A blog dedicated to natural skin care, chemical facts, home made DIY recipes, product information & reviews and other interesting, healthy, good for you, tidbits. Enjoy!
Proctor and Gamble (P&G) test on animals. To avoid buying into the pain and suffering of animals avoid these products. Ace Align Ariel Always Anna Sui Aussie Bold Bounce Bounty Braun Camay Cascade Charmin Cheer Clearblue Comet Christina Aguilera
Perfumes Clairol Professional CoverGirl Crest DDF Dolce & Gabbana Cosmetics Dolce & Gabbana Fragrances Dunhill Fragrances Escada Fragrances Fekkai Fusion Ghost
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Dawn Downy Dreft Laundry Duracell Era Eukanuba Febreze Gain Iams Joy Gillette Gucci Fragrances HUGO BOSS Fragrances Head & Shoulders Herbal Essences Ivory Lacoste Fragrances MACH3 Naomi Campbell
Natural InstinctsNice 'n Easy Nioxin Luvs Metamucil Mr. Clean Olay Old Spice Oral-B Pantene Pert Prestobarba/Blue Puma Pampers Pepto-Bismol Prilosec OTC Puffs Rejoice SK-II Safeguard Scope Scope4 Sebastian Professional Secret Swiffer Tampax Tide Vicks Venus Vidal Sassoon Wella See Also: Who Tests on Animals
I've written an earlier article on reasons why I don't support cancer fundraising events - basically because the cancer foundations are NOT demanding companies stop using harmful chemicals in products, ingredients that are known to harm us. Instead they blithely let these companies continue to use these known hazardous ingredients without even so much as altering the public to this injustice.
Companies that use known
hazardous ingredients in their
products
Here are some ways you can help the fight against cancer.
1) Stop using beauty products containing hazardous chemicals. I know women who don't want to know about this issue. They want to sweep it under the carpet and pretend it doesn't exist. Sadly it is women like this who keep funding those cosmetic companies into producing more bad ingredients. Stop buying into it and supporting these companies. Instead support natural skin care companies.
2) Stop using beauty products that are tested on animals or that use chemicals / ingredients that ARE tested on animals. See the above hazardous chemical list and KNOW that if an ingredient is on that list, even if a company says they don't test on animals, that ingredient IS tested on animals. There are over 1000's chemicals in production in cosmetics alone as we speak.
3) Stop using chemical laden cleaning products, instead opt for companies that manufacture green cleaning products, such as: Nature Direct or Murchison Hume. Again there will be people who insist those chemical laden products work better, smell better, require less elbow grease. You have a choice. Reduce chemicals that cause cancer and put some hard yakka into your cleaning or not.
4) Purchase organic / chemical free produce even if it costs more. Do what it takes to reduce the amount of chemicals you and your family are exposed to, to reduce the amount of chemicals in use around the world today. Or grow as much produce, herbs, fruits etc as you can, or start a community garden that doesn't use pesticides.
5) Quit smoking. Not because smoking is bad for you - most smokers are addicted and find it hard to find a good enough reason to stop. Do it because you want the chemicals involved in making cigarettes to stop being produced. Quit smoking so you can force companies into changing their action plans.
6) Use safe sunscreens (as approved by the Environmental Working Group - EWG). Apply sunscreen daily and wash off daily. Spend 10 minutes a day outside to build up your bodies natural defense against cancer, vitamin D.
7) Use green eco friendly washing liquid (such as soap nuts) or plain water with a few drops of essential oils. Wash new clothes before wearing them to reduce the amount of chemicals that will leach into your body when you where these new garments.
8) Don't purchase those cheap and nasty trinket toys and other gadgets that don't last very long. Don't purchase stuff you don't actually need. Hold on to gadgets that do last even if they're updated to the latest, fastest, betterest version. This adds to production of chemicals and the destruction of the earth.
NOTE: There is little point in you donating any funds towards cancer research / cure if you are NOT doing these things because you're only adding to the problem of over production of chemicals in every day life.
Think about that and let me know what other steps can we take to fight cancer?
Tracey Spicer, a respected and renown Australian journalist, did an inspirational TED talk about stripping women bare of their daily routines, encouraging us to take up the challenge.
Tracey talks about the things us females do and questions their necessity. Do we really need to wear nail polish, apply layers of makeup, shave our bodies, dye our hair, suck in wobbly bits (i.e. be ashamed of them), be professionally acceptable size 10, running, exercise to get inner thigh gap, get rid of bingo flaps, wash hair with SLS & condition (with with placenta extract and wonder why overly large breasts are more likely), lather on petroleum by-product otherwise know as moisturiser (but not JOLI's), cleanse, toner containing alcohol, serum, eye cream (parabens), cover in bronzing cream, straighten and style hair, foundation, concealer, blusher, eye shadow, eye liner, curler, mascara, lip liner and lip stick, lip gloss, shape wear to suck in mummy gut, wear fancy clothes (and we own many), remove face hair, high heels that ruin our posture...!
It seems we truly believe beauty is pain.
When you see the list above all put together like that you realise the extent in which we immerse ourselves in things to *change* about ourselves. We don't do all of these things all of the time individually, however, we do makeup a mass collective of those who do many of these things often.
