If your conventional shampoo, lotion, or makeup goes on smooth, silicones are probably the reason why. These synthetic ingredients are added to skincare products to improve the way they feel on your skin, but they cause enough side effects that I don’t want them anywhere near my products…or my body. Here’s everything you need to know about these common ingredients.
Continue reading Everything You Need to Know About Silicones
If you love the bright, lively aroma of a freshly squeezed lemon, you’ll love verbena essential oil as much as I do! This citrusy oil is one of my go-to ingredients when I want to give one of my skin or haircare products a little boost. But verbena’s aroma is just the beginning. Here’s everything you need to know about this useful essential oil:
Continue reading Everything You Need to Know About Verbena Essential Oil
Rosemary – it’s not just the herb you’ll find next to parsley, sage, and thyme. This aromatic herb is used to create rosemary essential oil, a potent substance with a number of amazing benefits. I love rosemary’s unique aroma – it adds a wonderfully green fragrance to soaps, shampoos, and lotions. But its aromatic uses are just the beginning; this essential oil is packed with benefits.
Continue reading Everything You Need to Know About Rosemary Essential Oil
We all know the unmistakable scent of peppermint. While you might associate this herb’s aroma and taste with the holiday season, it’s been used year round for millennia for its many medicinal and cosmetic benefits. With its comforting fragrance and variety of uses, I find myself adding peppermint essential oil to my products quite often. Here are six reasons why I can’t get enough of this oil:
Who doesn’t love the juicy, citrusy scent of a ripe orange? If you don’t have any fruit on hand, you can capture this unmistakable aroma in the form of orange essential oil. Like many other oils, it contains countless benefits and smells absolutely divine. Here are just a few of the reasons I love using orange essential oil in my products and in my everyday life.
If you’ve ever enjoyed the fresh flavors of Thai or Vietnamese food, you know how delicious lemongrass can be. But its culinary uses are just the beginning. Lemongrass essential oil is one of my favorite oils to use in everyday life and to add to shampoos, soaps, lotions, and more. Here’s why I love this bright, citrusy ingredient.
Continue reading Everything You Need to Know About Lemongrass Essential Oil
Who doesn’t like something colorful? I know I do. Take a look at your shampoos, soaps, lotions, and cosmetics and you’ll see a rainbow of lovely shades. Unfortunately, most manufacturers rely on artificial dyes to fill their products with color. Here’s everything you need to know about artificial colorants, and why they’re worth avoiding wherever you can:
Continue reading Artificial Colorants in Your Cosmetics – Why Synthetic Dyes Aren’t Worth It
Here’s a quick quiz: what used to be a way to control cockroach and lice infestations, and is now in our drinking water? The answer: fluoride.
Fluoride is difficult to avoid. It’s in our water, our juice, our wine and beer, and even in baby formula. While water fluoridation has been banned in most European countries, it’s everywhere in the American food supply. This is extremely troubling, as over-consumption of it has been linked to a number of very serious issues. Here are four of the most worrisome:
Bacteria, mold, and yeast are a fact of life. Sometimes they’re beneficial, but when it comes to health and beauty products? No thank you. Preservatives are a vital part of making sure your lotion, soap, or shampoo lasts long enough for you to use it.
Unfortunately, preservatives are also an area where you can run into trouble if you use conventional products. Take parabens, for example. While this widely used class of preservatives does extend shelf life, it is also associated with a number of troubling health concerns.
There are many nasty ingredients out there, but in this post I want to touch on two that I find particularly bad: Propylene Glycol and Polyethylene Glycol. Otherwise known as PEG and PG, these ingredients are found in your car, in your food, in your pharmaceuticals, and (you guessed it) in your personal care products. All this exposure is bad news if you value your health. Here’s why:
Continue reading Propylene Glycol and Polyethylene Glycol – Ingredients Well Worth Avoiding
