Here's a run-down of some recent goofs and semi-goofs.
* Remember that on the Good Guide, a high score is GOOD. A 10 out of 10 would be a perfect score and the site averages a score of Goodness for your health, the environment, and society. Conversely (and annoyingly, if you are using both to compare) on the Environmental Working Group website, a low score is better. A ZERO would be perfect, and the higher the score, the more toxic the stuff.
OK, let's begin.
Tiny orange bottle of Kiss My Face sunscreen, purchased with a coupon at Whole Foods:
It only scores a 3 or 4 on the Good Guide, meaning that it really is not that awesome for me, the earth, or the people on the earth. BUT, the Environmental Working Group rates the ingredients with a low score of 1, meaning quite non-toxic. Boo, and weird, for conflicting information. I guess maybe the ingredients are relatively safe, but perhaps KMF doesn't have a great track record of environmental or social stewardship. OR, maybe they just don't make a lot of that info public. Either way, Kiss My Face is a pretty well-regarded brand, so I'm disappointed.
Next up is one of the most bone-headed impulse buys I have made in a while. A long long while. I was at the salon, feeling good about my new hair cut and wanting it to stay cute. So I perused the ridiculously overpriced salon products and was drawn to these bottles of Bamboo Shampoo and Conditioner from Alterna:
The labels were full of suuuuuuper exciting words like "Eco-Certified Ingredients", "Grown Responsibly and Traded Ethically" and a long list of bad things that they were "Free!" of (parabens, petro chemicals, etc). Hooray! So exciting. Took them home and they worked like a shiny-haired dream.
But alas, I should have known better. They score only 4.6 and 3.9 on the Good Guide, respectively, and a shockingly TOXIC 9 out of 10 for the Environmental Working Group. Oh and they cost $15. Each.
Please hear the sound of my palm smacking my forehead repeatedly.
I've grown to trust, perhaps OVERTRUST my local Whole Foods with helping me to narrow my purchasing decisions. At least some part of me thinks things like "Whole Foods wouldn't stock really bad-for-me stuff, right?" Well. Maybe that is at least partly true.
I love love LOVE the Everyday Coconut Conditioner from the Alaffia brand.
Read the back of the bottle and you can read about Alaffia via headings such as Handcrafted and Unrefined, Gender Equality and Community Empowerment, Certified Fair Trade, and ingredients that include an impressive list of Certified Fair for Life and Social and Fair Trade components. Gotta be awesome, right?
The Good Guide didn't have a listing for this particular product, and their line had a lot of great high scores. The closest I could come to this conditioner, however, scored a mediocre 4.0 on the good guide. The EWG didn't have a listing for any Alaffia brands or products. So I guess we'll have to go with the packaging for all our info.
Good ole' Burt's Bees is made right here in Durham, which I love, and their products run the gamut from Rock Star to Craptastic on both the GG and EWG. This particular body lotion scores a 6 on the GG (decent) and an "Eh" 5 on the EWG. Not strong enough to keep buying it. I'll use it up and look for an alternative.
Yesterday I finally bought a couple of bars of this "CP Soap" at the Farmers Market that I had managed to walk past every time. But I'm out of my bar soap, so I gave them a sniff. It's hand made in Raleigh, and wrapped simply in some brown paper. It's made with 95% organic ingredients, and most of the varieties were "100% natural" (which I now know of course can include nasty things that occur in nature, like petroleum and phalates). BUT, this bar was listed Phalate Free. And even though I have no idea what "Hydrogen fragrance oil" is or what hydrogen is supposed to smell like or why it is good to have in a soap, I love the silky texture and the rosemary and "hydrogen" scent.
Of course, there are no listings for this home-made beauty bar on either site, but the ingredients sound like things I could eat: saponified organic olive, coconut, and palm oil, hydrogen fragrance oil, and rosemary oil.
SO. I still make biff after biff on the stuff-buying. Which sucks. Because we have limited dollars and I have limited tolerance for stupidity.
I finally took the next step and downloaded the Good Guide app to my phone. The EWG doesn't have an app yet, but you can donate $5 and get a Pocket Guide to safer shopping. I haven't done it yet. I might. I'm tired of doling out cash for fake-green products that are killing me softly behind pretty packages.
Super Unrelated Aside - It is June 24, and I haven't had ANY pop this entire month. The tiny but solid feeling of accomplishment may spur me forward to tackle a much bigger addiction next month....
