Coconut Oil + Coconut Sugar Body Scrub

Is anyone else's skin looking rather gray and chalky? Do you get the urge to take sandpaper to your feet and dip your entire leg into a lotion bottle this time of year? Just me?

Last week I continued my tireless search for a chemical-free golden ticket that would keep my skin soft during these moisture sucking winter months.

I thought I was onto something last year with the coconut oil-as- moisturizer. It worked pretty well and was economical and chemical-free. A few of you mentioned that you tried it and you kind of liked it, in a "Well, I guess it's better than rubbing petroleum products into my skin" sort of way. I confess that I, too, grew weary of the coconut oil's oiliness. There is a reason why commercial skin care products tout their "absorbs quickly with no greasy feel!" magic. Coconut oil works pretty well, and the lotion bars were handy and fun to make, but I haven't been able to shake the thought that we can do better.

On a whim, I bought some Coconut Sugar from Trader Joe's a couple of weeks ago. Most interweb sources assert that it is one of the most environmentally sustainable sweeteners around (Kitchen Stewardship has some great info about it), and I thought I'd add it to my grain-free baking experimentation. It is fairly coarse but not as clumpy as regular brown sugar.

All the DIY Christmas gift pins with homemade bath products inspired me to try the Coconut Sugar with water or honey as a scrub for my crusty feet. And then it hit me: Coconut oil + Coconut sugar = Natural Moisturizing Body Scrub?

Friends, let me tell you, I've been using this concoction every few days for two weeks now, and I am really amazed by how well it works, how un-greasy it is, and how my skin actually feels soft for days. Days!

Les even commented that my skin is "much nicer than usual" all of a sudden.

Our two star ingredients.

It's ridiculously easy to make this scrub. 

1. Scoop a heaping spoonful of coconut oil into a small dish. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, so you can get a nice hefty glop of it with a regular spoon. 

 2. Dump a roughly equal amount of coconut sugar into the oil and mash it around with the spoon.

Here's the best part:

3. Take your dish of coconutty body scrub into the shower with you, and give your limbs a good scrubbing with it after you've finished your regular washing and hair doing and ballad singing. Yep, slather this stuff right in the shower just as if it were a body wash. I use my hands, but you could put it onto a washcloth or poof if you prefer. You're wet, and you're sloughing off dead skin as you go so it absorbs in a totally different way. Plus you're rinsing off any excess oil as you finish up your shower.

4. Get out of the shower, dry off, and get on with your day with your soft and lovely skin.

I find that my skin only needs this extra step every few days, but if you want to do it everyday, go for it.

One word of caution - your feet will be really slippery if you use this scrub on the bottoms of your feet, so be careful in the shower! You could also just use this as a treat for your feet after your shower if you don't want to risk a slip.

Let's review the awesomeness of this scrub.

1. All natural ingredients = No nasty chemicals being rubbed into your skin.
2. Slather it on right in the shower. No need to stand shivvering in your cold wintery bathroom rubbing lotion or coconut oil into your skin until it absorbs. 
3. Smell like sweet coconut! Your chihuahua may decide he wants to lick your legs and hands, but that's not a problem, right? 
4. Soft skin that lasts for days. 

Bonus:  Edible shower scrub! No commentary. Just pointing that out...

All-Natural Lotion Bars

Sometimes I fret that my skin is noticeably drier these days than it was when I was younger. I know, I know... losing moisture and elasticity and all that jazz. Awesome. Well, now that winter is upon us and the heaters are toasting 'round the clock, I'm a hot mess of itchy, crunchy skin.

I've been happy with my Coconut Oil moisturizing regimen. Out of the shower, and slather on some coconut oil right out of the jar. Good stuff. But I would be totally lying to your face if I claimed that coconut oil works as well or lasts as long as the chemically commercial stuff.

I needed something a bit more portable than a jar of coconut oil. I do some weird things at work (like pack salads in mason jars, sport a gloriously sticky jar of honey on my desk for tea, etc), and I keep some weird things in my purse (reusable bamboo utensils, anyone?), but there's no way I'm going to start scooping coconut oil out of my purse/desk drawer.

