Green is the New Black

Brick by brick, stack the cards in your favor by "going green" with your personal care items.....your health is actually counting on it. Replace, replace, replace. With options on options on options.

No shade on your LBD but green choices have now become the most important lifestyle & beauty staple to adopt. Let's get to work!

As stated in one of my favorite books this year, "your skin is alive and intelligent". Like a plant that ingests and distributes the sun, water, air that it comes into contact with - our skin is living & breathing and literally drinks whatever you put on and sometimes near it. Now, if it's good stuff no worries...but what if it's bad? It will be absorbed into your blood. Then what?

There's a reason Johnson&Johnson had to pay millions of dollars out for a failure to disclose a cancer link in its baby powder (and that's just one of the many products they make!). This was one of the many cases that lets us know no one will advocate for you or your loved ones as much as you, especially when greed and profit are involved. Making small, steady changes in what you purchase and the brands your dollars support is all it takes. When you start treating your personal care products (and even your food) as medicine, it helps you become more decisive about what is truly nourishing you - or building up in the body to currently or eventually make you sick.

You ever notice how someone on a diet is always "counting"? Counting calories, counting steps, counting sugar intake, carbs. In a similar way, we should be counting the nutrients, source, & benefits of our products. Start asking yourselves questions like:

- How many ingredients on this product label are actual true vitamin & minerals from the earth (i.e. essential oils, herbs/plants, minerals etc.)?

- Do the words that I can't pronounce on the label outnumber the words that I actually know?

- Where was this product manufactured? (i.e Johnson&Johnson, a country with low safety standards, sketchy named facility etc).

Below are 3 items used in most people's daily personal ritual that you can start with. Ready to detoxify your regimen of allergy and illness-causing chemicals? Yay:)

Perfume/Cologne

I mean that really says it all in a nutshell above!

Without question our plants would definitely die if we sprayed them with Chanel No.5 or even a body spray from Bath & Body Works every day - isn't that so telling of what those products are (and aren't) made with? Sure, some people are more sensitive than others. I have friends that can't even walk through the cologne section at Macys and others who are completely unphased. But that's just it. Symptoms are the same as a signal. They appear instantly for some, over time for others. And they will only get louder & more deep rooted.

Every little bit counts and the purpose of this post is to help you chip away at unnecessary exposure to lessen/even eliminate allergic reactions and symptoms.

Make it a point going forward to use "fragrances" that are essential oil based. Lark Skin Co has one of my favorite roll on perfumes that are small enough to take on-the-go or leave at home next to my deodorant. TDM also has a great selection of artisan plant-based options that can replace what you currently have on your vanity table and if you want to take it a step further...dive into your pits & gums.

Nail Polish

Big cities like Los Angeles, Manhattan, San Francisco, and South Florida have all led the way in the organic nail salon movement. The options are getting better and better, the spread is getting wider and wider. If you haven't Yelped or Google'd non-toxic nail salon near me, now is the time.

From the nail polish remover, to the cuticle oil, to the massage lotion, to the polish itself.....everything that touches your skin in these places are organic and pure. (*Always make sure to check each establishment's mission statement in advance of course).

The term Free is used in the beauty community that means a nail polish is free of a certain amount of toxic chemical ingredients. 10-free is considered the purest of all free nail polishes (so none of these bad guys: Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Camphor, Ethyl Tosylamide,  Xylene, parabens, animal by-products, and non-essential oil based fragrance). If you're like me and looking for a more at-home option, brands like ManiMe.Co have 10-free stick on gels that are some of the best out there. If you prefer "regular" polish (without chemicals), I have always loved Butter London, ORLY, and a mix of others.

Make-Up

That occasional headache you get, the tingle in your nose, the aura of an oncoming migraine, tremors/spontaneous muscle spasms, a sore throat, mood swings, fatigue....this is the short list of symptoms that can unknowingly be brought on from wearing make-up with certain ingredients for hours/years of our lives. It can feel very similar to food poisoning, even from a basic lip gloss/stick you've been applying without a 2nd thought; traces of heavy metals and arsenic are found in a majority of the drugstore/big brand name products.

After I discovered TDM (as well as my more local option), I put those days far behind me. I've now been exposed to a variety of brands that I don't have to worry about or second guess. There's also consulting services out there to help you replace any bad stuff in your make up bag and completely start fresh! I definitely benefited from that kind of one-on-one in the beginning of this whole process.

I'm currently using ILIA & Jane Iredale for all my make-up needs. And as far as my skincare regimen....that I'll have to do in a separate post haha - but ALL products are organic/non-toxic without question.

Bottomline: Get yourself in the habit of thoroughly reading labels. My rule of thumb is if I can't pronounce more of the ingredients listed than not, I don't buy it. Huge red flag. An exception I make is if the ingredients I can't pronounce are placed towards the end of the label's list, it's more than likely not as bad/toxic for you or the amount of bad guys in there is low. If you want a more detailed breakdown of ingredients (and to become a walking filter tab), get my bible for that. If you really want to go H.A.M, get my 2nd bible too.

If you made it this far in the post it might go without saying but you should also replace the following with organic/green/natural/non-toxic options if you have the motivation & means to do so:

- Toothpaste, mouthwash

- Bar soap, hand/dish/laundry soap, all & any soaps that your skin will come in contact with daily

- Shampoo, conditioner, all & any skincare regimen products

- Kitchen & bathroom cleaning supplies

Although we live in an imperfect world and we can't control everything; the things we can control deserve our effort - especially with our health on the line. We get one body in this life and we should treat it like the temple it is. And yeah we're all gonna die or get sick along the way but I believe we don't have to obliviously put ourselves in the fast lane to get there either. #detox

Challenge yourself to even make your products from scratch. There are so many recipes online, make it a weekend project!

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