CHEMICAL INFORMATION

Read your labels and make choices. If you cannot pronounce the name of the ingredients it is highly likely that they are derived from a chemistry lab and are as far away as natural as you can get. Some long names are Latin but even these are more like English!

Up to 60 % of whatever you put on your skin will be absorbed into your body and has the potential to affect your health and sense of well being, either negatively or positively. You can choose which, and we hope that the information below will help you to eliminate potentially harmful chemicals from your bathroom shelves and cupboards of your home.

The human race is now polluted with hundreds of industrial chemicals – with little or no understanding of the consequences. Babies are born pre-polluted with as many as 300 industrial chemicals in their bodies when they enter the world. Every year there are thousands of new chemicals being made and used all around us.

We are at a tipping point, where the pollution in people is increasingly associated with a range of serious diseases and conditions from cancer to autism, allergies, ADHD, learning deficits, infertility and birth defects. Yet even as our knowledge about the links between chemical exposure and human disease grows, there is little out there to protect consumers from exposure. Unless you take control, become informed and make choices.

When we shop for products to use on our bodies or around our homes, we assume they are safe adn that they would be tested and harmful chemicals banned but this is not the case. All home and body care products are NOT always safe – and unfortunately manufacturers don’t have to tell us so.

Most of the 25,000 chemicals used in the cosmetics industry have not been tested for long-term toxic effects. In a typical day, you may be exposed to over 200 chemicals, many of which are suspected of causing cancer or upsetting hormones. In the US the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) having carried out tests concluded that ingredients in shampoos, dyes, and other personal care products “may be playing havoc with hormones that control reproduction and development.”

While we are still unable to determine how much harm synthetic chemicals will do to our skin, our body, our health and our environment, we recommend choosing safer more natural alternatives and becoming wise to what you are using. Read more about natural ingredients and their benefits to you, your health and wellbeing.

Chemicals in Body Products to Avoid

Parabens – methyl, butly, prpyl, ethyl
Aluminium
Petrochemicals
Sodium Lauryl Sulphate
Artifical Fragrance
Artificial Colour
Isopropyl Alchohol
Propylene Glycol
PEG
Urea
Triclosan
Oxybenzone
DEA, MEA, TEA

If you wish to find out what is really in your body products visit the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. This is an amazing resource of information and tells you about the cheimcals in more than 25,000 popular products. Smaller New Zealand made products may not have been studied and are not listed but big brand ones are. Take a look. It will open your eyes!