Urban Ecoist

The month of May is a time of renewal; a time of celebration. In the month of May we often revel in the Spring flowers beginning to bud. We’re thankful for the rains that come and wash all the gray of Winter away. We celebrate our Mother’s. Here in the US, we celebrate the fallen soldiers of our many wars (not that they are dead, but the contributions they made to our freedoms) on Memorial Day. Yet, in all of this, we rarely think to celebrate ourselves.

Our days are filled with the trials and tribulations of every day life. We may not all be dealing with cancer or job loss, but there are always more chores to be done, gridlock to sit in, and fewer hours in the day than the list of errands requires. So many of us spend hours getting ready in the morning… putting on our faces so that others will find us attractive, or at least pleasing to look at. We spray ourselves with colognes and perfumes, to make ourselves smell like flowers or spices (or musk.) We wear uncomfortable clothing in the hopes of looking cute, and shoes that cause us foot, leg and back pain. It’s such a hard road we travel.

It is with these morning and evening beautification rituals that I concern myself with today. I’ve been very concerned about all the chemicals we are putting on and in our bodies everyday. Concerned with the falsification found in everyday advertising. Every morning I use a moisturizing shampoo, but my hair remains dry. I also use a strengthening conditioner, but my hair still breaks. What’s the point of all the chemicals if they don’t work? Why do they lie to us?

So, I was doing my typical web research (aka surfing) and came across some interesting information. The folks over at Skin Deep have compiled a list of a lot of the products on the market and their list of ingredients. They’re taken that information and have assigned ratings to the products. A ranking of 0 indicates a lower level of risk than a 10. The scale is 0 to 10. Keep in mind that you can do what you want with this information. Take it to heart if you like, or think everyone’s lying…. it doesn’t matter to me. I think there’s a grain of truth in every lie.

At any rate, many of the products that I’ve made the switch to in the hopes of being better to myself, are really only marginally better than their chemical-laden, un-organically labeled brethren. To help with hair breakage, I was using Nexxus Botanoil, which is touted to have natural botanical oils in it. It ranks in at an 7 for containing products known to be associated with and/or cause cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, and allergies/immunotoxicity. Nature’s Gate Herbal Shampoo (the ‘healthy’ choice I switched to) ranks a 5. One of the lowest ranked products in the shampoo category was Revlon Flex Balsam and Protein Shampoo… Who would have guessed?
Just as a further example to prove my point, several Tom’s of Maine Deodorants rank 5 on the scale while Sure ranks in at 0 and Ban weighs in at 1.

One important thing to keep in mind about this information is the ‘data gap’… that is how much is known about that particular ingredient. One product may rank higher than another because very little safety information is available regarding the ingredients.

Do yourself a favor…. grab a couple of your ‘must-have’ items and look them up on this website. See where they rank. And then see if there is something else on the list that you might could try instead. You are worth it. You owe it to yourself. (And you can thank me later.)

green resources, beautification, cosmetics, cancer, skin