Lush Face

I have a new favorite thing:  the “Angels on Bare Skin” facial cleanser from LUSH.

Over the past 6 months I’ve been trying to get rid of any soaps/shampoos/lotions/cosmetics with harmful (or potentially harmful) chemical ingredients. Check out my Don’t Eat the Lotion! post for details on the carcinogens and hormone disruptors found in pretty much every conventional bath and body product.

LUSH sells all kinds of natural and incredible-smelling products. Here’s what LUSH believes:

We believe in making effective products from fresh, organic* fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics.

We invent our own products and fragrances. We make them fresh by hand using little or no preservative or packaging, using only vegetarian ingredients, and tell you when they were made.

We believe in buying ingredients only from companies that do not commission tests on animals and in testing our products on humans.

We believe in happy people making happy soap, putting our faces on our products and making our mums proud.

We believe in long candlelit baths, sharing showers, massage, filling the world with perfume and in the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again.

We believe our products are good value, that we should make a profit and that the customer is always right.

* We also believe words like fresh and organic have honest meaning beyond marketing.

I’ve known about LUSH stores for years since there’s usually one within a few blocks of any Anthropologie store, and you can smell the soaps from 20 feet away. They carry all kinds of bath and skin products, and the store smells phenomenal. I can’t recall if I’d ever actually purchased anything from them – maybe a fizzy bath bomb – but I went in two weeks ago on the advice of a friend.

My skin is very sensitive and “troubled”, and has been since the age of ten. When dermatologists and aestheticians look at my face, they exclaim: “Wow, you have TRUE combination skin!” Which means somehow it’s both oily AND dry at the same time. Uh, great.

So I stopped by LUSH’s location at the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica (there’s one not far from my house in Beverly Hills too) and started chatting with one of their sales associates. She was sweet and ever-so-informative and steered me to the above-mentioned “Angels on Bare Skin” cleanser for my combo face, which hasn’t been liking any of the Whole Foods-purchased cleansers I’ve been using on it lately.

“Angels on Bare Skin” is made with clay, finely ground almonds, rose oil and lavender oil. It smells amazing and after the first time I used it, my skin was SUPER soft. After 2-3 days, the tiny bumps that have been popping up along my jawline the past two months (not pimples really, just…bumps) began to disappear. I really don’t think I’ve ever used a cleanser that makes my skin feel this nice. Next pay check I’m planning on trying their Tea Tree Water Toner, also recommended for me by the sales associate I spoke with.

So, for those of you looking for healthy, consciously-made, AND awesome skin-care stuff, try LUSH! I’m a fan.

Don’t eat the lotion!

So – What have you been eating? Lotion? Soap? Shampoo?

When you put anything on your skin, it’s like you’re eating it. Your skin – the largest organ of your body – is very absorbent. You don’t absorb calories (thank god), but other things get into your bloodstream and end up circulating through your body.

Most products – conventional lotions, soaps, shampoos, conditioners, facewashes, cosmetics, toothpastes, detergents and sunscreens – have all kinds of chemicals in them. Chemicals that don’t exist in nature. Chemicals you wouldn’t put in your mouth.

These chemicals can cause cancer, mess with your hormones, cause birth defects, and possibly a whole bunch of other nasty things – dementia, autism, etc.

A few months ago when I started researching this topic, I decided to throw away any bottles with the words “sodium laureth” and “paraben.” These chemicals are suspected more and more as a cause of breast cancer and hormone disruption – leading to obesity, diabetes, fertility issues, etc.

Here is a list of a few of the products I had in my house that contained something potentially toxic:

Aveeno Continuous Radiance Moisturizing Lotion
Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera Gel
Coppertone Sunscreen
Pure Silk Shaving Cream
Rite Aid Oatmeal Moisturizing Lotion
Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer
Aveeno Skin Brightening Daily Scrub

Even TRADER JOE’S moisturizing cream has methylparaben and propylparaben. SO DISAPPOINTING, TJ’s! I thought you were better than that!!!

