Un-petroleum

I am addicted to Vaseline, aka petroleum jelly.  I have been using it on my lips at night before bed since I was 14 years old.  I have never used an alternative, despite my desire to eliminate all petroleum products from my household, because I don’t like flavor or scents in my nighttime lip balm. [...]

Green You!

Deirdre Imus has written three books in her bestselling Green This! Series.  The first volume is Greening Your Cleaning, an excellent resource on how to clean your home and clothes with fewer chemicals.  The second volume is Growing Up Green, a book that covers plastic baby bottles, vaccines, etc.  Probably my favorite in the series [...]

Support the 2010 Safe Cosmetics Act

If you support the Safe Cosmetics Act, which would expand the FDA’s ability to regulate cosmetic ingredients and require companies to list ALL their ingredients, consider signing this pledge or donating to the EWG.

The Story of Cosmetics

Check out this 7 minute movie about the Story of Cosmetics.

167 chemicals

The average woman exposes herself to 167 on her body every day… so begins a clever two and a half minute video about cosmetics and chemicals.  Even though I try to be a minimalist, I definitely use the average 10-12 personal care and cosmetic products a day.  Here’s my list:  soap, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, [...]

My babies are California Babies

I’m a serious minimalist when it comes to hair and body products for my children.  We use hardly anything to keep them clean, which is really impressive for those that know what a germaphobe I can be.  Other than regular hand-washing with bar soap (no synthetic fragrances or SLS), my children get a bath every [...]

Exfoliation

I enjoy exfoliating my skin.  But lately, this has become more difficult.  For one, I find many ingredients in exfoliating products that I don’t want on my skin (parabens, synthetic fragrances, etc.) and two, many of the products are just so dang expensive!  What’s a girl to do?  Well, I’ve opted for super cheap, but [...]

New cloth diapers

After going through two kids, our cloth diapers are in pretty rough shape.  So we are buying a new stash for baby #3.  Shopping for cloth diapers in 2010 is so different than in 2005!!  I love all the organic cotton options and many diapers are now one-size-fits-most.  Unfortunately, prices have gone up too, but [...]

Lead in lipstick

ALL of the lipsticks the FDA tested in the summer of 2009 contained lead.  100%.  But the FDA says there’s no reason to be concerned.  The upper safety limit for lead in candy set by the FDA is 0.1 ppm.  They found lead in lipstick at levels of 0.09 ppm to 3.06 ppm.  Apparently because [...]

Trying natural deodorant again

A year and a half ago, I tried to stop using antiperspirant.  For about 3 months, I used a natural deodorant made with baking soda.  Unfortunately, I developed some sort of allergic reaction to what I thought was the deodorant and stopped using it.  However, I eventually discovered that my allergy was actually to the [...]