Should I be Worried About Ingredients In My Skincare?
When it comes to ingredient avoidance there is a lot to be said. There's the environment to consider and the general quantity of ingredients and chemicals found in our daily skincare products, on food and in household products that we consume, breath and are exposed to on a daily basis.
There’s also the fear element, we are told one ingredient is safe by an authority and unsafe elsewhere, studies can be blown out of proportion and the media can confuse us. It can be very difficult to decipher the truth.
Whilst there's many reasons we don't want certain chemicals washing down the drain after a shower and entering the air whilst sprayed, in this article I want to talk about the environment of the body.
The Effect Artificial Skincare Ingredients Can Have On The Body
Many ingredients and chemicals are dismissed as a cause for concern during testing because they are capable of being broken down by the body and eliminated efficiently. What is often dismissed in these findings, is that the testing only considers one chemical group in an ingredient, or the collective ingredients in one product at a time. One chemical ingredient out of 15-50 ingredients in a typical product, out of the 9 to 15 personal care products used daily (on average), and the 515 chemicals absorbed into our bodies, just in the cosmetic products and perfumes that researchers estimate we are exposed to daily.
Just take that in for a moment, 515 chemicals, that we have voluntarily applied to our face and bodies, just getting ready in the morning. That’s before we’ve eaten breakfast, faced pollution, consumed foods or been exposed to household products containing the same number of chemicals or more, just in one day.
That’s the kind of thing that concerns me. Our bodies have to breakdown and process every single one of those chemicals, and that’s before they have done their basic jobs. Then we add stress which slows down basic functions, lack of sleep, food choices, lifestyle choices, environmental pollutants, household fragrances and products, washing powders and cleaners, food storage products, cigarettes, alcohol, pharmaceutical drugs etc… we wonder why our bodies then stop functioning the way we want them to, or create disease. Those things mentioned are only the half of it. Imagine cleaning a 515 bedroom hotel all before you eat breakfast, then being commanded to clean several hundred more rooms and then being expected to have the energy to carry out basic daily tasks?
Our bodies just weren’t designed to function fully with a bombardment of synthetic chemicals. During the last century we have had a massive upturn in the amount of products and toxins we are exposed to and it's a burden to our detoxification systems.
Many skin conditions, like eczema, can be a sign of a body struggling to eliminate toxins, like our example above, the body has a lot to do. If those elimination pathways like the liver and kidneys become burdened, those toxins need to find a way out, and that can be through the skin.
So what can we do?
Start small and work your way up, looking at things you consume and products you use on a daily basis will make a great start.
Begin with your skincare, there are a large amount of natural products on the market that are effective and an amazing replacement of your old favourites that perhaps contain less favourable ingredients.
For you and your family, look at products like SOS Balm
SOS Balm can replace nappy balm, baby moisturiser, barrier cream, cream or ointments for cuts, scrapes, bruises, rashes and minor burns. It can also replace lip balm, daily moisturiser, deep moisturiser for cracked heels and chapped hands, hand cream, foot cream the list goes on! In one organic, vegan 100% natural product alone, you can replace potentially 8 or more products across the family, losing 120-400 ingredients and approx. 456+ chemicals!
Team SOS Balm with SLS free natural organic soaps, that are suitable for the whole family, organic natural bubble bath like Neil's yard (have you tried making your own natural bath bombs?). Replacing your deodorant with alternatives like Fussy and toothpaste with options like Splat, can see you well on your way to making a massive dent in those numbers!
Not only that, your wallet will feel the benefit too. Less products with more efficient capabilities will streamline your cosmetics cupboard massively and save you money!
To purchase SOS Balm visit here.