Do you know what's in the cosmetics, cleaners and skin products you use?

Making gifts - homemade soap with organic cotton face cloths.

Recent research by the American organisation Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has shown that women in the US use an average of nine personal care products every day. In those products are over 100 different chemcials.  I'm sure it would be a similar figure for women in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Click here to see more information about that study. 

In another piece of interesting news, Johnson and Johnson have started removing cancer-causing hormones from some of their products and other companies, namely Avon, Estee Lauder, L’Oreal, Procter and Gamble and Unilever have been asked to do the same.

The FDA in America require an assurance from cosmetic companies before they go on sale that the product is safe to use but they aren't allowed to pre-test to confirm that assurance. They rely on the integrity of these companies to sell safe products.  Fragrance is another cause for concern. Fragrance used in room fresheners, cleaning products and cosmetics has been linked to breast cancer. The US Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act allows fragrance ingredients to remain a trade secret and because of that, no one really knows what's in these products.

Making laundry liquid in the kitchen.

 Set up with about six months supply of homemade soap and laundry liquid.

One of the things I wanted to do when I gave up work and started working in my home was to make this place as safe as it could be. I want my entire family, and yours, to be safe and now that we have grandchildren, that decision is even more urgent. I want to live a long and healthy life and I will not jeopardise that by using any of these products now. Skin is the largest organ in our bodies, what you put on it, what touches it and what it absorbs has the potential to harm you. Please be careful. I don't want any of you to become sick or die; I want you to live a long and healthy life too.

I encourage you to check the products you're using. Many companies put their ingredients lists online now. For example, here is the ingredients list for Cold Power with Cuddly, made by Colgate:

Cold Power with Cuddly - Front Loader

Ingredients (INCI Name) Purpose Sodium carbonate Alkalinity agent and cleaning aid Sodium sulfate Processing aid Sodium tridecyl benzene sulfonate Cleaning agent Pentasodium triphosphate Water softener and anti-redeposition agent Sodium aluminosilicate Anti-redeposition agent Bentonite clay Natural softening agent Sodium silicate Agglomerating agent C12-15 Alcohol 8 EO Cleaning agent Sodium anionic terpolymer Processing aid Lauryl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride Cleaning agent Antifoam compound Foam regulating agent CI Flourescent brightener Whitening agent Enzymes Cleaning agent for enzymatic stains Fragrance Pleasant scent Notice the last on the list? Fragrance. Phhhhht.

If you're doing your washing with that product, or any of the others that are similar, you're sleeping on sheets and then wearing clothes that have been washed in all those chemicals. The laundry liquid I use has got four ingredients: water, soap, washing soda and borax. It works as well, if not better than the commercial brands and it's much much cheaper. Here is my laundry liquid recipe and soap recipe. Laundry liquid will take you about 15 mintues to make up and will last a couple of months. Soap will take about 45 minutes of work, spread out over a few hours - it's a weekend job. My recipe for sun infused calendula salve is here.

Calendula salve made with organic calendula petals grown in the backyard.

I tried to find ingredients lists for various bar soap and shower gels but they're not showing them. Hmmmm, I wonder why. Here is one I did find, however, it's Imperial Leather bar soap. My soap recipe has four ingredients, one of them is rain water.

Ingredient	Function
Sodium palmate	Surfactant Emulsifier
Sodium palm kernelate	Surfactant
Aqua	Solvent
Parfum	Fragrance
Sodium chloride
Glycerin	Solvent Moisturizer
Palm kernel acid	Emollient
Tetrasodium EDTA
Tetrasodium etidronate
Benzyl Benzoate	Solvent Fragrance
Eugenol	Fragrance
Coumarin	Fragrance
Linalool	Fragrance
Citronellol	Fragrance
Alpha-isomethyl ionone	Fragrance
Geraniol	Fragrance
CI 77220	Pigment
CI 11680	Pigment
CI 71105	Pigment
CI 74260	Pigment
CI 77891	Pigment Sunscreen

This is important. Even if you think you're bullet-proof, this is worth some of your time to check the soap, shower gel, washing powder or liquid, sun screen, insect repellant and cosmetics you're using. Do some research online into those products. If you can't find anything, email the company and ask.

I would love to leave you with good news but instead I'll leave you with this to read - it's an article about the FDA's rejection of the cosmetic industry's draft legislation. It is dated 6 March 2014.

Part of it: Writing that "the draft industry bill could put Americans at greater risk from cosmetic-related illness and injury than they are today," Taylor expressed he no longer saw common ground with the industry in a 14-page memo that detailed how industry’s proposed changes would weaken the FDA’s already very limited regulatory authority over the safety of cosmetics and personal care products.

Do you think that profits are more important than customers?

♥::♥::♥::♥

Rose is leading a very interesting set of organising challenges over at the forum this month. The current one is: Today is Stop Driving Ourselves Crazy Day. Today we face up to one thing we are doing which is driving us mad and we do something about it. If you have trouble organising yourself or doing what you want to do, have a look at the challenge. It may help get you on track. Just click on the link to go there, if you're not a  member, you can join up free here.