Pinterest, for the win!

The instructions below are snagged directly from The Coconut Mama, with my own small variations.

First, you need equal parts beeswax and coconut oil.

You can buy little chunks of beeswax online, or at Whole Foods.  I took the suggestion from The Coconut Mama's comment section and grated the beeswax with a box grater for even melting.

Here's a snap of a half-grated chunk of beeswax:

Grating it up. 

Throw the grated beeswax into a small saucepan with an equal amount of coconut oil:

For this first go, I used roughly 4 tablespoons of grated wax and 4 tablespoons of coconut oil. The original instructions say you can use a few drops of essential oils. I wanted my lotion bars to smell vanilla-y, but Holy Buckets! Vanilla Essential Oil is $22 for a tiny bottle. Scrap that. I tried adding a few drops of vanilla extract.

I DO NOT recommend swapping vanilla for vanilla essential oil, sadly. It didn't really incorporate into the oils, and basically just separated out to he bottom of the pan. 

But when it was all nice and melty, it poured elegantly into these little mini muffin pans:

I got a little impatient and decided to scoop one of the little bars out before it had fully set. Also a bad idea, but it did give me a preview of the lotiony awesomeness I had just made. Soft, but not too soft, with a pleasant coconutty-and-vaguely-honey scent. I rubbed it all over my arms and elbows. Soft, chemical-free skin!

Win!

If I had had some of those silicone bendy muffin pans, that would be a better choice for getting the bars out and keep them looking cute. But I'm thinking I might actually smash these little babies into Altoids tins or something similar to make them more purse-safe. 

Even in a tin, though, I would recommend you consider giving them one extra layer of protection from your stuff. I love love love homemade skin care, but it can be unpredictable in terms of melting and separating. If I put mine into a tin, I think I'll make the tin a little oilcloth zipper case. I once left my bag on top of a heating vent on the floor (didn't see it!) and all my lip balm melted into a gooey mess all over my bag! Fun times.

Steady Progress Towards Major Change

On August 1, I announced to myself that I was going to stick to a "More with Less" vegetarian gluten-free diet. A few days later, I upped the ante and decided that I was going to purge my diet of all eggs and dairy as well. That would have made me some kind of grain-free vegan locavore or something. I was convinced that Sweeping Change was the way to go. Cold Tofu-Turkey, total elimination.

But guess what?

It did not work. Not even a little bit. I didn't really know what I was doing, and 3 days into spinach salad for every meal I revolted and went right back to cheese and polenta and sordid affairs with buttermilk biscuits. If I had been a little more self-aware, maybe I would have remembered that GRADUAL progress has served me pretty well, whether in training for and running a marathon injury-free, or waking up every morning, gazing at my painfully gray haired reflection and deciding to stick with my decision to NOT color my hair. Success from small decisions and small disciplines made over and over and over.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, I thought maybe some of you are feeling like I sometimes do when I think of all the BIG changes I want to make in my diet, my consumption, and my life. I feel overwhelmed. I start to despair and think that if I can't change everything, why bother changing anything? Not true, my friends. Don't listen to the haters in your head.

Just choose something, make the change, and then keep at it. You don't have to start with food. Here are some things that I have changed in my daily routine that have made small but hopefully appreciable dents in my chemical exposure, for example:

1. Home Made Mouth Wash

Which consists of a tongue scraper coupled with a gargle-and-swish of warm water with sea salt and a few drops of peppermint oil. I was skeptical, but this works for me! Just a little freshening boost. Husband approved, BTW.

2. Coconut Oil for dry skin

I thought this would be kind of gross too, but I LOVE IT. I smell faintly of Almond Joy all day, and it makes my skin feel smooth and soft. It is a little oily when you first slather it on (right out of the shower seems to work well for me so far), but it dries really nicely. No more nasty lotions. You're rubbing that stuff into your skin, people! eeeek. I may experiment with a few drops of essential oil mixed in to the coconut for a different scent. It makes me hungry to smell a little like candy.

