scared of the “transition periods” people wrote about, and the nebulous “just use vinegar and baking soda” methodology. I had a tough time finding concise instructions, and I was happy with my own shampoo. Plus my skin is extremely sensitive, my hair gets greasy pretty quickly and is extremely straight (which is a bad combination). So…I put it off, I made excuses, and life got in the way. But now the economy isn’t doing well and we’re trying to tighten our belts a bit. favorite shampoo and I’m trying to buy locally. Plus, since I researched all those crazy chemicals in shampoos, I’ve been leery of getting them near my body. So despite any reservations, about 3 months ago I decided to try the “No ‘Poo” method. The Results I loved it the first time I tried it! No kidding. My hair looked great and my scalp felt invigorated! Since then, I’ve fallen more and more in love with this method of washing my hair. My hair has a slightly deeper color and shine. My hair doesn’t get any greasier than it did when I used my shampoo, and it feels, looks, and smells clean and wonderful! It is a little strange and a little difficult to get used to, because you don’t shampoo with sudsing action like we are used to. But there’s that redefining normal thing again! We’re only used to a certain way because some marketer packaged this bottle of stuff and told us how to use it. So - this is how I clean my hair…. Recipes I started out using one recipe, which worked pretty well. But about 2 weeks ago, I did some experimenting and found a solution that works better for me. I’m listing both methods here, as we all have different hair types. Recipe #1: The Paste Method 1. In a small dish or ramekin, mix 2T of baking soda with a couple of tablespoons of warm water, until it forms a thick paste. Add more water as needed - it should be a bit thinner than toothpaste. (Note: I have medium-length hair, so you may need to adjust the amount of baking soda if you have shorter or longer hair.) 2. Taking the paste into your hand, massage it into your dry scalp. Massage your scalp all over, for at least 30 seconds. (This will probably feel pretty good!) 3. Leave on your hair for a minute or two. Then rinse well. 4. In an old (and well rinsed) shampoo bottle, mix 1 part Apple Cider Vinegar to 4 parts Water. You can add essential oils or herbs if you like. 5. Coat your scalp and hair with the vinegar, and allow to sit for at least 30 seconds. 6. You can either rinse or leave it in your hair. (I rinse.) Recipe #2: The Simple Method There are two reasons why I switched to this recipe: 1. The paste idea was a bit messy for my taste, and 2. The apple cider vinegar smelled too strong for me. I’m much happier with this version! 1. Use an old shampoo bottle (well-rinsed) or a squeeze bottle of some variety (I reused one we’d bought from a local kitchen supply store). Mix 1 part aluminum-free baking soda to 3 parts Water. Each time you use this solution, shake well to mix. 2. Squeeze the baking soda solution onto your dry scalp, then massage your scalp for several seconds. 3. Leave in for 1-3 minutes, and rinse completely. 4. In an old shampoo bottle (well-rinsed) or a squeeze bottle, mix 1 part Organic White Vinegar to 4 parts Water. You can add essential oils or herbs if you like - I add 1 cinnamon stick (which lasts through several bottles of mixture) and 1/2 t vanilla. This masks the vinegar smell, and leaves your hair smelling spicy and lovely. 5. Leave on hair for several seconds, then rinse. |
| Theresa and Ditoh's Adventures ! T.A.D.A! |
| COSMETICS AND SKIN CARE PRODUCTS |
| If it isn't safe to eat, then think twice before placing it on your body. Your skin is the largest organ of your body. Anything you place on your skin is readily absorbed by the body. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate these products since they are not foods. This allows manufacturers free reign to add toxic chemicals and misleading labels on the safety of products. At greatest risk are products labeled for infants and children. When you ingest toxic substances, they are processed through the liver and have a chance of being eliminated from the body. However, when absorbed through the skin, the same toxic substances generally do not reach the liver and often are stored in the tissues of the body where, through time, they accumulate and are the cause of cancer and many other debilitating diseases. Take time to educate yourself before using cosmetics, sunscreen, shampoo, soap, body lotion, toothpaste, deodorant, powder or any other substances on your body. |
