• Sponsors







  • Recommended Reading


    Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style

    Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business

    The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy

    Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence

    Living Green: A Practical Guide to Simple Sustainability

    Ben Jerrys Double Dip: How to Run a Values Led Business and Make Money Too













  • Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge







    play & feed a hungry person!



    Craft Revolution



    As Seen on DelightfulBlogs.com

    Independent Fashion Bloggers

    Kiva - loans that change lives

    Green Web Hosting! This site hosted by DreamHost.

    GoodSearch: You Search...We Give!

    Levees.org

    Gigoit :: Choose to reuse









    Blog Carnival Index - browse the archives

    Find Blogs in the Blog Directory



« Dressed by Danni Halterneck Hoodie
Shop for the Cure at Pink at the Plaza »

Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database

Ever since reading Living Green, I’ve been much more focused on trying to eliminate harmful chemicals from my life, especially in the area of makeup and body products. As the author pointed out, skin is the body’s largest organ, and why put something on your skin that you wouldn’t want to eat or can’t pronounce?

With so many indie bath & body companies out there, on Etsy and the rest of the web, it’s fairly straightforward to find soaps and lotions that are all natural and don’t include harmful chemicals. Some things are a little trickier… makeup for instance. Coffin Color mineral makeup eyeshadowThere are some fab mineral makeup people on Etsy that I really want to try - I’ve been keeping an eye on both Mixology Makeup and Coffin Color for eyeshadow. The thing that’s really been bugging me lately is mascara. I haven’t exactly seen an indie solution to that one yet. Ideal Bite has a tip dedicated to non-toxic mascaras, but I also just discovered this other great site through one of their recent tips: Skin Deep, the cosmetic safety database.

crystal deodorantThis incredible site was launched in 2004 and gives easy to navigate safety ratings for almost a quarter of the beauty & body products on the market — over 27,000 products with over 7,000 ingredients. I recently switched to Crystal deodorant, shortly after finishing reading Living Green. I just compared my old antiperspirant-deodorant, Dove, with the new deodorant on the Skin Deep list. On a safety rating scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest hazard, Dove has a rating of 6 and my new Crystal deodorant has a 0 rating. Considering that many antiperspirant-deodorants have been linked with breast cancer, I’m really glad I decided to make this switch. I’ve been really happy so far too. Granted, the real test will be the sweltering summer months, but so far, so good.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Posted by MissMalaprop on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 6:11 am.

9 Responses to “Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database”

I too read the articles in Living Green. I have since switched to NVEY makeup, which is a company out of Australia. They have a moisturizing mascara that I love…it tends to come off under the eyes a bit by the end of the day, but wipes off easily, and is still ok to re-apply! I also love their eyeshadow compacts…lots of colors to choose from. As far as bath items, I recently ordered organic green tea and citrus body wash from “naturalmomma” on etsy and I love it!!! Good luck with your change over to green products!

Left by Kristen on April 4th, 2008

I love this site too. I find it interesting that some organic products rate worse than some products that aren’t trying to be green.

Left by jeneflower on April 12th, 2008

Hey, here are some products to look into:
Aveda Mascara Plus Rose,Dr.Hauschka Mascara Intermezzo, Ere Perez Natural Mascara, and Miessence Organic Mascara. Hope you find your perfect glass slipper of a mascara soon! :)

Left by Amanda on April 13th, 2008

So cool! I recently switched my deodorant as well to a natural line. Where do you purchase organic/non-toxic makeup? Any recommendations?

Thanks for the post!
Heather

Left by Heather Strang on April 17th, 2008

Kristen & Amanda: thanks for the recommendations. I’ll have to track down and try some of those mascaras soon.

jeneflower: that is crazy… the thing that interest me is when things claim to be hypoallergenic on the packaging but when you actually read their ingredients they have all sorts of bad stuff in them.

Heather: The above commenters had some great recommendations… I also find that there are a lot of people on Etsy who sell all natural beauty products and mineral makeups which usually don’t have toxins in them.

Left by MissMalaprop on April 17th, 2008

Hi,
Just a note about the crystal deodorant. It may not keep you dry. It does cover your scent pretty well, but you will wonder if it’s working when you feel all wet under the arms.
I love using it - it just takes awhile to get used to it.
V.

Left by V. on April 19th, 2008

V, that’s a good point. So many of us have become accustomed to almost all deodorants also containing antiperspirants as well that we expect all deodorants to keep us dry too. The Crystal deodorant doesn’t claim to be an antiperspirant though, and for me that’s a positive thing. Antiperspirants prevent your body from doing what’s natural and sweating out toxins in your system. I’ve personally made the decision that I’d rather get a little sweaty now and then than have toxic buildups in my bloodstream. It does take some getting used to, though, after using antiperspirant-deodorant for so long.

Left by MissMalaprop on April 19th, 2008

I could have written that post b/c I’m in a similar place, learning more about toxins and living healthfully (as well as more ecofriendly). Thanks for the tip about the book - I’m going to check it out. I recently tried out a block deodorant from Lush along with powder (to control dryness). So, far so good. Is the crystal really working? Does it control moisture?

Left by buttercup on April 28th, 2008

I used one of the Lush deodorants for awhile too, but whichever one I chose smelled a little too patchouli-hippie for my taste. I like the crystal deodorant because it doesn’t have it’s own smell. No, it doesn’t really control moisture but it doesn’t claim to and it’s not meant to.

Left by MissMalaprop on April 29th, 2008

Something to say?