexion Moisturizer	20	5
The Body Shop Vitamin E eye cream	21	4
Revlon lip-gloss	35	4
Almay Mascara	18	3
Crest Scope whitening toothpaste	20	4
Dove shampoo	38	5
Garnier Fructis Leave-in conditioning hair cream	10	4
Vaseline hand cream	18	4
Total Chemicals and Average EWG Hazard	227	4.0

I find a lot of soap irritating to my skin so I switched to Dove unscented soap (talk about boring).  My skin continued to be irritated for the next year, but I couldn’t figure out why, when Dove was so mild and “clean.”  After looking in the EWG database, I found out that it contains Cocoamidopropyl betaine, which is an irritant and an allergen for some people.  I received some Origins Body Wash as a gift and when I tried it the irritation diminished.  Unfortunately, it costs $24 for a 6.7 oz bottle, which is not sustainable for me.  In future posts I’ll be discussing some of the wonderful, truly natural products I have been switching to that are affordable. 

Keep it clean! :)

-         Michele