Book Review by Babs E. Keller According to Dr. Epstein, the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act does not require cosmetics, personal care products or their ingredients be approved as safe before they are sold. The FDA's oversight begins only after you, the consumer, have used the product. People take for granted that cosmetics and personal care products are safe to use because they have been tested. We would like to believe the soap, shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, perfume and lipsticks that we use everyday are harmless and that we can enjoy them without concern for our health. But there are more than 10,000 cosmetic and personal care products on the market today in the United States and very few have ever been assessed for their safety. Did you ever hear the saying, "Don't put it on your skin if you wouldn't put it in your mouth.?" Our skin is only 1/10 of an inch thick and highly permeable. Skin is the body's largest organ (approximately 10 sq. ft. if laid out like a rug) and this porous membrane is highly sensitive to toxic chemicals. What we put on our skin affects our health more than what we put in our mouth. Dr. Epstein discusses how the carcinogens in these beauty products create greater cancer risks than eating contaminated food. |
detoxified by enzymes in the liver. We expose ourselves to the daily, year after year. And the daily exposure is also frequently prolonged when we let the products sit on our skin rather than immediately wash them off. This provides increased opportunity for absorption. To make matters worse, most of the products on the market today contain penetration enhancers - designed to deliver a more complete or lasting effect. But in doing so, they make our skin even more permeable, helping other ingredients to penetrate the skin more easily and deeply (very dangerous if those ingredients are toxic). The latest penetration enhancer: nanoparticles, added to make skin cream productsabsorb deep into the skin, into the bloodstream and through the produce cumulative effects.And we aren't speaking only of grown-ups. Think of all the powders and lotions marketed for babies. A baby's skin is dramatically more sensitive to carcinogens than adults and their fast metabolism means absorption of any kind of lotion or powder product is exacerbated. According to a 2008 survey in the journal, babies who journal, babies who were recently shampooed,rubbed with lotion or were powdered were found to have elevated levels of phthalates, a disease-causing chemical, in their urine. In 1994 and again in 1996, the Cancer Prevention Coalition (CPC) and the New York Center for Constitutional Rights (NYCCR) petitioned the FDA to demand talc genital dusting powder be labeled with a cancer warning. The FDA denied this petition. In 1997, Sen. Edward Kennedy publicly urged the FDA to place a cancer warning label on talc products (as well as other products containing known carcinogens) and to this date, the agency has still not responded. Hormone disrupters (preservatives, detergents, solvents, sunscreens, etc.) are chemicals that are harmful to the body's endocrine system (the adrenal, thyroid and pituitary glands, ovaries, pancreas and testicles). When our body mistakes these synthetic chemicals for its own natural hormones, our body's natural process is disrupted. While it is difficult to control our exposure to the carcinogens in our air and water, what we put on our skin is something that is truly up to us... should we choose to educate ourselves. The sad fact that we have been losing the war against cancer is made more so because so much of this is avoidable. According to Dr. Epstein, a 1990 survey taken in many major industrialized countries showed that cancers not related to smoking are responsible for about 75 percent of the overall increased occurrences of cancer since 1950. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the prescription drugs we take, and the cosmetics and personal care products we use have become pervasively contaminated with toxic carcinogens and we are continuously (and unknowingly) exposed to a huge amount of 'avoidable' carcinogens that can have long-lasting neurological, reproductive, and immunological effects. Toxic Beauty is an excellent eye-opening read that encourages us to learn about the harmful effects of the products we use almost every day. And because we cannot depend on the industry to take any action that does not serve its best interest, this book helps us in the absence of warning labels to identify those products that are killing us. How bad can these products be? Dr. Epstein illustrates with an example from 1933. That year, dozens of women went blind as a result of using a product called LASH LURE, a synthetic aniline dye marketed as an eyelash and eyebrow colorant. Aniline comes from coal tar and is also used in hair colorings. But even after so many went blind and at least one woman died, this product remained on the market for almost five years because the FDA did not warn the consumers and there was no regulatory authority in place to remove products with dangerous ingredients from the store shelves. CAUTION: Kisses may be poison Attention Ladies: Does your lipstick or lip gloss contain lead? Attention Gentlemen: Have you kissed those lead-laced lips? In an analysis done of 33 different popular brands of lipstick by an independent lab, it was found that 61% contained lead. Lead is readily absorbed by the body and accumulates in our bones. It is highly toxic to the nervous system and can also cause serious gastrointestinal symptoms of lead poisoning including diarrhea, constipation, nausea and vomiting. The book highlights one of the biggest scandals for a cosmetics manufacturer that happened in the early 1800's. There was a woman named Signora