Safe Beauty
Great Gifts from Your Kitchen
Published by Jan Norn at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 Jan Norn
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A selection of ‘gift-able’ recipes from Jan’s books,
Kitchen Cosmetics. Busy Bodies and Ageless Allure
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Table of Contents
Morning Dew
The Power of Three
Keep Your Darling Safe
Manna Bath Lotion
Bath Blessings
Salt of the Earth
Flower Misters
Shower Flowers
Burning Questions
Christmas Pot Pourri
Stop! Proceed with Caution
Gifts made with love are always better than the grab-and-go kind from the stores. This is because the makers are gifting their time, creativity and thoughts instead of just spending money. Also, the making is as much fun as the receiving.
Here is a recipe that is simple to make, but it is also versatile, and it requires a little thought when it comes to choosing the right ingredients.
Mid-Winter Melts
3 tablespoons of beeswax
3 tablespoons of sunflower oil
3 tablespoons of grapeseed oil
3 tablespoons of sweet almond oil or emu oil
Dried herbs, marigold petals, chamomile flowers, rose petals or lavender blossoms (optional)
20 drops of essential oil (your choice)
Several small, recycled cat-food cans, cleaned and boiled
An eye dropper
An ice-cube tray, standard size, with two rows of nine cubes each.
Small plastic bags and a few silk flowers.
Prepare clean ice-cube tray by sprinkling dried flowers or herbs in the bottom
Melt beeswax over very low heat, using one of the cat-food cans. When melted, measure three tablespoonfuls into a different can and put the rest aside for another time. Beeswax is incredibly hard to clean off a good pot, so don't go there! Use cans that may be thrown out eventually.
Warm oil in a small pot until it is roughly the same temperature as the melted beeswax. Leave on heat while you mix in melted beeswax.
Now if you want to make a variety of melts, divide the mixture into three or four separate cans, leaving on heat.
Remove cans from heat one at a time and quickly add a few drops of essential oil, then pour into tray before mixture has time to set. Each cube will hold approximately one tablespoonful. Work fast before the oils solidify.
Repeat with each type of melt mixture.
Put finished tray into freezer for about five minutes until melts pop out easily.
Place finished melts in small plastic bags and fasten with a twist-tie and a silk flower. Store in a cool place as melts may melt!
Label with name and ingredients.
To Use: Rub lightly into dry spots on face, hands, body and feet. Body heat will melt the delicate oils and release the aroma and goodness of the essential oils. These oils all have small enough molecules to allow them to penetrate the skin easily, so they are safe to use on faces as well as bodies.
Essential Oil Suggestions (What and Why):
BERGAMOT Up-lifting, antidepressant, wonderful in your bath or massage oil.
CHAMOMILE For dull aches and pains, great for dry, sensitive, winter-chapped skin.
CLARY SAGE Warming, sedative, euphoric. Affects some humans the way catnip affects cats.
EUCALYPTUS Cooling, anti-viral, stimulating to the nervous system. Helps colds and flu.
FRANKINCENSE Deepens breathing, aids concentration. relieves dry skin.
LAVENDER The most versatile of oils. Sedative, kills sharp pain, helps acne and burns, balances all skin types.
MYRRH Cooling, anti-inflammatory, healing. Myrrh and Frankincense were gifts from the Three Wise Men to Baby Jesus, so they would do well on your gift list, too.
ROSE A fovourite for dry, ageing skins. An anti-depressant and, supposedly, a hangover cure!
TEA TREE A powerful germ killer. Stimulates the immune system, treats shock and hysteria.
YLANG YLANG Aphrodisiac, sedative and anti-depressant. Helps to lower blood pressure and soothe PMS. Good for oily skin.
These are just a few of the oils used in aromatherapy. Experiment until you find your favourites. If you are pregnant, check with your aromatherapist before using an Essential Oil. Remember to avoid anything that is not an Essential Oil. If you find bottles that are labelled 'Fragrance Oil', shun them! s
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A Nose to Toes Acidic Lotion
Your skin has a miniscule protective outer layer called the acid mantle. It forms a barrier against bacteria, fungi and the elements, and it helps to prevent moisture loss. Without it, skin would be vulnerable to infection and damage from the outside and to leeching from the inside.
