The government hasn’t stepped up to the plate to implement stronger laws to make our personal care products safer. Companies just keep going on their merry way doing what they do because they are not being forced to make changes to have safer products.
So where does that leave us? We can demand change with our wallets; we can read labels and choose the safer product; we can educate others on the topic and let them know about the EWG’s skin deep database to find safe products; and we can experiment and make some of our own products right at home.
I strongly believe that it is so important to read labels; knowing not only what’s in our foods, but what is in our everyday personal care products.
Whatever we put on our skin gets absorbed right into our bodies, as if we had ingested the product.
Dr.Bronners “Magic” all in one soaps and in fact all their products are certified organic, certified fair trade and vegan with the exception of the lip and body balms (they use organic beeswax). Their packaging is 100% post-consumer recycled materials, which makes me smile!
And check out their ingredients list:
- Water
- Organic Coconut Oil
- Potassium Hydroxide (None remains after saponifying oils into soap and glycerin)
- Organic Olive Oil
- Organic Hemp Oil
- Organic Jojoba Oil
- Citric Acid
- Tocopherol ie.Vitamin E
Don’t really need to explain each ingredient- I think it is pretty self-explanatory, no? I could eat it. Maybe part of a cake? That is how I decide if I will put the product on my body. Would I eat it?
The “Magic” all in one soaps are not only for washing, but they have an abundance of other uses- laundry soap, body wash, face and hand soap, cleaning your home, add a drop for toothpaste, brushes dentures clean, a dash in water is the ideal breath freshener and mouth wash, 3 dashes in water to rinse sprays off fruit & vegetables, 1/4 oz in qt H2O is pest spray and a dash for no rash diaper-soap.
The EWG gives it a rating of 1-meaning it is not expected to be potentially harmful or toxic.
Besides using baking soda and apple cider vinegar for my hair; this is the only soap I have in the house.
Now let’s take a look at another everyday product- Dove all cool moisture beauty body wash and I will let you be the judge to whether it is safe or not.
Checkout their ingredients:
- Water
- Sodium Laureth Sulfate
- Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate
- Cocamidopropyl Belaine
- Lauric Acid
- Stearic Acid
- Glycine Soja (Soybean) Oil or Helianthus Annuus (SunfIower) Seed Oil
- Glycerin
- Fragrance
- Sodium lsethionate
- Lauryl Alcohol
- Tallow Acid or Palmitic Acid
- Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride
- DMDM Hydantoin, Methylisothiazolinone
- Tetrasodium EDTA
- Etidronic Acid,
- Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate
- BHT
- Blue 1
- Yellow 5
Half of the ingredients I can't even pronounce for starters. The two things on the list, I would consider ingesting is the water and the seed oil. The rest: not a chance. So why put it on my body?
The EWG gives it a rating of 5- meaning it is moderately toxic. I don’t know about you, but whether something is low or moderately toxic, it is still toxic no matter what way you put it.
Now which will you choose to keep your body clean? I personally will choose Dr.Bronners and will be experimenting with using the peppermint brand castile soap as toothpaste. I know some of you are cringing, but don’t knock it until you try it! I will let you all know how that one turns out!
Keep your body safe!
I did not receive any compensation and was not asked in anyway by the company to write this blog post. This was all done by my own free will. However, if someone wants to send me some free soap, I would not say no
Sources: Dove, EWG Skin Deep Database and Dr.Bronner
Link up: The Green Resource and Green and Natural Mamas
Dove is a disgrace. I also use natural soaps and highly suggest people read labels and watch what they put on, 60-80% is absorbed. Very good read. Thanks,
I hate dove! Thanks for reading!
I am stunned by what the can get away with. I am trying to switch out each product with a greener/healthier/safer one as they are finished. Sunscreen has proved to be very difficult. IUnfortunately, the organic choice is often also the most expensive choice…..hard on a one income family budget. Hopefully one day, it will be the ONLY choice, and thus more affordable for all.
I use badger as well, Katie!