Tracey talks about how much time we waste trying to fit unrealistic expectations about how we should look. She talks of increasing productivity in work and home, however I don't quite look at it like that, though it's a valid point. I think about how much time we're spending obsessing over it. How much effort we spend judging ourselves and others for all our imperfections.
We judge those who breast feed or don't, judge those who work or don't, judge those who have large breasts or don't, judge those who are thin or fat, those who get surgery and those who don't, those who have children, those who don't.
Tracey and I both agree it's an absurdity to get caught up in the lot of this.
After her TED talk aired, other women in the media (such as the ladies from Studio 10) discussed the topic and were of the opinion it would be impossible to turn the tide. They like those things and don't really want to give them up. I agree, we do seem to enjoy some of these things (I paint my toe nails because they're I don't think they're attractive and want to cover them up), though our interest borders on compulsion when you think about it. Not all of them are fun, yet we do them anyway. Many cultures adorn themselves with jewellery and colourful clothing. Many cultures enjoy tattoos, piercings and other adornments, not all of them good (i.e. neck rings that weaken the neck muscles). I've often wondered how much of it is our own free will? How much of what we enjoy today is because we - as women - choose it?
I only shaved my legs because at 18 some man told me I would have to start shaving them eventually (and my leg hair was nothing back then!). Girls at school made fun of other girls with hairy legs and armpits. When I was older women and men made negative comments about how much pubic hair I had because I didn't shave it. I wore makeup because blemishes were/are not pretty, nor were freckles. I've never had naturally long pretty nails or fabulous hair. And we're told carrying extra weight is seen as unattractive - gotta be size 0. And heaven forbid women get old!! How much of how I view myself is really my view of myself without the influence of the media and my peers telling me how I should look and be?
How much of your view is your own and how much are you influenced by the media and peers into doing many of the things listed above? How much of it is really a choice if you had the freedom to choose?
Nature Republic Soothing & Moisture Aloe Vera 92% Soothing Gel 300ml
When you hear the title and the 92% Aloe Vera gel you'd be inclined to think this is quite a natural product. In fact the name Nature Republic sounds as though they're natural.
Then you read the ingredients list and you realise it is fairly natural with some not so natural (some hazardous) ingredients, to act as preservatives and stabilisers
[numbers in boxes denote hazard rating from 1 to 10 - 10 being most hazardous]
You all know my thoughts on propylene glycol - if not read the article to give you a better understanding. So while this product may appear natural because the label says so it is always important to read the labels and have a good understanding of what those ingredients are and mean.
However, it's always good to make small changes to products that are mostly natural. They're still better than hardly natural at all.
It has been around 4 weeks since we started the skin specialist's advice, using the products we were given (pictured). Bath gel, moisturiser, low steroid base cream, steroid cream and antihistamine.
virtual chemist
I have to concede that my son's skin has never looked better. He is so happy with his "new skin" (as he calls it) and I can see the relief and joy on his face. It never occurred to me that he might also be frustrated and upset with his skin. He has always been so amicable and quiet about it.
Hubby did the steroid cream for three days to get the flare up under control (then I hid the tube from him). He also did the bleach in the bath which I hadn't known about (I've also hidden the bleach). We moisturise twice daily, morning and night, with the petroleum based moisturisers (hubby) and Soothing Salve (me- when hubby's not looking). This stops his skin from drying out, keeps him moisturised and protects his skin from elements, sweat, wind etc.
my son's new skin ~ JOLI NSC
As you know I'm not a fan of petroleum based anything! However we have the product here and hubby will know if I throw it out or hide it. When the products are finished we will move back to the Soothing Slave we were using on my son before the doctors intervention.
We are still sticking to a food safe eating regime for the most part mainly because he doesn't need all those additive/preservative filled foods. Though we have noticed very little difference in his skin when he consumes a bad additive. At most he's gotten one or two small spot rashes on his buttocks of all places. What mostly makes a difference, food wise, is limiting his dairy intake.
Admittedly, we had never been diligent with the moisturising of his skin (too busy/lazy). As written in Part 1, I was moisturising with Soothing Salve which worked a treat, yet application was sporadic at best, while hubby was opting for constant use of the steroid cream (much to my agitation). Now that we are both ensuring he's moisturised often it's making a difference.
It is strange because we already used these types of products already, a safe bath liquid, daily moisturisation, hubby and his over excited use of steroid creams.
my son's new skin ~ JOLI NSC
The thing that is making the biggest difference however, is the antihistamine!!!
As I had often suspected, though couldn't pin point why, his eczema seemed allergy related and the antihistamine is containing that allergic reaction. For example when he had the spot rash on his bottom he was given antihistamine for three nights in a row (then we stop) and his rash settled down. I did also apply JOLI's aloe vera gel to the rash. Bleach kills off the bacteria on the surface of the skin which helps kill the germs causing the rash... aloe vera gel does the same thing naturally.
After years and years of trying to get our son's eczema under control it turns out that working together to moisturise him regularly, morning and night, and giving him antihistamine when his eczema flares up (which is less and less these days) has made all the difference.
UPDATE: months later we rarely need to give our son antihistamine, those other creams have run out except for Elidel which we rarely use and it's back to keeping his skin moisturised with good old trusty Soothing Salve, twice a day, and baths with natural products. He rarely has flareups these days and he is still happy in his 'new skin'.
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