Interestingly enough, studies indicate that when applied to skin, methylparaben reacts with UVB rays, and leads to “increased skin aging and DNA damage.” ??? Aren’t most of these products trying to STOP aging and damage? Or is it just a vicious, profit-increasing cycle – the more you use these products, the more they damage your skin, and the more you think you need to buy them?!

Take a look at labels on the products in your house, like moisturizer and sunscreen. See if they have any parabens or sodium laureth sulfates.

Here is a lists of things to avoid:

Parabens or “-paraben” (hormone disruption, linked to cancer)
“PEG” and “-eth” (these ingredients can come with hidden toxic contaminants)
Triclosan and triclocarban (thyroid, reproductive and environmental concerns)
Triethanolamine (TEA) (allergies, toxic contaminants)
Hydroquinone (cancer, reproductive toxicity, allergies)
Oxybenzone (allergies, developmental toxicity, hormone disruption)
Fragrance—not just perfume, but fragrance in lotions, shampoos, etc. (allergies, cancer)
DMDM hydantoin and Imidazolidinyl urea (toxic contaminants)

Anti-aging creams with lactic, glycolic, AHA and BHA acids
Hair dyes, especially dark permanent dyes
Liquid hand soaps with tricolsan/triclocarban
Nail polish and removers with formaldehyde, DBP or toluene
Skin lighteners with hydroquinone
Heavily scented products

I’ve been trusting Whole Foods for “healther” skin care & soap product, but even they are being : sued for products containing high levels of carcinogens.

Now, none of this toxicity stuff is proved yet. But that it’s even being questioned, for me, indicates that there’s most likely an issue. Why can’t we just NOT have these chemicals in what we end up ingesting via our skin? (Similar to my question, why can’t we just NOT put poison (pesticides) on our food??).

Are big evil corporations using cheap but toxic chemicals in their products to increase their profit margins, with the side effect of making you dependent on their products?

Or are the up-and-coming Organic underdogs trying to scare people into throwing away all of their main-stream products and switch to their more expensive, fancy new products?

I don’t know. My inclination is to distrust big corporations. I think size is inversely related to compassion and accountability. More profits means more shortcuts, and shortcuts have negative side effects, end of story (ie there are no medications that do not have negative side effects or a toxic element). But are parabens found in such small amounts that their effects are negligable? They typically appear at the bottom of the list. But why do they even NEED to be in there anyways, when it’s true that you’re absorbing these unnatural chemicals into your body?

In the mean time, I’ve turned to using safflower oil on my skin. At least I know that’s not toxic, it comes from plants.

After reading and thinking about this and fiddling with the draft for a few months, I came across this Scientific American article: Are Everyday Consumer Products Making People Sick?

From the article:

“We are continually exposed to a mélange of potentially toxic chemicals through the air we breathe, food and water we consume, and products that come in contact with our skin.

Some of these chemicals are suspected of interfering with hormone function; causing cancer, asthma or other respiratory harm; damaging the brain and nervous system; and promoting reproductive disorders or negatively impacting developing embryos.

More than 83,000 chemicals have been registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976 for use in U.S. commerce. Most of these substances have not been thoroughly tested for their effects on human health. What’s more, we are often exposed to chemicals in various multiple combinations that may produce unpredictable effects.”

83,000 chemicals???? There are 88 naturally occurring chemicals. Why the F#&% do we need 83,000 chemicals for our products???

Like I said, I don’t know what the answer is. The guy writing the SciAm article is also trying to sell his book. But I think it’s better to be educated than to be ignorant, and have the option to do what you believe is going to be best for your body and your health. Personally, I’d rather minimize the amount of non-naturally-occurring chemicals that get into my system. I know it’s futile in our current world, but that doesn’t mean I have to give up.

Here are some links with more info on safe cosmetics – remember to think critically. QUESTION EVERYTHING!

Skin Deep: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/
A safe shopper’s guide you can print out & stick in your wallet:

http://www.ewg.org/files/EWG_cosmeticsguide.pdf

http://greenlivingideas.com/topics/fashion-and-beauty/cosmetics/natural-cosmetics

http://www.pureprevention.org/act_safecosmetics.php