Taking care of the outside of our bodies is just as important as getting good nutrition and exercise.
When it comes to living a healthy and vibrant life, our skin is something that we just can’t ignore.
Did you know that the skin is the LARGEST organ in your body and EXTREMELY porous.
It acts like a sponge absorbing elements in our environment as well as any products that we rub onto it.
Let’s take a look at the average daily routine:
We wake up, brush our teeth, take a shower using shampoo, conditioner and shower gel or a bar of soap. We put on moisturizer, lotion, talcum powder, primer, anti-wrinkle serum, make-up, hair gel, shaving cream, aftershave, hair spray, hair relaxer, hair volumizer, deodorant, body spray, and finally perfume.
Don’t laugh. Does any of this sound familiar? YES!
Did you know that a study done by Bionsen shows that women put an average of 515 chemicals on their bodies every day? Men aren’t much better coming in at an average of 85!
The crazy part of this is that it is still only 7:30am we haven’t even left the house yet!!!
Granted, these chemicals smell good and make us look our best, but they are damaging to our health.
Many of the chemicals that are in these everyday personal care products contain Volatile Organic Compounds…otherwise known as VOCs.
These are baaaaad news mate!
Cancer-causing, endocrine (hormone) disruptors, and damaging to your brain.
They can float around and create the perimeter of what others might call your fragrance perimeter, or your“personal bubble”. You know those people that you walk past and their perfumey smell wafts past your nose. Or maybe someone gave you a hug this morning and you are still left smelling them at dinner time. Maybe it’s their perfume, maybe it’s their deodorant or even their fabric softener.
Sometimes these smells can be pleasant for some people but can cause others to develop instant headaches or even nausea. This smell, good or bad, is a sign of VOCs. Not always though because not all VOCs can be detected with smell.
Remember how our skin is very absorbent? Well, it absorbs so well that a lot of what we use on the outside of our bodies ends up inside our bodies.
Some research indicates that a woman’s skin can absorb about 2.3 kg (5 lbs) of make-up chemicals every year!!
The skins rate of absorption increases when we take hot showers. The heat of the water opens our pores allowing our skin to absorb even more. Our skin just sucks up our scented shampoos, conditioners, soaps, and shaving creams loading up our bodies with a chemical cocktail.
There is a silver lining here. I’ve got some GOOD NEWS for you. ☺
There are EASY ways for us to REDUCE our chemical exposure with our personal care products.
We just need to use a combination of:
INGREDIENT LABEL READING and COMMON SENSE…maybe even a dash of ADVENTURE
…and we can make SIGNIFICANT healthier changes towards a toxic-free personal care lifestyle.
HEY, if I can do it with ME and MY FAMILY…then YOU CAN DO IT TOO!!!!!
Here are a few tips on what to avoid:
* Fluoride (found in toothpastes, dental offices, and town water)
* Ingredients that you can’t pronounce or recognize as being from nature
* Items without an ingredient label
* Things that are OVERLY smelly
* Generally speaking – Items that your grocery store or chemist carry (they typically carry your conventional products that are loaded with chemicals) There will be exceptions to this, you just have to READ THE LABELS and use COMMON SENSE ☺
* Things that say things like “paraben free” … these are usually part of a ‘bait-and-switch’. Typically misleading to earn the trust of consumers. Most consumers don’t bother to turn the product around and read the back LABEL. More often than not, they usually contain other harmful chemicals that are just as bad or even worse! Use your COMMON SENSE
* Things that say things like “Natural” or “Organic” … same as above. I can’t tell you HOW MANY PEOPLE come to me and say “oh have you seen ‘X’ shampoo? It’s totally chemical free and non-toxic” All I can say to that is … “that’s great. Have you READ THE LABEL?”. Don’t let other people mislead you to think that their product is natural and safe. Look for yourself. Unfortunately, 100% of the time they come back to me completely devastated. Once they actually READ THE LABELS, they are so disappointed to find that the ‘amazing natural product’ is actually not amazing and not natural at all…totally fake and contains the harmful chemicals that they are trying to avoid. It’s sad and unreal, but we have to READ THE LABELS.
Bottom line is…READ THE LABELS on everything.
Dig deep and employ your innate ability to use your COMMON SENSE…You can do it!!
Check out these products/natural alternatives that we use and recommend:
- Body moisturiser –
- Organic Coconut Oil – Buy a big jar of coconut oil and keep it in the kitchen pantry for cooking. Pour some out some of the oil into a small jar and keep that one in the bathroom. Rub on your skin after showers and shaving.
- Jojoba Oil – Great for use on your face at night
- Fresh Aloe Vera – Get a plant and place it in your bathroom for easy access. Cut off “leaves”, peel back outer skin and rub the gooey insides all over your face and neck. Don’t forget your hands and elbows.
- Make-up Remover – Organic Coconut Oil – place some on a piece of tissue paper and rub the makeup right off.
- Deodorant –
- Colloidal Silver – SUPER EFFECTIVE!! It is a powerful anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal remedy. We buy a large bottle of the liquid and pour some out into a small squirt bottle. We use this to spray our underarms every morning and even throughout the day for eliminating the bacteria that causes smell.
- The Best Deodorant in the World – Yup. Yeah. True. That’s exactly what it’s called AND fortunately it is EXACTLY what it is…the BEST!! We use it and recommend it too!
- Bare. by Bauer – We recently met owners Candice and Matt at a Cyndi O’Meara conference and were impressed by their natural deodorant called D-ODOR. It works TOO! (I admit that I can have pretty smelly armpits and there are very few natural deodorants that can successfully work their magic on me.) Their all-natural range of personal care products are hand blended in Australia.
- http://www.barebybauer.com.au
- Get hooked up with 10% off your purchase (T&Cs apply) with the online coupon code KILLAPILLA10
- Body Soap/Shampoo/Conditioner – Australian Organic Biologika
- Feminine Products – All Organic and Non-Toxic
- TOM Organic
- NatraCare