Healthy Natural Cleaning Products and Skincare Without ANY Chemicals; No Really!
Guest Post By Kassie Ehler, Mom to Graham and Finlea, Doula and Arcanum’s U.S. Pharmacist
Back a few years ago, if you were to peek into my bathroom cabinet in my college apartment you’d find shelves lined with perfumes, name-brand lotions and soaps, and bright purple shampoo for highlighted hair. Under the sink, perhaps you’d also see a bottle of pure bleach and one glove for scrubbing my bathtub. Actually, the truth is I didn’t clean much those days. Certainly toxic ingredients and the deleterious health effects of personal care products weren’t remotely on my radar back then.
Fast forward ten years later and my shelves have gotten a complete makeover. It wasn’t until my children were in their early infant and toddler years that I transformed our healthcare and nutrition. At a result, I started to spend a good amount of time making our own shampoos, lotions, toothpaste, soaps and cleaners. I was a DIY maven!
As my kids got older and busier, I stuck to this regimen but would casually eye the ‘non-toxic’ body and home care products on store shelves thinking they might give me back some more personal time. The labeling was catchy…’organic, all natural.’
However, when I read the actual ingredients, I was never impressed. There was always glycerine, dye or Sodium laureth sulfate (SLS), or sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES), as an anionic detergent and surfactant snuck in. It was quite disheartening.
Our family chiropractor who was just as adamant about sustaining pristine health as I, had asked if I wanted to try some products that she was really impressed with. As per usual, I started investigating the label. I was thinking that I’d find the usual cloaked chemical spill but, instead, I was delighted with what met my critical eye . Actually, I felt MORE than impressed!
My first purchase was a face moisturizer with an ingredient label that looked a little something like this:
aloe barbadensis (organic aloe leaf) extract, rosa damscena (organic rose) flower extract, olea europaea (olive wax), oryza sativa (organic rice bran) oil, helianthus annuus (organic sunflower) seed oil, camellia sinensis (organic green leaf tea) extract, royal jelly extract, persea gratissima (organic avocado) oil, raphanus sativus (radish root) extract, medica limonum (organic lemon) essential oil, citrus sinensis (organic sweet orange) essential oil, citrus paradisi (organic pink
grapefruit) and essential oil.
You see what I’m saying? Not a surfactant, paraben or laureth in the bunch!
A few weeks later when it was time to replenish our empty bottles of healthy household items, I decided to order nearly every one of everything that Ava Anderson had to offer for my beloved family – household cleaners, skin care, pet supplies and even plant-care!
When I was first researching this line of products, as compared to others, I was really surprised at some of the statistics that
I found, including…
- Europe bans 1,371 toxic chemicals from their personal care products and the US bans only 11.
- Recent scientific studies in the UK found a strong link between the use of parabens and the increasing rate of breast cancer in women. Researchers found a high concentration of parabens in 90% of breast tumors tested.
- Triclosan, the active ingredient in “anti-bacterial” products, is registered with the government as a pesticide, and is a known endocrine disruptor, disrupting thyroid function and contributing to liver and inhalation toxicity.
- Fragrance can be legally hidden, labeled as ‘parfum.’ More than 75% of the time if you have fragrance, you have legally hidden phthalates, known endocrine disruptors, that are linked with birth defects, breast cancer, infertility, liver, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and now with autism and ADHD in pregnancy by Dr. Philip Landrigan, Mt Sinai, Children’s Environmental Health Center.
- Many popular body washes and shampoos contain 1,4 dioxane, which the EPA has classified as a group B2 carcinogen.
- The $35 billion cosmetics industry is so powerful they’ve kept themselves unregulated for decades.
If you’re like me and are wanting to find out more, I’d recommend two very informative books as per Ava Anderson herself:
- ‘Not Just a Pretty Face’ by Stacy Malkan and
- ‘Toxic Beauty’ by Samuel Epstein.
When you’re ready to re-think your cosmetic and household choices, I recommend doing so with enthusiasm, knowing that you’re protecting yourself and your family, as you ditch the toxins. Yes, even the ones promised to be healthy, whole and natural.
Like me, you’ve got to learn to be a savvy consumer in order to escape the chemical matrix entirely. If buying all natural products doesn’t resonate with you and you have the time, it can be a wonderful hobby to create your own preparations with different essential oils and safe, even beneficial ingredients!
If, however, you are looking for a complete line of products that you can feel 100% safe and confident in using, based on my research, I encourage you to visit my page atwww.avaandersonnontoxic.com/kassieehler. Here you can also learn how Ava began this wonderful company to spread the non-toxic message. If you decide to shop, enter my code, which is 14466. This will enable the company to know that I sent you and help reward me for sharing the good news!
Also hop on over to the Ava Anderson blog, if you like, where you can find several testimonials on their wonderful products!
http://www.avaandersonstories.com
You can find me on Facebook and message me with any questions you might have – or let me know if you might like to join my wonderful Ava Anderson team and help spread the message of health!
Cheers to health, happiness and a new vision of your bathroom cabinet!
Kassie Ehler, CBI Labor and Birth Doula
Pharmacist, Arcanum Wholistic Clinic