We are inclined to think of skin care only with regards to our faces, but the acid mantle covers the whole of our bodies, including the tricky places like hands, feet and elbows. Healthy skin has an average pH value of between 4.5 and 5.9 depending on which part of the body is being tested (skin areas with a higher moisture content differ from dry areas). The body’s internal pH is close to neutral, in the area of 7.35 to 7.46, but the acid mantle itself usually ranges from 4 to 6.
Why should you care? Because your acid mantle is under constant attack and needs your help to shore up its defenses. This is especially true of exposed areas like faces and hands. Every time you wash your hands or your face with soap, it increases the pH of that area by about 3. That doesn’t sound like much, but remember that pH values increase geometrically by a factor of 10. In other words, a pH of 5 is 10 times more acid than a pH of 6, and a pH of 4 is 100 times more acid than a pH of 6.
In spite of this, washing your hands and face thoroughly with soap is extremely important, essential in fact, if you are to be really clean. Equally important, though, is the next step, replenishing the acid mantle. Skin takes at least two hours to replenish itself after washing, so you must give it instant help.
Most creams and lotions are not acidic enough to be of any real value, so always keep a bottle of witch hazel or hydrosol beside your soap and pat or spray it on right after washing to restore the balance. Another alternative is kombucha tea, which gives you a balance of acids and other essential nutrients. Apply it topically, with a cotton puff, as it does not spray well.
While your skin is still damp, apply the most acidic cream you can find (or make). If you always follow these steps, your skin will never feel tight or dry, as it does if you wash with soap and don’t pH balance afterwards. The same principle applies for men after shaving, and for babies who suffer from diaper rash. Never neglect the ‘acid treatment’ on your hands as well. Restoring the acid mantle is the answer. It’s simple, it’s basic, and it works!
If you are not sure whether the products you are using are sufficiently acidic, check them with litmus paper. You will probably be amazed! After you have tested some commercial products for acid pH, you may wish to make your own cream.
You will need:
4 tbsp. sweet almond oil or 4 tbsp. emu oil
1 whole egg
1 quarter cup yogurt
1 third cup whipping cream
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. pineapple juice
1 tbsp. distilled water
A few drops of your favourite essential oil
Beat eggs into oil.
Add other ingredients slowly in listed order.
Beat on low after each addition.
Pour into small jars and freeze.
Thaw before using. Keep in the fridge.
Use within two weeks after thawing.
Rationale:
Sweet almond oil protects and moisturizes
Emu oil is the closest oil to human sebum and is a magnificent moisturizer and healer.
Eggs and milk products contain a multitude of minerals.
Cream stores amino acids, lipids and vitamins.
Lemon juice balances and tightens skin.
Pineapple juice contains the enzyme bromelain that eats dead skin cells.
Water is the thing your skin craves.
Essential oils have a variety of benefits. Choose one that suits your needs.
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Did you know that when you buy commercial cosmetics, they are formulated to survive for long periods of time on store shelves and your shelves? In other words they contain chemical preservatives. Each product has to contain enough preservative to last for months, and also to control the germs you add when you dip your fingers into it. This gives a brand new twist to ‘preserving your complexion’. Truly, the only safe cosmetics are those that you make yourself, from ingredients that you trust.
Take lip balm. Did you ever wonder why you need to re-apply the stuff every ten minutes? Many lip balms, along with a lot of other ‘moisturizing’ cosmetics are formulated from petroleum products (just like good old Vaseline). These form a moisture barrier on the skin that not only shuts out air, but creates a reverse osmosis effect that actually draws out moisture.
Lip balm is so easy to make and so important in the winter – there is no reason to risk unpleasant side effects. Here is a recipe that is simple enough for even the children to try.
You will need:
Three tablespoons of grapeseed oil.
Three tablespoons of sweet almond oil.
Three tablespoons of sunflower oil.
Three tablespoons of beeswax.
Three drops of lavender or your favourite essential oil.
Melt beeswax over low heat in a clean recycled tin can.
Mix and warm the other oils in a small pot.
Pour beeswax into oils – reheat until thoroughly combined.
