With the growing awareness of how our every day choices impact the environment, animals and social issues around the globe, more and more of you are being drawn to making more conscious choices in the products that they use for their hair, skin and bodies. You shop locally, choose healthy food and exercise, contribute to local charities, recycle and, bring your bags when you go to your local grocer (or at least you remembered to put them in the car). This is what I like to call the “Conscious Consumer”; on at least some level you have become aware that your every day choices can have a positive impact not just on your own health but for the betterment of our society and planet as a whole, and so, you seek to make these choices on a daily basis.
There seems to be a plethora of new products and existing manufacturers jumping on the bandwagon to take advantage of the profit potential of this emerging market. With concerned citizens as a captive audience, you cannot open a magazine, go on-line, turn on the radio or the TV today without being presented with an opportunity to “go green”, “buy natural” or “choose organic” in your product choices. But how do you know if the products you are choosing really live up to the advertising and food based descriptions? The truth is, unless you are an ingredient junky, spend hours educating yourself or have time to investigate the source, it can be difficult to know that you are making the right choices to spend your dollar in a way that supports your concern for conscious consumerism.
So, how does one choose the most beneficial personal care products? I’ve outlined some of the criteria I use when shopping for skin, hair and body products that may make it easier to at least know that you are headed in the right direction.
STEP ONE
Choose ORGANIC whenever possible: organic foods and botanicals, which are the basis for organic ingredients, are grown with conscious awareness of the impact on the earth, without the use of non-organic pesticides and with respect for the long-term impact on the piece of earth on which they were farmed. We simply don’t know the long term impact of many of the pesticides and chemicals that are used on the foods and herbs that are often the basis of natural skin and body products when they are absorbed through the skin. With organic, we know that these potentially hazardous chemicals have been eliminated. Organically grown, naturally sourced ingredients are also more labor intensive, have a shorter shelf-life and are therefore traditionally made in smaller batches to preserve their efficacy and their nutritional value. Choosing organic ingredients supports the environment as well by reducing the amount of biologically hazardous chemicals that find their way into our streams and soil. Additionally, organic businesses frequently have a concern for their social impact and are more likely to be employing fair trade and fair worker practices in their environments. If you are concerned about the earth and its peoples, organic is a natural evolution in choosing skin, body and hair products.
Be aware of green washing however. Green-washing is deceptive marketing, in which companies spin their products as environmentally friendly in order to gain a market share, when in reality they are not. Since there is currently very little enforcement in the industry many products have emerged making claims of natural, organic etc. Most of the time however, when you review the ingredients on the back of the bottle these products contain artificial fragrance (labeled parfum or perfume) which many people are allergic to and which contain Phalates, substances which are only recently being noted as potentially harmful, as well as many other chemicals suspected to be harmful in their base ingredients. Additionally, a significant number of products claiming to be organic actually have very little organic content. Ingredients are listed in the order of volume contained in the product with the primary components of the formula in the beginning of the list; these are the ingredients that matter most. A product with a few key organics or nutrients at the end of the list is not likely to provide enough of a percentage of the active ingredient to impact the health of the skin. Many nationally known “natural” and “organic” brands fit this profile. Look for Organic ingredients as the primary basis for the product, i.e. first in the list.
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