Toffana and she created a face powder full of lead and arsenic. The wealthy wives of noblemen couldn't buy it fast enough! The more beautiful these women became, the more affectionate their husbands were with their kisses and the faster they died from the toxic facial powder Toffana was executed as an accomplice in the death of an estimated 600 husbands. Today there is such a preoccupation with appearing youthful that the cosmetic industry has been inspired to produce a line of products known as cosmeceuticals which are now the fastest growing sector of the cosmetic industry and yet one of the least scrutinized. The most disturbing truth about these cosmeceuticals is that the great majority of them have highly questionable (if any) benefits and that many of their ingredients make them very toxic. Cosmetics are a huge and immensely profitable billion dollar business. Dr. Epstein quotes Sen. Kennedy's warning to us more than 10 years ago "The cosmetic industry has borrowed a page from the playbook of the tobacco industry by putting profits ahead of public health." According to Toxic Beauty, although manufacturers are not required by law to provide evidence of their product's safety, the FDA certainly does have full authority (if it so chooses) to protect us from dangerous products by requiring clear warning labels on every product that contains dangerous ingredients. It also has authority to require product labels identify any ingredients that have not been tested for safety by including these words: WARNING. THE SAFETY OF THIS PRODUCT HAS NOT BEEN DETERMINED. However, with very few exceptions, the FDA rarely chooses to exercise this authority. And if manufacturers do decide to test the safety of its ingredients, the results are kept confidential because, at this time, safety testing is voluntary. Not even the FDA has access to this information nor is the agency informed that the test was done. The industry is also not required to disclose the identification of a product's ingredients because they argue doing so will expose the company's trade secrets. But if companies do identify those ingredients, the labels are so chock full of complex chemical terms that very few of us could even understand what they were. Toxic Beauty is intended to provide guidance on how to read and decipher these baffling and often misleading product labels. The cosmetics and personal care products industry continues to market its products by boasting that if the products were harmful, the FDA would certainly alert the public. We, as consumers, have a fundamental right to know and understand what toxins are in our cosmetics and personal care products. And buyers should know that while most of us would think the label "natural" would mean something taken directly from nature, synthetic chemicals may legally be tagged "natural" without repercussion. And don't be fooled when you see a product labeled "fragrance free." Manufacturers may add unidentified fragrance ingredients to mask foul odors generated by other chemicals and still call it a "fragrance free" product because fragrances are treated as valuable trade secrets - and you know what that means: They do not have to list the chemicals on the labels. Watch out for products that are for "professional use only" because they don't have any ingredient labeling requirements. And you probably were not aware that the FDA does not require manufacturers to skin test those products marked "hypoallergenic, allergy tested or safe for sensitive skin." And because hidden carcinogens are not intentionally added to the cosmetics and personal care products, labeling them is not a requirement. We must realize that we are foolish to believe and trust that the FDA would alert us to products that contain threats to our physical health and emotional well-being. The authors tell us many European governments do what ours will not, enforcing a policy that declares 'harm to consumer health should not need to be established before corrective action is taken and that manufacturers would need to prove their product ingredients were safe before putting the products on the market.' However, the American public is beginning to wake up and a quiet revolution in our academic approach towards exposure to these toxic materials is now happening. Consumers are speaking up and banding together in efforts to punish irresponsible chemically- reckless companies by simply not buying their products. Everyday new companies with safe alternatives are emerging, and consumers need to make the intelligent choices. Products that contain toxic ingredients need to be labeled with red flag warnings similar to those cancer warnings on cigarettes. These product warnings should not substitute a ban or a total phase-out of toxic ingredients in the products we use. Human health and safety must take priority. There needs to be restrictions on claims of confidentiality by corporations trying to withhold ingredient 'recipes' for the purpose of protecting their trade secrets. As consumers, we cannot believe that it is safe to use products that have the sometimes misleading labels "natural" or "organic" because we cannot assume the product contains only safe