Ever thought about what you may be feeding your skin on a daily basis? The above picture says it all. I saw it a few months back and it has stuck in my mind ever since. I always loved receiving beauty products as gifts from loved ones, but since being diagnosed with breast cancer, one of my strategies to minimising recurrence is to be more mindful about what I’m feeding my skin on a daily basis. Not for one minute did I stop to think what might be in these products that may be doing me harm.
After all, why should I be mindful about what I put on my skin daily, surely the Companies that produce these products would ensure that their products are 100% safe? The truth is that most of the time, their profits are their first priority and the health of the consumer of their product may be a dismal last priority.
It is fact that the average woman exposes her body to at least 515 chemicals on a daily basis as part of a beauty regime and we do this without a second thought (this excludes environmental toxins). Every wondered why you hear more and more stories these days about woman not being able to conceive, periods being irregular, moodiness etc? This is partly due to the fact that our hormones are being disrupted daily due to all the artificial chemicals that we ingest either through our skin or from what we eat. Yes to a certain extent our immune systems should be able to deal with some of the rubbish we ingest, “some” being the operative word…what happens to the rest?
Breast cancers are on the rise and you can expect that 1 out of the 9 woman that you know will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. That’s a pretty sad statistic. The good news is that one of the many ways you can help PREVENT yourself from being one of the breast cancer statistics, is to clean up your beauty regime. Research suggests that many of the chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis could be a contributing factor to cancer. Don’t feel that the only way you can stop yourself from being diagnosed with any type cancer is to just wait until it happens or just have a mammogram annually. There are many things you can do to minimise your chances of becoming a cancer statistic, one of them is being mindful about what you put onto your skin daily.
Don’t be like I used to be. I chose not to take responsibility for what went onto my skin daily and thought to myself “I’ll be alright”…as it turned out, I wasn’t “alright”. You are much better off preventing disease rather than trying to cure it once it has happened. YOU are the one that has to take responsibility for your own health because no one else will. I’m not saying go and throw every single beauty product out of your bathroom cupboard right now, I just want you to be more mindful the next time your moisturizer runs out that there are better choices out there…choices that are kinder to your body and gives it a break so that your body can get on with the important stuff like making babies!
Here is a great database which lists approximately 79,000 personal care products and ranks them according to their toxicity. The more toxic and chemically laden a product may be, the higher the score is. You should be looking for a score between 0 – 2 when searching for the least harmful beauty product available. Have a bit of fun and type in a couple of your own beauty products and see what they contain…you may be surprised. Take a look on the left hand side of the website (especially if you have/have had breast cancer) and click on ‘pink ribbon cosmetics’ and educate yourself on ‘pinkwashing’ and how this affects breast cancer.
I walked into LushNZ last week and was impressed by what they believe in and what the Company’s philosophies are. They are in over 45 countries so chances are there is a Lush outlet near you. Here are some of their beliefs which I love:-
- In making effective products from fresh* organic* fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics.
- We believe in buying ingredients only from companies that do not commission tests on animals and in teting our products on humans.
- We invent our own products and fragrances, we make them fresh by hand using little or no preservative or packaging, using only vegetarian ingredients and tell you when they were made.
Remember that YOU have the last say as to what goes onto your body daily, so take some responsibility, educate yourself and give your body the ‘vacation’ that it requires!
Brilliant post! Totally agree and often find myself looking into my pantry and fridge to concoct a face-pack, mask or skin moisturisor out of food I have on hand…eg, face pack made out of honey, yoghurt, oats, avocadoes (whatever!!!)… At least I know what is being absorbed into my skin is edible and not toxic to my body! Perhaps another thing to think about is the chemicals we use to clean our homes… a simple, healthy and effective alternative to household chemical cleaners is a mix of white vinegar, bicarb soda and water… (plus a few drops of lemon or lavender essence to mask the smell!) Again, I feel so much better knowing that my house is not being filled with potentially toxic chemicals, especially with little ones running around! Another thought provoking and inspiring blog Sam!! Love it! xox
Thanks Mills for the wee ‘cleaning recipe’ which is so easy AND cheap!