Add essential oil.
Pour into molds.
(You can add a little honey to your recipe, but it is difficult to blend without getting it so hot that you kill the enzymes in the honey. I prefer to just smooth a little onto lips before applying lip balm. Honey is very healing).
If your lip balm is softer than you like, simply add a little more beeswax. The mixture may be re-melted as required
Beeswax has a mind of its own and is almost impossible to clean up. It is also difficult to measure until it has melted, so I put a few lumps into my special tin can and melt carefully over low heat (it melts quite quickly if you pop a lid on top of the can). Once melted, it can be measured into the other warm oil, with leftovers being saved for next time right in the can. If it gets stuck on your spoons, etc., dip them into very hot water and use a paper towel to wipe them off.
What to use for molds? Recycled lipstick or lip balm containers, well washed in hot, soapy water. If they are plastic, don’t try to boil them or you may end up with blobs. You can buy new containers from most of the Soap and Cosmetic Supply sites. The plain containers can be decorated with stickers or stars or painted if you are talented, so they make interesting gifts. Filling them is a bit fiddly, but if you take a small, flat container of sand or sawdust and stick the tubes upright in it, this solves the problem.
Lip balm makes a welcome gift for all ages and either sex
***~~~***
I have just been looking through my copy of ‘The Safe Shopper’s Bible’, by Epstein and Steinman. This is a great guide for anyone who wants to avoid exposure to harmful chemicals contained in household products, cosmetics and food. It only includes the most commonly used products, but, of these, I looked up Johnson’s Baby Shampoo (contains fragrance that can cause contact dermatitis and an ingredient called quaternium-15, that can break down to form formaldehyde), Dove Soap ( fragrance and butylated hydroxytuolene - a possible carcinogen), and Kid Care Little Mermaid Mild Formula Bubble Bath ( fragrance, quaternium-15, dietholamine and FD&C Yellow 6 – both possible carcinogens). These ingredients are only potential dangers, but why risk them for our precious babies?
You can make safe baby oil from a tablespoon of marigold petals or elderberry petals, soaked in grapeseed oil for a few days. Strain off the petals and use just the way it is, or soak squares of clean used cotton in it and keep in a lidded jar for non-alcoholic baby wipes.
I have recipes for baby creams in Kitchen Cosmetics, along with baby powder made from rice flower and finely-ground rose petals. Unperfumed homemade soap or a castor oil shampoo bar will clean your darling with no side effects, and a fragrance-free environment will help to protect him or her from allergies or other nasties.
Even essential oils, which can be so beneficial for older children, and for all the rest of us, are better avoided in the first few months of a baby’s life, and also during pregnancy. An aromatherapist explained to me that young babies do not process intense smells properly during the early period of their lives, and it can be very confusing for them to be subjected to this experience. You will read conflicting theories about this, as some aromatherapists maintain that oils are safe if diluted sufficiently. But my feelings are that, since aromatherapy oils have a direct and instant channel to the limbic portion of the brain, we shouldn’t take chances with the thought processes of our wee ones.
The main thing to remember when creating products for baby is to keep them pure, plain and simple.
***~~~***
Not just a floating film, this lotion blends with your bath water and soaks luxuriously into your skin. You will need:
1tablespoon oat flakes
1 tablespoon barley flakes
3 cups water
1/4 cup pure vegetable soap, grated
1 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons liquid lecithin
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
A few drops of your favourite essential oil
Simmer oats and barley in 3 cups water, covered, for 15 minutes. Stir and strain through muslin or an old nylon. Squeeze out as much of the rich, creamy ‘gel’ as possible and stir into liquid. Discard remainder of flakes. Set liquid aside to cool.
Add grated soap to 1 cup water. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
To soap solution, add sunflower oil and liquid lecithin. Simmer and stir until combined. Remove from heat.
When both mixtures are approximately the same temperature (cool enough to put your finger in) beat soap solution on medium for 2 minutes.
Slowly add 1/2 cup of oatmeal solution to the soap mixture while beating on medium speed. When mixture is smooth, reverse and pour slowly back into the rest of the oatmeal solution, continuing to beat until quite cool.
