On My Skin

So you’ve seen the In My Food page and now you know that there are a lot of scary ingredients in our food that you wouldn’t want to put into the temple that is your body. But have you ever thought about what you put ON your body?

Unlike foods products, which are regulated by the FDA (if you believe that they are actually doing so), cosmetics, supplements, and personal care products are not regulated by any standards body. Most ingredients are not even required to be listed, and companies can make up their own definitions to words like”hypoallergenic”, so it can be really tricky trying to figure out what’s good and what’s not. On this page, you’ll find information about several known baddies such as fragrances, phthalates, and parabens, which are known to cause damage to both the environment and our bodies. Not being one to leave people out on a limb with nowhere to go, I’ll also include lists where possible of companies who have pledged to make products free from these known carcinogens, pollutants, and endocrin disrupters.

First up:

PHTHALATES

Chemical Structure

Phthalates are used in a myriad of products, usually as a component of the proprietary “fragrance” ingredient listed on the package. Yep, that’s right, even though these ingredients are known to cause problems in children such as girls growing breasts before they turn three, boys born with abnormal genitalia, and all sorts of water creatures being born with hermaphroditic sex organs, companies are not required to list phthalates on the box. Crazy.

I always encourage people to do their own homework when deciding on the validity of claims, so here are a few links worth checking out:

Phthalate Wikipedia entry

Canary Cosmetics Reading Room

PVC Toys Phthalate Restrictions in EU

Chemical Body Burden Phthalate page

I first learned of Phthalates from the excellent book Big Green Purse; Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World.  Here is a link to the companies they feature in the book, which I highly recommend to anyone looking to put their money toward earth-saving technologies rather than traditional polluting products.
Big Green Purse Thumbs Up Companies

Here is a short list of phthalate free companies from this site:

Burt’s Bees
Eco Bella Organics
Aubrey Organics
Tom’s of Maine
Honeybee Gardens

Here is a partial list of cosmetic companies who do not use phthalates in their products, courtesy of www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org.

Check out this great link outlining phthalate-free children’s toys and baby products, including pictures of the toys so you can shop with confidence. At such early stages of development, it is more important than ever to regulate what your child handles:

The Soft Landing Baby Phthalate-Free Toy Guide

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