Essential oils and pure, truly natural fragrance are today what organic foods were 25 years ago.  Decades ago, those eating organic foods were thought of as radical, tree-huggers, paying too much for organics for no reason.  A frivolous luxury that wasn’t really necessary.  At least the organic food industry was self-regulated.  Today, the U.S essential oil industry is unregulated – no standards.  A company could include 5% pure essential oil and a chemical filler for the rest and still call it “100% essential oil”.

Greenwashing is when a company uses words like “natural”, “pure” and “green” in products that also contain questionable ingredients, many companies are not even required to disclose all ingredients. For example, one of the most common questions I get is what do I think about Aveda? For a while, it made me uncomfortable to answer specifics about another company’s products because I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.  But this is not about sharing with you what I “feel”, it’s about facts that are written on product labels.  No one can dispute that.  Unfortunately, there are many who are uninformed about what they are consuming. All you have to do is read the labels on your products , look up a few ingredients at www.EWG.org and you’ll have the answer.

A lot of this is a personal process, and not everyone is ready to let go of products, because they have an emotional connection. Often, love is blind.  It may be just a matter of time before you can open your mind to seeing the truth in the labels, and that’s ok.  I see my site as a place to direct you to resources that will answer your questions. It’s up to you to take action.  I have had my share of personal battles over things I was using, but knew they weren’t the best choices. And I haven’t figured it all out,yet. I am still looking at ways to continue to improve, downsize and remove hidden chemicals in our home.   All that said, when you replace chemicals in your personal and home care products, make sure it is with products of quality.  Otherwise you may just be replacing one inferior product for another. Here are some simple steps to take when you’re ready to minimize your consumption of home and personal care items:

1. Clean out the cabinets – just what do you have lurking under the kitchen sink or in the linen closet?  Toss out anything that is expired, broken or leaking. Start a box of products that you do not use that can be disposed of properly at a local waste management facility. Many communities have special collection sites for toxic cleaners, solvents, prescription and over the counter drugs.  DO NOT dump anything down the drain. Antibiotics, drugs and household chemicals dumped down the drain will eventually enter the water supply.

2.  Take inventory of what you have left and plan on using up and donate unopened products you want to get rid of. Start to research what you will replace.

3.  Be authentic  with yourself.  Why do you love that mango body wash or Brazilian scented room spray (who exactly determined what that smells like, anyway?). Are you drawn to the graphics on the labels or was it an ad that first caught your eye? Marketing giants reach us through our senses and an entire industry is built on the Psychology of Scent. Starbucks isn’t a coffee giant by chance, they serve coffee with atmosphere, including sandalwood infused coffee cup insulators. Sandalwood essential oil is an earthy fragrance that has been used to uplift the senses. It’s also an ingredient in perfumes as a musk-like stimulant. If you want to minimize your consumption,take this critical step to realizing why you purchase products so you won’t be tempted to just replace one chemical cocktail for another. When you see advertising for what it is, you can better understand your true needs and desires and make the best choices for what you really need. You’ll naturally reduce your consumption.

4.  Choose healthy alternatives to chemical products. Better yet,  do without when you can.

5.   Enlist your family. Change is never easy, and may be grounds for a mutiny if you instill too many changes, too quickly, without everyone’s enthusiasm. Use this opportunity to have real conversations about what is important in your family.  Lorilee at Loving Simple Living has some great points on minimalism and it’s dynamic in relationships. She also just released her first book, 3-2-1 Stop. Check it out if the concept of minimalism is new to you.

6.   Enjoy the extra space you have and breathe deeply the purer environment you’ll have by eliminating some more chemicals in your home.

What are you eliminating in your home right now? Has it been easy or difficult? I’d love to hear about what you are discovering!

Watch for my upcoming posts for more simple tips to continue creating a Pure Home and Body.