Add your favourite essential oil and pour into pretty bottles. Keep lotion in the fridge and shake before using.
Use about 1/3 cup per bath.
Makes about 3 cups of sensational, soothing lotion.
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Sometimes called 'bath bombs', these are the amazing fragrant little balls that bubble and fizz about in your tub, soothing your skin and softening the water. This basic recipe can be made in many variations.
You will need:
2/3 cup baking soda
1/3 cup citric acid
1/3 cup corn starch
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1/2 tablespoon water
Food colouring
A few drops of essential oil if desired
Flower petals or glitter to decorate
Combine dry ingredients and sieve together until thoroughly blended.
Combine wet ingredients and stir (the oil and water will not blend smoothly, but it will work out alright).
Drizzle wet mix over dry ingredients. Work quickly, as the liquid will cause a reaction to begin. Stir, then use your fingertips and crumble mixture together. It should be crumbly, not solid.
Spoon into small molds (plastic cookie cutters are fine) and pack in tightly with your fingertips. If you are using flowers to decorate, place them at the bottom of your mold and pack mixture around them.
Allow to dry before removing from molds. This may take a few hours, depending on thickness of molds.
Save any crumbs and put in a pretty bottle for extra luxurious bath salts. If you have any breakages while un-molding, crush (put in a plastic bag and crunch with a rolling pin) or crumble into a clear container. This is effective when layered with dried blossoms, sea salt, etc.
Makes three very large, or eight cookie-sized, bath blessings.
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Plinius labeled it ‘the most important remedy for mankind. Salt is a necessity of life. Prized since history began, it was once used instead of money. In Tibet, salt cakes were imprinted with symbols and used for trade, and salt bars were used for money in Ethiopia. The Greeks traded salt for slaves (a good slave was ‘worth his salt’) and the Romans paid their soldiers with salt - ‘solaricum argentum’ – a term that evolved into the word ‘salary’.
We prize it for its ability to bring out the flavour in our food, but we also need it to survive. Being an essential nutrient, it keeps our bodies in balance. In solution, it is readily absorbed through our skins, refreshing and stimulating us in the form of bath salts, soaks or spa treatments.
Salt has powerful cleansing properties. We have all used salt solutions to bathe an infected area, to rinse our mouths, or to gargle for a sore throat. Practitioners of feng shui sprinkle sea salt in a room that needs revitalizing. Once its properties would have been considered magical, but now we know that the cellular structure of salt contains tiny electrical charges called ions. These can be triggered to release energy of a positive kind. This is all a bit confusing, since negative ions are the good guys that produce a positive effect, whereas positive ions are emitted by our various electrical appliances to produce negative energy. The trick is to activate as many negative ions as you can around your living space and make it positive! Salt is good at that.
Of course there are lots of different kinds of salt. The everyday kind we use for table salt may not have as many minerals and trace elements as the sea salt or rock salt that you will find in your health food store. It probably has added iodine and other ingredients to make it flow freely. Sea salt may be a different colour, depending on where it was processed. Although it is considered a healthier alternative, remember that our oceans are becoming increasingly polluted, so it might not be as good a choice as it was fifty years ago. Rock salt, mined from underground deposits, may be our most pristine, as long as it has been processed properly.
Last summer our daughter in Australia sent us some flaky pink salt with a delicate, almost sweet flavour. It was mined from the Murray River basin in New South Wales and was loaded with trace minerals – obviously there was something in it that our bodies craved, because we could have eaten it like candy. Something to stock up on when we head Down Under next year. I suspect that it tastes similar to the famous french Fleur de Sel, prized by gourmet cooks as the ‘champagne of salts’, but I am interested in its cosmetic qualities.
You may have seen the Himalayan Crystallized Salt lamps that are popular this year. They are not only beautiful but beneficial. The salt crystals, having been formed far underground by enormous pressures, are charged with negative ions. Heat from the lamp attracts moisture from the air which causes the ions to be released. Definitely soothing.
Chunks of these crystals are also available, and they make great toothpaste!
Put a couple of inches of crystals in a small glass jar and cover about two-thirds of them with distilled water. When the rocks stop dissolving, the brine is ready to use – put it into a separate bottle and pour a little onto your toothbrush each time you brush your teeth. Forget about chemical toothpastes! The brine is bioenergetic and very cleansing – it is also sterile and will remain stable over time.
