Take a moment and think about what you have in your bathroom. How many different shampoos do you have? What about conditioners, body washes, shaving products? Then there are the colognes, perfumes, styling products, masks, lotions, facial washes, make up removers, nail polish and the list goes on.
When did we start buying different products for each person in a home? There is no need to do this, skin is skin. sure you might have trouble with eczema or oily skin, but our skin really only wants a few things.
We are conditioned to believe we need all these products being marketed to us, but we don't. Not only don't we need them but they are loaded with chemicals, chemicals that are absorbed into our skin and washed down the drain to enter our water supply where water treatment plants do not have the ability to remove them leaving them in our drinking water. Now we not only absorb them through the skin but we ingest them as well. What does our skin need? Water and a bit of moisturizer when dry or when you have been out in the sun.
You may think all is lost but phthalates in particular have a half life of 12 hours in our bodies. Our bodies will naturally purge itself of these chemicals ( not every chemical works like this) by simply reducing our exposure to them.
To start you can begin to wash your face with plain water, you can wash your hair with a mixture of baking soda and water and follow with a white vinegar rinse, better known as no-poo. I've been washing my hair this way for more than a year and have seen wonderful results. The eczema I suffered with since childhood was gone after the second wash. You can't imagine the relief I have to know I won't have white flakes on my clothes every time I move my head. And the conditioner I needed for years I no longer need. My hair is silky, healthy and never tangles.
To avoid phthalates, you want to look for the word perfume or fragrance on the ingredient list, this is a dead give-away that your product has these chemicals in them. Just buying a product that says it's "all natural" won't protect you. This report by the Environmental Working Group found almost have labeled as natural were found to contain cancer causing chemicals and lists which products to avoid.
Save yourself some money and improve the burden on your body's health at the same time and start eliminating these products from your home and daily routine. If you want to learn more I highly recommend Slow Death by Rubber Duck.
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