Skin & Hair Nutrition: Are your beauty products toxic?

There are alot of blogs talking about nutrition this way or that way, but how many blogs talk about skin and hair nutrition? Or, let me ask this, how many nutrition blogs talk about skin and hair nutrition?? How about mine!

Your skin is the largest organ of your body -- did you know that? Your skin is "eating" things every time you wash your scalp, put on lotion, deodorant, perfume.. basically everything that touches your skin. That covers makeup, shampoos, conditioners, body lotions, body wash lotions, makeup removers, cleansers, sunscreens, soaps, etc. The list is long! So, what are YOU feeding your skin?

As one of my homework assignments from my herbal class, I had to compare a natural beauty product against a commercial product. This research led me to a website at the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. It is run by the researchers at the Environmental Working Group, a group that felt that the public needs to know what is in health products that are not regulated or tested. There are more than 41,000 products available in the database, with a breakdown of over 8000 ingredients.

Just because your products says it's "natural" or "organic" does not make it safe for you to use! For example, I use JASON Lavender Natural Shampoo. I thought that because it had lavender in it as well as organic and natural ingredients, it would rate a 1 out of 10 (10 being the worst possible stuff on the planet). Nope, it rated **6** out of 10 and is considered a "moderate hazard." 83% of shampoos tested actually performed better than this one.

My sunscreen moisturizer, Avalon Organics Vitamin C Suncreen Moisture Plus Lotion SPF 15, scored a piddly **7** out of 10 and is considered a "not recommended" option. Ingredients contained have been linked to: cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, allergies, organ toxicity, skin/eye irritations, neurotoxicity, etc. Ugh! The key ingredients in most sunscreens do seem to be particularly bad. My guess is, if you can be in the sun for less than 30 hour and do not have fair skin, it's probably safe to not use sunscreen. Our skin needs some amount of time in the sun (15 or so minutes every day if possible) to create our body's vitamin D, but beyond that, cover up with clothing and being in the shade.

I am not telling you to throw away bad stuff you own, unless you can afford to do so (and want to do so!). The other side of the coin is that you shouldn't waste things either. If it's something you can donate or reuse in another way, do so. I am hoping to switch out my highly unsafe stuff for safer products as I run out of things because I don't want to just throw things away. That would lead to an even bigger problem with our Mother Earth! But that's my MO. Yours is up to you...

I am hoping you find this informational and possibly even eye-opening. I am not claiming that all their data is absolutely correct and irrefutable, but it is worth taking a look to see if what you are feeding your skin matches what you eat.. for the better!

If you have any suggestions for natural skin care (that doesn't show up above a 1 or 2 out of 10 on that scale), please comment and I'll post! Thanks!