It makes a powerful facemask as well, if you mix it with clay. Since the crystals can be reused until they finally dissolve, the brine is cost effective as well as versatile. I’m sure you will think of more uses for it.
***~~~***
So simple to make, and a beneficial addition to your facial routine.
You will need:
A spray mister bottle made of blue, green or amber glass (essential oils will eat plastic)
Distilled water
Essential oil of your choice
Choose your essential oil, being careful to do an allergy test if you have not used it before.
For each tablespoon of distilled water, add 1-2 drops of essential oil.
Put in spray mister and shake well before each use. Use in place of plain distilled water when you do your face-wash routine.
Benefits of Some Essential Oils
Eczema and psoriasis: Bergamot, geranium, patchouli.
Acne: Camphor, cedarwood, clary sage, grapefruit, juniper berry, lavender, lemon, litsea cubeba, niaouli, orange, palmarosa, rose geranium, rosemary, sage, tea tree. Inflamed skin: chamomile, lavender, rose absolute, ylang ylang.
Dry and mature skin: Frankincense, jasmine, myrrh, neroli, rose absolute.
Insect repellent: Basil, cedarwood, citronella, clove leaf, eucalyptus, lavender, lemon, litsea cubeba, rosemary.
Aphrodisiac: Ginger, patchouli, ylang ylang.
If you are pregnant, essential oils are not for you. Use pure, distilled water for hydration.
Synthetically manufactured fragrances are chemical compounds designed to stimulate us. They contain a plethora of toxic ingredients and are a major cause of allergies.
Essential oils should be used with discretion after you have studied their properties. They can be very beneficial, but study their properties before you buy and use them
***~~~***
A few flakes of snow this morning made me realize that Xmas is not far away. It’s time to think about making gifts.
One of my clever daughters-in-law is a canny shopper. She always finds the newest and most interesting things on the market. A couple of weeks ago she phoned to tell me about her latest discovery, a new kind of ‘cold comforter’ called Shower Tablets. These are like very small cookies and they are designed to sit by your feet in the shower and release vapours of menthol, eucalyptus, and camphor for you to breathe when the shower is turned on. This seemed like a good idea and of course I wanted to try one.
I read the ingredients on the box, Adipic Acid, Glucose, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Carbonate and Fragrance. Adipic acid is a kind of carbolic acid used in many types of processed foods to provide tartness, promote gelling and improve quality (I’m not sure how it does this). It is also a component in making plastics and foams. Glucose is a sugar extract, sodium bicarbonate is baking soda and sodium carbonate is washing soda, so there is nothing too threatening there. However the fragrance is on my hit list. Instead of using essential oils for the inhalant, they have opted for fragrance – much cheaper but it has no medicinal effect at all - and there is no way of finding out what it is made from.
All things considered, I thought the idea was great but the product was not for me. Since the ingredients showed some similarity to those in bath bombs and had a fizzy effect like bath bombs, I decided to try a ‘shower’ version of my faithful B.B. recipe, which uses kinder ingredients and real essential oils. Rather than have the B.B. sitting at my feet, I wanted it to hang on the shower head so that it would be diffused by the water. Using eucalyptus oil for cold sufferers is a good plan, but I would like also to try a choice of floral oils for everyday use. If you would like to try it too, here is a basic recipe to experiment with:
You will need:
one quarter cup cornstarch
one quarter cup citric acid
one half cup baking soda
one and a half tablespoons grapeseed oil
one teaspoon water
eight to ten drops essential oil
one ninety-nine cent nylon net scrubby
about two meters of narrow cord or ribbon
three recycled plastic pudding cups
Mix together cornstarch, citric acid and baking soda, combining very thoroughly (buy cornstarch and baking soda very cheaply from the bulk department of your grocery store, citric acid from the drug store)
Sprinkle wet ingredients on top of mixture and combine with your finger tips as though it was pastry.
Divide crumbly mixture into three pudding cups. Press in firmly until it sticks together and allow it to sit overnight until it dries and hardens. Remove from plastic cup.