3. Mechanical rather than chemical exfoliation

I confess that I don't use my dry brush every day. I should, though, because I really like that I can see the dry skin flailing off me in every direction. You use this stiff-bristled brush before you get in the shower. My English friends say that it is also excellent for reducing the appearance of cellulite, but I don't think I've used it often enough to see a difference. Doesn't hurt to try though, right?

4. Salad Dressing As  Oil Method Face Wash

Castor Oil + Extra Virgin Olive Oil makes a surprisingly effective face wash. Yes, it feels a bit like rubbing salad dressing on your face. And yes, I was scared about it because of my persistent adult acne, but I think it works as well if not better than any of the commercial face soaps I have tried. Our current apartment's bathroom sink does not get quite hot enough to make the requisite steamy washcloth used to steam up your pores and wipe off the oil, so I do sometimes use commercial face soap when I'm in a hurry in the morning. I can make the steamcloth work in the shower, but prefer a leisurely night time routine where I can wipe the grime of the day off with something ultra natural and not at all drying. Check out my whole post about the glories of the Oil Method.

5. Mason Jars for Everything!

We wanted to get away from storing stuff in plastic right around the same time that I started buying things in bulk whenever possible. We had repurposed some salsa jars and pasta sauce jars and love them very much in the cabinets. But if you have things out in the open, or need to freeze something, Mason Jars are the way to go. Plus, they only cost about $12 for a box of 12. Way cheaper than Pyrex. And unlike most glassware, many sizes of mason jars can be used to freeze stuff as long as you leave an inch or so of room at the top when you fill it up. I LOVE jars. I use them to take food to work for lunch, to store stuff, and even as portable mugs. Vessel + secure lid = endless possibilities with NO plastic.

Next up, hopefully, will be to permanently switch to natural toothpaste, home-made deodorant, Dr. Bronner's soap in the shower, and only replacing cosmetics with totally natural versions. I keep saying I'm gonna do that, but I keep not doing it.

Here's to baby steps! What are some of your small changes that have added up to big differences in your home, habits or budget? 

Blast You, Green Washing!!!

I feel like an idiot every time I tote something home full of greeny, earth-happy confidence, only to discover I have been duped yet again by packaging.

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....

The Reason Why Products Have Nasty Chemicals

Products with nasty chemicals (often) work better.

Certainly there are notable exceptions. But in my quest to greenify and simplify my life, I've discovered over and over again that one of the reasons why we cling to our products is because they work. Like Pantene shampoo. Seriously. I miss it. I want my hair to be shiny and smell like some not-quite-discernible-delicious-fruit/flower. And I want my hair to be shiny and smooth. I like my Paraben-free, Sulfate-free, artificial-fragrance-free shampoo as well as one could like such a utilitarian thing, but I'd be totally lying if I said it works just as well as Pantene. I'm looking into some home-made hair shine masks that involve mashed avocado and egg yolks. But I don't really want to waste a perfectly good avo OR a spendy cage-free egg on my hair. Sigh. Priorities bite.

Anyway, that was a longer than necessary lead-in to my latest Green Product Trial:

I have been missing mascara. Ever since I started the G3 experiment, I haven't been able to bring myself to buy it, and I can tell that my face looks droopier and a little mousier without it. I admit that this was an impulse purchase partly inspired by the fact that I am not super happy with my new hair cut (photos to come) and I wanted to look more feminine. I didn't do any research or consult any websites. I just lurched to the makeup section of the CVS and looked for the Lesser of All Evils based on product packaging.

Let's see what this claims to do without:

• Harsh Chemicals
• Synthetic preservatives
• Smudging, flaking, clumping
• Fibers
• Dyes (How do you make mascara without dyes? I need to look into this)

It also claims to be be "ECO CERT", whatever that is, and feature "Organic Soy and Eco-Olive". On the back it touts that the tube, in addition to being really stupid looking, is also made from recycled materials.

Anyway, I was desperate, so I gave it a go.

