Toxic Toiletries

Most of us use lots of different toiletries every day of our lives, from deodorants to shampoos, moisturisers to make-up. And most of us don’t give the sheer number of chemicals we are using a second thought. But research shows many of the chemicals included in your every day skin and hair care items are harmful to health, especially in combination with each other inside the body. Part of our job is to detoxify the body and help people limit the number of harmful toxins they take in. This is very easy to do if you swop to non-toxic toiletries and home cleaning ranges.

The chemicals listed below are the main ones to limit. Some are controversial and no product is going to be perfect! Please look at the products you are currently using and next time you run out, swop to a less-toxic version. The chemicals in bold are the most important ones to watch out for.

Alpha Hydroxy Acids Aluminium Ammonium laureth sulphate Ammonium lauryl sulphate Animal fats i.e. tallow Bentonite BHT (butylated hydroxtoulene) Bronopol (or 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-dio) Butyl, Ethyl, Methyl or Propyl Paraben Cocamidopropyl betaine Collagen DEA olet-3 phosphate DEA-cetyl phosphate Diethanolamine (DEA) or anything ending DEA Dioxins DMDM Hydantoin Disodium EDTA Elastin FD&C or D&C (followed by no.) Watch hair dyes and makeup! Flouride Fluorocarbons Formaldehyde Glyceryl Lauride Imidazolidinyl Urea Isopropyl

Kathon CG Lye Methylchloroisothiazolinone Methylisothiazolinone Mineral Oil Monoethanolamine (MEA) or anything ending MEA Padimate – O or Octyl dimethyl PABA Perfumes or Aroma (synthetic) Petrolatum(mineral oil, paraffinum, baby oil, Vaseline) Phenoxyethanol Phenyl Ethyl Alcohol Phthalates Propylene Glycol (PEG) PVP/VA C Quaternium 15 Salicylic Acid Sodium Benzoate Sodium Laurel/ Laureth Sulphate Sorbic Acid Talc (used in large amounts esp. near genitals or inhaled) Timerosol Toluene Triclosan Triethanolamine (TEA) or anything ending TEA

Unfortunately, as you will discover, it is very difficult to find anything on the High Street, in salons or department stores that doesn’t contain quite a few of these harmful chemicals, although the situation is improving.

Beware especially of high-price ranges that don’t give the ingredients, and of those ranges that may contain a couple of organic ingredients and have a pretty picture of a plant on the bottles – invariably they are all the same base with a few nice bits added to them! Organic does NOT mean non-toxic. It should, of course, but it doesn’t always; it usually means a couple of organic herbs or something have been added.

We recommend Weleda, Green People, Annemarie Borlind, Logona and Lavera as excellent ranges. Try to source products that adhere to the following strict guidelines:

• Raw materials obtained from plants and minerals, fair trade if available
• No animal testing or animal-tested ingredients
• No synthetic dyes, fragrances or pertroleum products
• No synthetic preservatives except for those allowed under ethical shopping guidelines
• No radioactive or GM materials, or any sourced from ecologically-unsound sources
• Certified with a trusted body or association eg Soil Association, BDIH in Europe
• Environmentally-friendly manufacture and packaging

These ranges are available from Nutricentre on 0845 602 6744. If you’ve found this factsheet useful, please use my code ZZPUR001 when ordering and I will get a bit of commission for referring you, so we’re all happy! Enjoy. Never go back to putting rubbish stuff on your skin!