Snip the thread holding the net scrubby together (the last one I bought had a bonus plastic fish attached – the cats think it is a new breed of mouse and use it for a toy) Once you stretch the net out you should have at least a couple of meters of wavy tubing. Snip it into ruler-length segments.
Slide one of your B.B.s into the middle of a segment of net. Gather the ends of the segment into a fluffy topknot and tie snugly with ribbon or cord – this will give you a net container with a puff of ‘petals’ above it and two long ends of cord. Knot the ends so that they can hang onto your shower head.
Once the Shower Flower is exposed to the stream of water, it will only last for about a minute before disintegrating, so soap yourself first and use the ‘flower’ while you are rinsing, It will soften and perfume the water and soothe your skin as the ingredients are released.
Rationale:
Baking soda to clean and soften water.
Citric acid to help pH balance the skin.
Cornstarch to soothe and soften skin.
Grapeseed oil to protect and penetrate.
Essential oils to heal, tone and rejuvenate.
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I have always been dubious about using incense. There are so many meaningless smells in our lives already that fresh air has long been my favourite. Not that I don’t love to sniff bacon frying or lavender blooming or kitten fur, but the mish-mash of phony smells that assaults us from all angles is tiresome. It seems like overkill to add incense to the list.
Well I was wrong again. The first time I opened a bottle of frankincense essential oil, I was hooked. This was catnip for the soul! Smell frankincense and you will know that your tired old limbic brain is perking up and taking notice. No wonder the stuff has been used in temples and shrines for as long as men have worshipped gods.
Having been hit squarely between the eyes with the focussing and uplifting effect of frankincense, I had to try making it into incense. The recipe is pretty simple but it takes a while to age Do it now if you want it to be ready in time for Christmas - I know it will be worth waiting for and will make a memorable gift. Here is my recipe:
2 parts powdered frankincense
1 part powdered myrrh
1 part powdered lavender blossoms
1 part powdered rose petals
(You can purchase the frankincense and myrrh in powder form but if you want to pulverize your own ‘tears,‘ put them in the freezer for about half an hour first before using a stone mortar and pestle to crush them; the dried blossoms and petals can be pulverized in a blender, but a mortar and pestle does a much better job and can be purchased for around $20.00. If you don’t have one, drop some hints for Christmas.)
Mix the powdered ingredients together, preferably in a mortar and pestle. Put in a sealed ceramic or glass container and age for a few weeks. Now you can do one of two things:
Use the mixture as it is:
You will need a ceramic bowl, half full of sand or clean ashes, with an indentation in the center.
Fill the indentation with bamboo charcoal*, sprinkle a little of your mixture on top and light the charcoal.
This is the oldest, simplest form of incense and has been used on temple braziers since early times.
Make into pellets or sticks:
Soak a half cup of organic dried apricots in sweet red wine and leave overnight.
Drain off wine and drink it.
Mix one part of fruit to every two parts of powdered mixture, mashing small amounts together in a mortar and pestle until it is all blended.
Transfer to a bowl, add a teaspoon of raw honey to every cup of mixture and knead really, really well.
Roll into wee balls or skinny sticks and place on a cardboard flat to dry at room temperature.
Cover with a clean cloth and turn daily for two or three weeks until completely dry.
Burn over bamboo charcoal.
* Bamboo charcoal can be purchased from good garden centres or aquarium supply stores. It is made without saltpetre, a common ingredient in commercially purchased incense. Saltpetre emits harmful vapours when it is burned.
There are a kizillion recipes for making incense but this one gives you a starting point, from which you can be as creative as you like.
***~~~***
Here is another holiday project, fragrant and simple for the young set:
Collect pine needles or snip a spruce bough into small pieces; look outdoors for tiny pine cones, snow-berries, elderberries or mountain ash. Mix together in a pretty bowl.
Add some cinnamon bark or a couple of broken-up cinnamon sticks and sprinkle on a few drops of essential oil ( frankincense or myrrh are appropriate for the season).
Label and wrap as a gift or use for decorations.
Have a safe and happy Christmas!