When the study was done in 2007, only 3 lipsticks were found to have more than 2.0 ppm of lead with the highest sample having 3.06 ppm.  The study released in December 2011 found 51 samples over 2.00 ppm with the top offenders having over 7.0 ppm and 14 of the the top tainted samples over 3.0 ppm. These results seem to show the problem getting worse, don’t they?  How long do we play Russian roulette waiting for statistics to come in with adverse effects showing the toxicity of lead in lipstick?  I’m providing you with links to the studies, the results and other information so you can see the data yourself and make informed choices. I am taking this information seriously especially for my growing daughters who will soon want to wear make-up and have already been getting “lipstick” type products from friends.

This evidence is pretty compelling, and for me this subject hits too close to home. Last year I was tested for heavy metals and found to have high concentrations of lead in my system. I’ve had friends ask me where my exposure has come from and I honestly don’t know. I did wear lipsticks for years, some of them brands now shown to be high in lead.  I will never know for sure if the lipsticks I used contributed to my high levels, but I am eliminating any possible sources of lead exposure. Lead toxicity mainly happens by ingestion, do you think that some of your lipstick is being ingested if you wear it while eating? I think the answer is obvious if you have less lipstick on after dinner than when you started. And where does the lipstick go after you’ve kissed someone? I’ll be sharing with you some things I’ve learned on my journey to remove the lead and other heavy metals from my system over the coming months. How do you know if you have lead toxicity in your system? Often the symptoms are vague, especially if the exposure is gradual over months or years. Lead has a half life of 30 years once it reaches the bones. The body identifies lead similar to calcium, so if you are deficient at all in calcium (like pregnant and nursing women) your body is more likely to absorb the lead thinking it might be calcium. This also makes the removal tricky because you want to remove the lead without depleting your body of precious calcium. I am not a doctor and not prescribing treatment for heavy metal removal, I just want to be real with you that these studies and the risks of exposure to lead are real. I am also not making any recommendations for removing heavy metals from your system, I’ll just share some of the things I’ve done while working with a holistic medical doctor.

Would you be comfortable using a product on your skin that you knew had lead in the ingredients? What do you think about the FDA holding out on passing any regulations regarding lead and lipstick?  Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear from you!

In the meantime, if you want to make sure that your lip products are safe, check out www.EWG.org/skindeep/

Another way our bodies eliminate toxins is by sweating.  Anti-perspirant has become such a huge part of the American bathing ritual.  We are terrified of smelling offensive to our neighbors.  Entire industries have been built to support this.  But did you know the more toxins you have in your body the more offensive your sweat will be?  Obviously that would not be a good marketing angle for fast food places.  Because you are suppose to be eliminating toxins via sweat, it is very dangerous to stop this process with Anti-perspirants.  The first is obvious because you are holding toxins into the body when they are trying to get out.  The second reason is most anti-perspirants and many deodorants have aluminum in them.  Think about this, Parkinson’s & Alzheimer’s patients have unusually high concentrations of ALUMINUM in their brains – can aluminum applied to the underarms day after day make it’s way to your brain?  I’m not a chemist, but to me that coincidence is too close for comfort.  I have not used anti-perspirant for years and I still have friends (or they are being nice and not mentioning my ‘aroma’ – actually I have had individuals tell me I smell like essential oils, and sometimes it’s on days when I have not applied any – they seem to be a part of me – I’d rather be detoxifying “essential oils” from my body than a double cheeseburger or propylene glycol!)

So if you feel more comfortable applying something under the arms for odor control, look for an aluminum free deodorant, and keep that area clean so the bacteria does not begin to grow.  I have a friend who swears by Naturally Yours crystal roll on.  Young Living has a couple of great deodorants that are loaded with essential oils.  Or make your own combination.  I’ve read research on the protection Lavender, Frankincense and Geranium therapeutic grade oils offer to breast tissue.

Mix together these Young Living Therapeutic grade oils: 20 drops Lavender, 5 drops Frankincense & 10 drops Geranium. Keep in a small dark bottle and apply a couple of drops to each underarm to combat odor and to cleanse the lymph system.