Two hours after applying yesterday, I looked like a I had been crying for a day and a half. I had mascara smudges under my eyes and swooping upward towards my forehead. AND they reappeared after I swiped them away in with a tissue. So I can't endorse this product as anti-smudge. I'm wearing it today, however, and I'm pleased to see that it has stayed put so far. Maybe the stinging wind in my face yesterday made my eyes water and contributed to the running.

But today I had to check it out on the Good Guide and the Skin Deep Database. Here's what I found, for all that greenwashing:

Skin Deep: EcoWear is not listed in their product listings. It may be too new. But, I did discover that Physicians Formula Retro Glow UltraDramatic Mascara is rated a very respectable 2 on their safety ratings! So, if the Eco Wear turns out to be a farce then I may try Retro Glow next.

Good Guide: 6.8 out of 10, with a 10 out of 10 for health, a 6.9 for the environment, and a 5.5 for Society.

When I ask the Good Guide to suggest higher-rated alternatives, I was surprised by the findings. Here are the Top 4 Similar Products:

1. Miessence Mascara - 8.7 I have never heard of this brand, but it gets pretty good user reviews.
2. The Body Shop mascara - 8.2
3. Maybelline Ultralash Waterproof- 8.1
4. Loreal Paris Voluminous Waterproof Mascara - 8.1

Pretty surprising, huh? It pays to do some research! I would like to look the Maybelline and the Loreal on Skin Deep, just to cross check, but it looks like our friends at Physician's Formula duped me with some greeny packaging tricks. Honestly, I would buy a different brand in the future just to avoid the uber-childish and somewhat-phallic looking tube....

So there you have it! Succumbed to Greenwashing once again. Be careful out there, my lovlies. And do your research!

Smooth skin, guest bloggers, and other fun surprises

One week into the Oil Method face washing and I have to say that I am AMAZED. Seriously. I could sound like an infomercial right now. "Oil Cleansing Method changed my life! I look younger and more well-rested than I have in years! All my problems have been wiped away!" Well, maybe not quite that crazy, but you get the idea.

It could be partly due to where I am in my hormonal cycle, but even if that IS the case, my perma-zits along my jawline and chin are... Gone. G-O-N-E. Smooth, almost unnoticeable pink ovals mark the places where tiny volatile volcanoes sat angrily for years. And those pink ovals are getting smaller and smaller every day. I'll let you know how it is going after I've made it through a full month, but so far, I can heartily endorse this very counter-intuitive sounding oil wash.

Next up: Guest Blogger! Yay! Mia has been hard at work with all manner of Homesteady preserving methods, and she was kind enough to take some photos and write up some tutorials! I'm excited to share those with you this week.

Other Fun Surprises: Blog Editor-in-Chief Auggie has been nutso about his new home-made dog food. Who knew he would gobble lentils and millet and nutritional yeast as eagerly as his nasty canned dog "food"? No packaging waste, no creepy preservatives, no BPA exposure for The Editor. Excellent surprise WIN.

Ok, so maybe that was only a fun surprise for ME. The fun surprise for YOU is that I've been working on a bunch of crafty home-made things lately, and I'm really pleased with the results. I've got a whole photo shoot planned so I can share some of these surprise successes, and would love for you to share your favorite Greeny, Home-made WIN in the comments section. I even have a little prize idea....More details to come.

Fighting Oil With Oil

Several months ago, I posted this post about finding a new face soap, and my friend B suggested that I try something called "The Oil Method". I laughed to myself. "I'm pretty sure I can't use OIL to wash my greasy, acne-prone, stressed out skin". I filed it under "Things I Swear I Will Never Do". I should have known right then that I would eventually embrace it, since many of my current raves are things I originally scoffed.

I was running out of my bar face soap, and while probably greener than my fancy bottles of Olay, my face was still dry and flaky and oily and zitty all at the same time.

So.... I did some more reading about the Oil Method and started to come around. Then Whole Living did an article about it, and I was sold. See, sometimes all it really takes to convince me are some pretty pictures.

The article and the online info suggested a 75% olive oil, 25% castor oil blend for oily and acne-prone skin. I ordered a bottle of Castor Oil online, and I tried it for the first time tonight!