***~~~***
With Xmas gifts on everyone’s mind, you may have been looking at the seductive ads for cosmetics and perfumes and thinking that some of these pretties would bring joy to the ladies on your list.
Probably they would, but just remember the old saying, “Good things come in small packages – but so does poison!”
The Environmental Working Group is a watchdog organization in the States, and they have recently published their Xmas list of things to avoid in cosmetics. They consider the six most dangerous ingredients to be fragrance, alpha and beta hydroxy acids, parabens (methylparaben, polyparaben), triethanolamine, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate and triclosan (antimicrobial liquid soap).
Here is the lowdown on the black hat brigade:
Fragrance – this is a real stinker! Fragrances are chemical cocktails of mainly synthetic ingredients that may include carcinogens, neurotoxins and phthalates (hormone disrupters). The industry is self-regulated. Formulas are protected under the Trade Secrets Act and more than 80% of the ingredients have not been tested for safety. ‘Fragrance’ is considered an ingredient for labeling purposes, regardless of what is in it. (Do not confuse ‘Essential Oils’ with ‘Fragrance’. They belong to the white hat brigade).
Alpha and Beta Hydroxy Acids are greatly overused. They cause skin peeling, but over-application is responsible for the loss of too many layers of skin. This leaves skin more likely to burn, to age faster and to develop cancers. Use infrequently, if ever, and look for a pH of 3.5 or higher.
Parabens are preservatives. They used to be considered safe but recently have been found to have estrogenic effects that can lead to breast cancer and reproductive abnormalities.
Triethanolamine (TEA) is an alkalizing agent used to adjust pH. It can cause facial dermatitis. May contain nitrosomes (carcinogens) and is a suspected cause of reproductive problems.
Iodopropynyl butylcarbamate has been classified as toxic. There are data gaps in the cosmetic safety assessment of this ingredient, but in larger quantities it is toxic to the liver and to the nervous system.
Triclosan is the stuff in your antibacterial soaps, dishwashing detergent, etc. It helps to create a meaner breed of antibiotic resistant germs. Antibacterial soaps are particularly bad for children, since if kids are kept in a sterile environment they will not develop natural resistance to germs. Triclosan has a high absorption rate – it soaks through your skin fast and can disrupt thyroid and liver functions. It also reacts with chlorine to form chloroform, so don’t use it with chlorinated water. Better still, just don’t use it!
Write these six things down. When you go shopping, check the ingredient lists on your purchases so that you can avoid them. To make it even easier, just cut out this list and carry it in your wallet.
FRAGRANCE.
ALPHA OR BETA HYDROXY.
PARABENS.
TRIETHANOLAMINE.
IODOPROPYLNYL BUTYLCARBARMATE.
TRICLOSAN.
As well as the six nasties, avoid these ingredients in specific cosmetic items: PABA and Padimate-O in sunscreens; Tuolene, Formaldehyde and Dibutyl Phthalate in nail polish; Coumarin and Acetones in sunless tanners; Lactic Acid and Glycolic Acid in anti-aging products; Hydroquinone and Sodium Nitrate in skin lighteners; all dark, permanent hair dyes.
Here are five ways to shop safely, as suggested by E.W.G.:
Buy plain soap with no fragrance, dyes or preservatives.
Don’t trust manufacturers claims. Read the ingredients. Manufacturers don’t have to back up terms like ‘natural’, ‘dermatologist-tested’, or ‘organic’.
Buy products that are fragrance-free.
Avoid products with proprietary ingredients like ‘preservatives’ or ‘colors’.
Simpler is safer. Fewer ingredients mean less risks.
And, at the risk of nagging, here is my suggestion:
Read those labels, please, please, please…
***~~~***
Your own home-made soap and cosmetics make wonderful gifts for your family and friends and open the door to many more creative ideas. All these recipes are flexible, allowing for your own personal touches. If you have trouble finding any of the ingredients, simply mail to jan.n@columbiawireless.ca and I will suggest sources or alternatives for you.
You will find my Bio at Jan Norn's Smashwords Author Profile: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SafeBeauty
For a full list of my books and for lots more information on making your own natural cosmetics and remedies please visit my website at http://www.kitchen-cosmetics.com
Thank you for visiting with me – Jan.