When you look at the label of an average bath product, you'll see loads of chemicals which you probably can't pronounce, and the very innocent sounding ingredient, "Fragrance." I'm trying to avoid eating foods with ingredients that don't instantly evoke images of food in my head (like dextrin, polysorbate, and red 40, among many others) because it isn't good for my body. As Stephanie Tourles, the author of Organic Body Care Recipes points out in her introduction, we absorb both chemicals and nutrients through our skin as well as through our digestive system. By using products that are full of beneficial plant-based ingredients, we absorb the good and avoid the bad. There is a brief section in the book that talks about common chemicals in personal care products that are harmful. Through some research of my own, I have also learned that companies are not required to disclose information about what they put in fragrances. The article I linked to says,
"Fragrance secrecy is legal due to a giant loophole in the Federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act of 1973, which requires companies to list cosmetics ingredients on the product labels but explicitly exempts fragrance. By taking advantage of this loophole, the cosmetics industry has kept the public in the dark about the ingredients in fragrance, even those that present potential health risks or build up in people’s bodies."
I don't know about you, but I prefer to know exactly what I'm putting into my body, whether it's through my skin or my mouth. Organic Body Care Recipes is a wonderful place to start. It's a comprehensive recipe book for personal care products, ranging from skin and hair care to aphrodisiacs. Tourles gives plenty of information about the health benefits of ingredients, what to look for when buying them, and what tools you need to create your own products. She also helps you to understand what kind of skin and hair you have and which recipes work for which types.
I have tried quite a few of the recipes in the book and have been thrilled with every one of them. Some of them are so simple and effective, you'll wonder why you ever paid for over-priced store-bought products at all. For example, her "Nighttime Eye Moisturizer" recipe is 1/4 teaspoon of oil (she lists several acceptable varieties - I use jojoba, but you could also use extra virgin olive oil). That's it! Just dab the oil around your eye area, and you're good to go. Of course, some of the recipes require more work, and some take a long time to prepare, but it's satisfying and fun to make your own products, especially when you know exactly what's in it and where everything came from.
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As part of my detox diet last year, I hit upon the idea of using salt for washing my skin, instead of soap. It works better than soap, costs almost nothing, and I know exactly what's being absorbed through my skin... had to cut down on salt in my food, however.
ReplyDeleteI would think that using salt would be mildly irritating and drying to the skin. It sounds like an interesting substitute, though. It's cool that it works for you!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I've been wanting to make my own body care products for a while. I wash my hair with Baking Soda. I use salt scrubs too. . . Sugar if the salt is too irritating.
ReplyDeleteYo Kelley... how do you wash your hair with baking soda? I tried it once, and it dried my scalp out pretty bad. Maybe I had too much of it in with the water I mixed it up in.
ReplyDeleteAnd the salt doesn't irritate or dry my skin, as long as I don't rub very hard with it, and I also moisturize afterwards. I want to figure out a homemade moisturizer... using Shikai Borage Dry Skin Therapy kind, which I love. But I've been wondering about olive oil or something.
Gotta get that book!
Hi Kelley!
ReplyDeleteThey have a really interesting hair wash that uses aryuvedic herbs. It works wonderfully, but it leaves a mess in the shower (I haven't figured out yet how to deal with that.)
A friend of mine uses olive oil religiously as a moisturizer. For using just a plain oil as a moisturizer, I prefer jojoba oil (even though technically it's a wax) because it doesn't smell like dinner, and chemically it's the most similar oil to sebum, which is the oil we produce naturally. It also absorbs quickly, so you're not left with an oily residue on your skin. The book does have fancier moisturizers as well if you're interested in making them.