EVOO and Castor Oil blend

Clean white wash cloth

I got a 1/4 tsp from the kitchen and filled it up "most of the way" with olive oil, then topped it off with the castor oil. Very precise... Yeah, that's why I stick to cooking rather than baking. Anyway. I poured the 1/4 tsp into my hand and then used my palms and fingers to rub the oils into my face (bonus! mini face massage!) while I counted to 90. It felt surprisingly pleasant, and not at all like I was rubbing salad dressing into my pores.

After you rub in the oil, you drape a HOT damp washcloth over your face to steam the now-grimey oil back out of your pores. Let the washcloth cool off, then use the washcloth to gently wipe away the oil and gunk. It was hard to just stand there with a washcloth on my face while it cooled, but it did feel pretty great. After wiping the oil away, my formerly pristine cloth looked like this:

Makeup and city grossness

All that came off with just a 1/4 tsp of oils! Joy! My skin feels soft and clean. You are only supposed to wash this way once per day, and then just splash your face with cold water in the morning. Even LESS product being used. Love that.

From what I read, this works because the olive oil is a natural skin softener that binds with the castor oil, which is a natural cleanser. The olive oil acts as a vehicle to get the cleansing castor oil down into your pores, and then the steam from the washcloth yanks them both back out of your skin again. Soft, clean, and 100% natural.

So, thanks B for planting the seed of the idea all those months ago! I'm really happy with this new plan. I'm also hopeful that the Oil Method will help rebalance my skin, and maybe even make it less oily over time.

I know. It blew my mind too.

Go get some more oil on your face!

An Armpit Manifesto?

It's only 9:32am and I can already tell you that the Alba Botanical deodorant is going to make me completely crazy by noon.

Today is my first trial run of the safer stick, and to be fair, I'm wearing a sort of irritating little jacket over my dress, but sticky pits are derailing my already flagging concentration.

I know that deodorant is not the same as antiperspirant. And I also know that if I were wearing a more breathable, less-armpit-snug ensemble today I might not be so bothered. But today, my armpits = gross.

So I'll try it again tomorrow with a smarter outfit choice and see if that makes a difference. But handily, Twitter brought me this post from the Mother Nature Network with a few additional home-made deodorant options. Including how to use cornstarch and baking soda to reduce that sticky-pit sensation that has made those sweet-smelling-but-toxic antiperspirant sticks a mainstay of even the crunchiest toiletry cabinets.

This is what my armpits want:

• Safe ingredients that are not linked to cancer, death, doom, or any other human or environmental badness
• To not have my clothes stick to them, or become soggy in a pool of sweat
• To smell at least neutral, and ideally pleasant
• To be cared for for less than $18 per deodorant stick (even a really pretty, sweet smelling, safe deodorant stick)

G3 readers - Anyone want to go on a home-made deodorant adventure with me? We could try different recipes and report back. I know at least one of you (my favorite Nashvillian) has gone home-made and lived to tell the tale.

The Stinky Truth about Antiperspirant

GOOD Health just published this helpful article about why antiperspirant is bad for you. Really bad. Even if only some of the potential risks turn out to be as bas as they sound, it's probably worth considering an alternative.

Which is distressing, because there are few things that gross me out about my body more than sweaty armpits. I hate hate HATE the feeling of damp pits. And the sneaking suspicion that YOU are the stinky person that everyone is scooting away from on the Metra on the ride home.

I got this little trial size of Alba Botanica deodorant to try:

Which I'm excited to try next week, because the women's deodorant they recommend in the GOOD Health article (La Vanila) is EIGHTEEN DOLLARS per stick.

$18?

Really?

Could I just make some myself?  Well, that will be my next trick. My friend Kathi has made her own anti-stink sticks, and thinks they work pretty well. If the Alba doesn't do the trick, I will be your home made deodorant guinea pig.

Here Comes the Sun(screen)!

