I find beauty product advertising totally bamboozling! I’d like to think I’m bright enough not to be duped by the promises of winding clocks back or that a simple wipe of a cream will have me looking 20 again… but really… why would they need to advertise if they could do that???!!!  I’d love to say that as I wouldn’t take back a second of my life, then I love all the lines my life has worked hard at… but I’m human… so I can’t! What I can do is start to educate myself on what I choose to put on my skin and on that of my children. Realistically you’d have to be a chemist to work out those ingredients lists, so I’ve resorted to reading studies (that I hope HAVE been done by chemists!!). It seems there are some really nasty chemicals being mixed into products we slather all over our bodies on a daily basis. According to the Environmental Working Group (a nonprofit group – www.ewg.org) only 11% of 10,500 ingredients in beauty products have been tested for safety.  So it seems we should be wary of many ingredients, but a few that you may have  been made aware of through labels often claiming they are FREE of these chemicals are: Parabens, Phthalates, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Lauryl Ethen Sulfate (SLES)… so, what are they? Well… here is a little background…

Parabens are chemical preservatives that have been identified as estrogenic and disruptive of normal hormone function. Estrogenic chemicals mimic the function of the naturally occurring hormone estrogen, and exposure to external estrogens has been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer.

Pthalates are synthetic chemicals known to cause birth defects and lifelong reproductive impairment in lab animals exposed during pregnancy and after birth. They are also hormone mimicking chemcials, many of which disrupt normal hormone processes, raising concerns about implications for increased breast cancer risk.

SLS and SLES – a foaming agent derived from coconut oil. Used in toothpasted, shampoo, bubble bath and soap. Proven skin irritant but could also be carcinogenic.  (Sophie Uliano – Gorgeously Green).

So…. I’m doing my best to buy products that are healthier for me, and the environment…. cause all these toxins head down our sinks. And guess what…. a lot of the time these products are CHEAPER than what I was buying before!!