Great post! I’ve recently switched to vegan soap and will never go back! New follower from the Thursday Hop. Come visit my crafty/mommy/natural parenting blog at http://www.gritsandgiggles.blogspot.com !
Thats great! 🙂
I try not to eat things with ingredients that I can’t pronounce, why on earth would I want to bathe in them? Great post!
Best,
Emily from Nap Time Is My Time
Exactly! 🙂
Yay!! I am follower number 200!!
Have a great weekend.
Makes you think twice about telling your kid that you’re going to wash their mouth out with soap, huh? Not that I ever have, but I know I definitely at some soap a few times in my childhood. I don’t want to put that on my body let alone my mouth! Have a good weekend! 🙂
LOL! 🙂
Great post! I absolutely love Dr. Bronners for so many different things. There is a documentary about him that I watched on Netflix. What an interesting fellow!
I am your newest follower and I love your blog! Can’t wait to read more posts from you!
Mary
http://piccolajellyfish.blogspot.com
I will have to check that movie out…thanks!
Great post, I added you to my friends page . Be Well♥
I make my own soap 🙂 This is a great post. Hugs!
Would you eat your homemade soap? Thanks, Katherine!
I’m really interested in trying to make my own bath and body products after reading about how unregulated the industry is. I recently tried Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap- I used it on myself and my toddler, and tried using it as shampoo as well- I was happy with the results! I’m always up for a good challenge, so maybe I’ll go and sample a bite… or maybe just a lick!
LOL, Sarah! I havent tried it as toothpaste yet. I am scared!
I love Dr. Bronner’s and try to use it for everything I can think of! Have you made it into handwashing dish soap? Because I have yet to find a recipe that really works for us yet and would be interested to know.
I have not made it into hand washing soap. I use the liquid form, but am thinking I might try buying the bar and making it into the liquid form! 🙂
i love Dr. Bronner’s I use it for everything from laundry to washing my hair. Can you say the same for ordinary laundry detergent?
Nope! When I used it as laundry detergent some of my clothing came out with oil stains. Did that happend to you, Lisa? That is why I stopped using it for laundry detergent.
I love Dr. Bronners too. Have you read the label? A little cooky but no doubt a great product. Works well as detergent for cloth diapers too!
LOL…cocky! Will try for my daughters diapers.
I still havent yet. I am a little nervous!
Add water to the liquid Dr.Bronners. It is very concentrated!! 🙂
Oh, great idea! Add baking soda. I will definitely try that! Thank you Becca! havent done the toothpaste, i have chickened out so many times!
LOL! You crack me up, Andrea! 🙂
”Whatever we put on our skin gets absorbed right into our bodies, as if we had ingested the product.”
Statements like this are exactly why scientists dismiss consumers who are concerned about the ingredients in cosmetics. This statement is 100% false. It demonstrates NO understanding of how the skin functions or how metabolism works. If everything we put on our skin got absorbed we’d be dead. The TRUTH about hazardous ingredients is sufficient that they need to be addressed, but people should not lie or use scare tactics like this to get that point across. The pharmaceutical industry spends BILLIONS of dollars to try to successfully get medications to pass through the skin barrier because of the fact that almost NOTHING gets absorbed deeply enough to actually reach the bloodstream and in fact, it’s hard to even get ingredients we want to penetrate even the the top layers of skin deeply enough to be effective topical preparations because the skin is an extremely effective barrier. And as for eating soap – soap is a manufactured product which is the result of combining oils and lye, and the chemical reaction results in a safe TOPICAL product which will cause illness if eaten. NO ONE should eat lye – you will die a horrible painful death from eating the lye used as it is used to make soap.
Thank you for your comment Sue. You are welcome to leave comments, share your insight and help educate others, so long as you do so in a positive and supportive way. I am no expert and invite others to help me along my green journey.
Things are absorbed through the skin, depends on what it is on how much but medicines in patch form wouldn’t work if things couldn’t be absorbed through the skin.