So it seems almost silly to write a post about sunscreen today, considering it is a blustery, miserable 47 degrees of drizzle and despair here in beautiful downtown Chicago. But since Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer for the rest of the country, I thought this article about safe sunscreens from the Environmental Working Group was particularly timely:

Best Safe Sunscreens

This will be my first summer of Safe Sunscreens - I have never bought any of the brands listed in the EWG's report - so I don't have any first hand wisdom to share with you.  But I'll plan to try at least a couple of these over the coming months and let you know what I think. Because I am about as pasty as vanilla frosting, and Lord knows I need sunscreen every day that I am not bundled into my parka...

St. Lucia, honeymoon style, June 2010

Here's hoping my sunglasses and tank tops get to come out of storage before the 4th of July!

Hang tough, Chicagoans.

New Face Soap! I hope the Orangutans will forgive me.

There are very few products to which I would consider myself "loyal". You know, the products you always buy, whether or not they are on sale and heedless of whatever new-fangled sparkly formula a competitor dreams up to tempt you away.

But I have been a very happy and very loyal Olay face products fan for several years now. Olay Regenerist products work well for my acne-prone skin that suffers from breakouts AND creeping wisps of fine lines. It is reasonably priced (around $7 per bottle), and it smells nice.

I squeeze every last bit of face wash from the tube:

After it stops being squeezable, I'll cut it open and scoop out even more.

I was reluctant to move over to a more natural face soap. Sure, I want to use less packaging and keep petroleum-based products out of the shower. And rubbing carcinogens into my face has sort of lost its appeal. But darn you, carcinogens and petroleum and magic chemicals! You work soooo well! My face is so happy to have your moisturizers and zit-zappers! Why do yo have to have it in for me?

I've been using this nifty bar of soap, found at Dominick's for $2.79, for about a month and half now:

The only packaging is the 100% recyclable cardboard box. It's crazycheap. It smells pretty nice, and has lovely lather-y foam WITHOUT the sulfates. It has just 7 ingredients, and they are all things you could buy at your favorite health-food store. My skin looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. The only major difference I've noticed is that my face is a bit drier than usual. But I'll deal with that if it means that I can have an eco-gentle face soap that does the job without the scary chemicals.

Bonus: Apparently, proceeds from the sale of the bar soap help provide educational materials to children in Africa. You can read more about the company on their website: http://outofafricashea.com/

My only hang-up about this effective, inexpensive, and minimally-packaged soap is the palm oil.

I can hear you gagging. For the love of all that is Good and Holy, what's wrong with Palm Oil?? Well, it turns out that you pretty much have to clear-cut rain forests to get palm oil... check out NPR's story about it here. Or, take a look at adorable Indonesian orangutans here whose homes are being slashed and burned for palm oil cultivation.

The Out of Africa soap's box states that their ingredients are "Natural and Sustainable", but I couldn't find anything on their website about where they source their palm oil.

So, do I have to choose between my health and the Orangs? I really do like this soap.

Friday Faceoff: Tom vs. Joe - Natural Toothpaste Showdown

About a month ago, Les and I tried out Tom's of Maine natural peppermint anti-cavity toothpaste, which I bought from Whole Foods for about $5. 

Tom's of Maine touts itself as a socially responsible company (there are pictures of Tom's of Maine employees planting trees together in matching t-shirts right on the box) that uses healthy, natural ingredients. I felt pretty good about this purchase, even though it cost almost twice as much as a tube of Crest Multi-Care for half the amount of actual toothpaste in the tube. Despite the price tag, I felt better about getting started with naturally flavored dental care. And bonus - It tastes deliciously minty and has a pleasantly smooth texture.

I really thought I had found our new toothpaste on the first try.  But not so fast..... My post about Sulfates prompted me to read the ingredient list more closely.  And wouldn't you know it - Even squeaky clean Tom's of Maine uses Sodium Lauryl Sulfate in their toothpaste.  Blast.

Luckily for this experiment, our 5 oz tube of toothpaste only lasted us a few weeks. So when I was in Trader Joe's last weekend, I ducked into their tiny personal care section and snagged a tube of Trader Joe's natural toothpaste.