Agreed – sounds simple, non toxic and cheap. Gotta love that! x
Hi Sam, everything you have written is so true. I have now changed my ‘beauty regime’ with only natural products. At Christmas I put it out there that if anyone wanted to buy me something please either give me a voucher or buy me Envolu Products. I now have a complete set of everything. Makeup all comes from the Body Shop now. I use Baking Soda for cleaning along with the Eco Brand. Dishwashing liquid from that brand is awesome. I’m not totally doing it right but its a start.
Another wee thing too I have found out is Chia Seeds can give you as much omega as fish. I don’t like fishy things so now I have my natural yogurt and chia seeds each day and know I’m having a good amount of omega oils.
PS your blog is amazing. You have helped me so much. Thank you.
Its a pleasure Eileen, I’m just so happy to be providing helpful and useful information and inspiring fellow breast cancer survivors to lead healthier and happier lives through smart eating and living habits. I love chia seeds too and often add them to my morning smoothie for the ‘good fats’. Have you tried any chia pudding recipes, chia seeds make great healthy dessert alternatives. Well done for making those changes to your beauty regime, any change whether it be small or big is going to be positive…small changes are better than nothing at all, you have to start somewhere. Love Sam xx
Great article Sam! Such good points – and unfortunately so true
Love this, Sam. So glad you’re helping so many people to get on the path to CLEAN living!! My skincare stuff now comes from NZ – not great from an air miles perspective, but I love the simple ingredients of Anthropodes. Billy says it smells like i’m putting medicine on my face (lol), but that is just the essential oils. I’ll admit to struggling with shampoos & conditioners. I find that natural stuff = hair like straw
I try to avoid my roots to minimize absorption (its just the environment that its not so cool with – all those chemicals going down the drain).
Baking soda and white vinegar are my cleaning products of choice. Vinegar is also the best fabric softener. LOADS of great tips on Pinterest for those who want to explore further…
Love you girl. Hope NY works out and that you can come and stay with us in Boston for a bit.
If you come across a good antiperspirant – would love to hear more! (I am pretty sure I have tried them all now!)
Thanks Carin my darl! So lovely to hear girls taking positive steps towards their health and wellbeing WITHOUT being faced with a massive wake-up call like I had with my health. For me, I feel that the trick is trying to get people to stand up and listen to sound advice about their health even when they feel like they are healthy…which is how I felt just before I was diagnosed. You don’t need to be sick to be sick if you know what I mean. Well done you, love u loads and would love a visit to Boston someday. My course is through correspondance unfortunately, so will be a while before we get to the USA. Take care and high five to Billy xx PS: I will do some investigating on antiperspirants for you, I have a ‘safe’ one but I’m not sure I like it, so won’t suggest you buy it, ha! PPS: LOVE Antipodes, I have a few of their products.
Hi, I have heard that salt water deodorants are the way to go and available at health stores. It’s next on my list to purchase – my friend here has been using it for years (good old holland and barratt stock it) and she never smells bad!!!
Also, have been spending months investigating all my cosmetics and deciding what to change and what to change to. found this post to be well timed, as i still am not happy with my shampoo and conditioner…. decided to check out Lush’s website here in the UK and found that
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is on their list of ingredients. Now that is one thing that my shampoo doesn’t have and is a no-no ingredient from my understanding. So I’m pretty curious. I’m finding it tough to replace some of my things and have scoured EWG’s website and all the so called “organic” and safe products that are available here are only 1-2 points off my existing stuff. I guess I have a lot more work to do to find something that works and is truely safe! Any tips will be gratefully received on this!
Thanks! xx
Hi Ker, well done you on investigating different types of products to see what works best for you. Yes Lush does have a few nasties in it, but its a good starting point if you are a novice and are used to using supermarket stuff. I see that Jess Ainscough likes Bare Naturals which is Organic try their website http://www.barenaturals.com.au I am also reading a booked called ‘Treasure Yourself’ by Miranda Kerr (the Victoria Secret model). She has her own range of Organic Skincare which you could look into. Her website is http://www.koraorganics.com let me know what you think. I am using a few different brands at the moment, but one of them is called La Mav, I see that this brand is on the Bare Naturals website. I’m sure you would be spoilt for choice in skincare products living in the UK? Its just hard to know what the right one is and to be sure that you are fully informed when buying the product. Good news is that once you settle on a brand that you trust you can stick to it for life! Good luck and please post any findings that you have. xx