ingredients. Remember, arsenic is natural, but it is hardly safe to use in personal care products. This book is an excellent eye-opening read encouraging us to educate ourselves about the harmful effects of the products we use almost every day and it shows us how to identify those products that are killing us when warning labels don't. We cannot depend on the industry to take any action unless it is in its own best interest. The book provides an excellent resource with many charts of harmful ingredients, their effects, and a list of safe alternatives. It also refers consumers to useful websites (such as www.DRUGSTORE.COM) that feature cosmetics and personal care products along with a complete list of ingredients and relevant warning labels. Toxic Beauty is intended to provide guidance on how to read and decipher the baffling and often misleading product labels. |
The largest organ of the human body is the skin. Anything you place on your skin including lotions, sunscreen, insect repellent, soap and perfume is readily absorbed by the body. Read labels carefully before applying anything to your skin. If it is not favorable to human consumption, it should not be placed on the skin. Have you considered the possibility that the rise of skin cancer may be attributed to toxic sunscreens and lotions? This is one of the basic recipes we use to make our soothing skin lotions. Be creative and discover your favorites! 2 ounces olive oil 2 ounces almond oil 2 ounces grapeseed oil In a pan, warm the three oils to 150 - 160 Fahrenheit. (We strongly suggest not using a microwave for any product that will be ingested by humans, animals or plants. Check out research on the effects of microwaving food and water!) At the same time, in a separate pan, heat the following ingredients: 2 ounces Chaparral tea, previously prepared (make a strong batch) 1 ounce seawater or diluted liquid minerals 1 teaspoon magnesium chloride oil When the oils are hot, slowly stir in: 1 tablespoon organic beeswax granules A pinch of borax 2-4 drops rosemary oil Using a whisk, slowly stir the tea liquid into the oil mixture. Once the ingredients are well mixed, place the hot pan into a sink filled with cool water. Keep stirring as the lotion cools. When cool, using a funnel, pour lotion into bottles and seal. Shake well before using. You can also add a few drops of essential oils to create your favorite scents. |
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Smile - Treat Your Lips to
Make these natural treatments part of your everyday beauty regime. Lip-care products were among the first cosmetics, dating as far back as 3500 b.c., when Mesopotamians made lip paints. Even in Puritan New England—where cosmetic use was frowned upon—women made soothing lip balm from crushed rose petals. Lipstick, as we know it, was introduced in Paris in 1910. Bees¬wax was a key ingredient then and still is today, as manufacturers haven’t been able to develop a suitable substitute for it. You don’t have to spend $15 at a cosmetic-counter for a bright, beautiful smile, however. Natural lip glosses and balms are easy to create at home. Here are a few recipes to get you started. Bee Balm for Lips Makes 1 ½ ounces Bees provide a valuable lip balm ingredient—beeswax! This rich balm will soften and protect your lips. You can use it alone or as a base for colored lipstick. 2 tablespoons grated beeswax 1 teaspoon sunflower oil 1 teaspoon apricot kernel oil 1/8 teaspoon vitamin E oil On a stove, gently heat bees wax and oils until melted; be careful to not over heat. Stir well to combine. Pour into a small, clean container, then cool completely. Fresh Spearmint Lip Gloss Makes 1/2 ounce Spearmint makes this gloss feel refreshing and soothing on your lips. Also try using other mints, such as orange, pineapple, cinnamon or chocolate mint. If you don’t have fresh mint on hand, substitute dried mint until fresh leaves are available. 1 teaspoon fresh mint leaves OR ½ teaspoon dried leaves 2 teaspoons almond oil 1 teaspoon grated beeswax Place mint in a container; gently bruise leaves to release essential oils. Pour oil over leaves and let sit for a few days. Strain oil, then add it to beeswax. On a stove, gently heat mixture until wax melts. Stir well and pour into a small, clean container. Red Clover Lip Gel Makes 1 /2 ounce Here’s an old folk remedy for dry, chapped lips. You can find red clover blossoms at your natural food store, or possibly in your own garden. Its flowers yield a sweet, honey-like substance that has anti- inflammatory and skin-soothing properties. ½ tablespoon dried red clover flowers OR 1 tablespoon fresh flowers ¼ cup water ¼ teaspoon clover honey ⅛ teaspoon vitamin E oil ⅛ teaspoon cornstarch In a small pan, bring clover, water and honey to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, then strain liquid. Return liquid to pan and stir in oil and cornstarch, mixing well. Heat mixture until it forms a clear gel (about 1 to 2 minutes). Cool gel completely, stirring occasionally. Spoon into a clean container. Protective lip glosses and balms are easy and fun to make with herbs and other natural ingredients. |
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