The label checked out - no sulfates. Plus it only cost $2 and some change for a 6 oz tube. Bingo! There was, of course, a catch. You can instantly tell that it is "all natural" because it tastes like what you might expect some home-made toothpaste to taste like. Baking Soda with a hint of mint and chalk. But it seemed to work well enough in the breath department, and it was a lot cheaper than Tom's, so again I made the mistake of thinking I had found our new toothpaste.

Time to check in with our good friends at The Good Guide and Skin Deep.

Tom's gets an impressive 8 out of 10 on the Good Guide. Healthy, enviro-friendly, and socially responsible to boot. Skin Deep gives it a 3 out of 10 for toxicity. I'm kind of surprised, considering it contains SLS, but I guess it is in a small enough concentration that it doesn't knock it out of low-risk range. Other Tom's toothpaste varieties got a 4 or even a 5 for toxicity, so it's better to check out the specific formula before assuming it is free from compromising ingredients.

The formula of Trader Joe's toothpaste I bought didn't show up on either the Good Guide or Skin Deep, but overall even Trader Joe's "natural" lines of personal care products averaged around a 6 out of 10 on the Good Guide, scoring high for health but low for environment and society. 

So it looks like the winner of the Friday Faceoff is gonna be Tom's of Maine! Despite it's price tag and SLS inclusion, it looks like the better bet overall. Which is good for my mouth and taste buds, but sad for our budget. I'll check out other stores for deals on Tom's toothpastes. 

I should note that the Skin Deep toxicity ratings for a couple of Tom's of Maine products were startlingly high. So, again, it's a good idea to peruse the ratings before assuming that their wholesome corporate culture makes up for potentially problematic ingredients.

Word Nerd: Sulfates (Or Sulphates, if you are British)

Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) are ingredients that clean things and make nice foamy suds. Unless your shampoo, body wash, or toothpaste label exclaims that it is "FREE!" of those particular sulfates, it probably contains them. They are cheap ingredients, and they work.

So what is so bad about them? I like clean things (like teeth and hair) and I also like some nice foamy bubbles to prove to me that my cleaning agents are cleaning. Is it just me, or have we all really convinced ourselves that lather means something is "working"? Would you want to use a shampoo that didn't produce any suds? I think it would be weird. Anyway, back to the investigation...

The good folks at Snopes.com looked into the claims that SLS and SLES are cancer-causing, and came up with ziltch. In fact, they trace the sulfates-cause-cancer scare to a shampoo contamination back in the 1970s that found that some shampoos contained trace amounts of carcinogens. But sulfates were not the culprit, and the two malevolent ingredients have since been removed from shampoo. Now, I'm not as eager as Snopes to get behind the "If the FDA allows the ingredient to be used in personal care products, it must be perfectly safe!" sloganeering, but maybe these sulfates-of-doom have gotten a bad rap. Let's keep reading....  

The main health problems associated with these ingredients are skin/scalp irritation and diarrhea if you ingest too much of it (thus the warning labels on toothpaste). I read elsewhere that they can also promote brittle hair/split ends, which the conspiracy theorist in me bets is a kind of cyclical marketing: The product you use to prevent something actually causes MORE of it, leading you to buy more product... But that's just my ramble.

Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database give SLS a 3 out of 10 on the hazard scale, but still lists quite a scary array of possible toxic effects, including: cancer, neurotoxicity, organ system toxicity, skin irritation, and a handful of "lesser or emerging" concerns about this ingredient. Snopes may have determined that sulfates are not related to cancer, but I'll take "One or more in vitro tests on mammalian cells show positive mutation results" as a flag that perhaps they are best avoided.

Skin Deep gives SLES a 4 out of 10 on the hazard scale, with the main concerns being skin irritation and organ system toxicity.

If you decide you'd like to try to avoid SLS and SLES in your home, better start reading labels. I was pretty distressed to discover that even my Tom's of Maine toothpaste has SLS in it. Grr....

