SPONSORED BY ACURE ORGANICS
“Anybody can put anything in a bottle and call it natural. And they do”
~ Annie Leonard, Executive Director, Greenpeace
How you feel in your skin is super important. How you feel in your skin affects your perspective, outlook, feelings and overall wellbeing. When your skin is dry, you moisturize. If your hair feels greasy, you shampoo. When your breath isn’t so fresh, you brush. Your daily routine exposes your skin to many different products; products that you are told make you clean and healthy.
But here’s the irony. More often than not, these seemingly harmless products contain chemical ingredients that are actually harmful to your health. Your skin is your largest organ, absorbing 60% – that’s right, more than half – of everything you put on it.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a project of the Breast Cancer Fund, states that on average, women use 12 personal care products daily, while men use an average of six. That means every day we expose ourselves to hundreds of individual chemical ingredients. So who ensures that the shampoo, soap, deodorant, toothpaste, shaving cream, lotion, sunscreen, makeup and hair color we put in and on our bodies everyday are actually safe?
In the United States, it’s neither the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nor any other governing body. Surprisingly, no one conducts pre-market safety testing or review of the ingredients that companies use in the products we buy. Compared to the almost 1,400 harmful chemicals banned from cosmetic and personal care products in Europe, only 11 of these toxic ingredients have been banned in the US.
Even more disappointing , when we try to purchase products that we think are safe, what’s on the package doesn’t always match up with what’s in the product. It’s important to know your labels and brands by researching the company’s ethics and values. Words like natural, herbal, and sometimes even organic represent what is called “greenwashing” as these terms are not always regulated or certified by a third party. Not to mention that not all ingredients are even listed.
The good news is that ethical brands are out there big time, like today’s partner Acure Organics, formulating products with intention and using the best ingredients they can source. They are accessible, (found at Whole Foods, Target, local independent grocers and co-ops), affordable, and every bit as effective (or more so), not to mention better for people and planet. Non-profits such as MadeSafe are also doing their part by raising awareness and third party verifying non-toxic personal care products – REALLY non-toxic.
When purchasing personal care or cosmetic products, you often search for the product that is going to make you look great and feel good, considering price, packaging, brand affinity, and so forth.
But how often do you flip over the package and actually read the ingredients?
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Even if you read the ingredient labels before purchasing products, you may not be getting the whole story. A single ingredient, like “synthetic fragrance,” can actually contain thousands of different ingredients with proven health risks. In fact, in the United States, no government mandates require that the ingredients found in “fragrance” or “parfum” be listed on the package or anywhere else for that matter – which translates into a serious lack of transparency to the consumer, YOU!
If you have a smartphone, download the Think Dirty App, and if not, use the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Red List to check ingredients.
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Now that you understand the impact of the choices you make daily, try exploring some different options. Here’s a super fun and simple idea: DIY. Making your own bath and body products ensures total transparency – you get to know exactly what is in your product because you made it!, And thus, you’ll know it’s safe for you… and the planet too, thanks to less packaging and waste. Plus, you just might save some money.
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Up to 75 Points. Awarded at the Discretion of the PGC Team
Due on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 at 6 am PT
There is power in numbers and now it’s time to share the wealth of this new knowledge with others. Tell them what you’ve learned and help them change their ways. In turn, your friends will tell their friends, and so on and so on. You will start a ripple effect. You have a choice and you have a voice.
Let’s test out the Think Dirty App and newly acquired knowledge in the real world.
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