According to this page of NaturalHealthCentre.com, there are all kinds of things that contain SLS or SLES:

Soaps
Shampoos
Bubble-baths
Tooth paste
Washing-up liquid / dish soap
Laundry detergent
Children's soaps / shampoos
Stain Remover
Carpet Cleaner
Fabric glue
Body wash
Shave cream
Mascara
Mouthwash
Skin cleanser
Moisture lotion / Moisturiser
Sun Cream

Bottom Line: Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Laureth Sulfate may not be foaming you into an early grave. But on the other hand, they may be. For my future purchasing decisions, I'm going to tread lightly, look for low concentrations, and try to avoid it if at all possible.

Investigating Your Stuff: The Shower

How many products do you use to get ready to leave the house on a typical day? I read somewhere that the average woman uses 14 products every morning. I counted mine today, and if you include the shower, the sink, and the makeup bag, I'm up to a whopping 21 products! Twenty-one. Wow.

And since I'm feeling pretty bedraggled today, and it is snowing, AND I am running out of some products that I use a lot and will soon need to replace, I decided to go on a product muck-raking internet adventure and look up each of my most-used products and see where they stand on the product safety/goodness scale.

The best sources I have found for product investigation are the SkinDeep cosmetic safety database and the Good Guide (both linked under Green Inspiration on this blog). SkinDeep rates products on a 0-10 scale, with 0 indicated zero risk/toxicity and 10 indicating high risk/toxicity. The Good Guide ranks products on their health/safety, environmental impact, and social impact on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best.

It's a pretty surprising exercise, and sometimes frustrating, because you can have something that rates low on toxicity (Yay!) but also low on its overall "Goodness" b/c of its environmental impact/social impact. Even more common is something rating pretty high on the Good Guide, but pretty poorly on the SkinDeep ratings. The Good Guide's ratings can end up skewing higher for a product that's a bit more toxic because that same product may use recyclable packaging or be part of a socially responsible product line that still manages to sneak in some carcinogens.

That's why this is a good project for a rainy day. It takes some digging. But I wanted to know, so I did the research. There were some surprising findings! I won't bore with a product by product rehashing, but I'll give you some highlights.

Here's what I've got in my shower:

Stuff I use regularly.

1. Yes to Cucumbers shampoo and conditioner - 2 on SkinDeep (low risk) and 6.9 on the Good Guide (I expected it to be higher on the Good scale, actually).

2. JASON natural bodywash - a disappointing 4 on the SkinDeep (moderately toxic) and only a 6.1 on the Good Guide. I bet you thought that if you bought it at Whole Paycheck, you must be getting something uberhealthy, right? That's what I thought.

3. Color Treated Hair products - The Good Guide gives these anywhere from a 4.8 (pretty un-good) to a 6.8 (pretty good!), but SkinDeep confirmed what I suspected - they all fall into the moderate/high risk group for toxicity.

4. Yummy-smelling "philosophy" products - these were a Christmas gift, but even so, they deserve to be shown the curb. They get between a 5-6 for toxicity. All those sulfates and fragrances and stuff. Sad.

5. Whole Foods 365 Body Lotion - this was the biggest shocker of them all... only a 5.9 on the Good Guide, and "not enough information" on SkinDeep. Again with the Whole Foods healthy fake-out. I'll know better than to assume that if it twice what I would pay for a similar product at Target and claims to be "natural" and/or "organic" that that always means it is actually good stuff.

Luckily, I'm weaning myself off of hair dye, so I can confidently dump the color treatment aids. And by dump of course I mean go out of my way to recycle their containers. I'm switching over to some SUPERDUPER HEALTHY and safe soaps and other bath products just as soon as the other moderately unhealthy products are used up. That will be a separate post, because I'm psyched to try them out.

The big questions I now have are:
1. How should I dispose of the stuff I don't want to keep? Drain? Landfill? Is giving your barely used bottle of expensive High-End scented body soap to a friend essentially saying "Here, I don't want this to give me cancer, but I hear that you don't care about such things, so maybe you would like it." ?

2. When do you use something up to avoid being wasteful, and when do you say "Get behind me, Phalates!" and toss the thing immediately?

Please weigh in with any thoughts or suggestions.

Up next will be Investigating Your Stuff: The Makeup Bag!