The Guide To Cleaning Up Your Beauty Routine

presents

The

Green Beauty Audit Your guide to cleaning up your beauty routine

by Sara Vartanian, Founder of Green Moms Collective

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How To Ditch The Toxics & Start Your Green Beauty Routine!

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At quick look at your bathroom cupboards and you’ll see how Environmental Defence! discovered that the average Canadian uses more than 15 personal care products with over 100 toxic ingredients before breakfast.1 !

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Consider your morning beauty routine: toothpaste, soap, deodorant, face cream, !! makeup, hair care products, and more. The chemicals in these products can include ! petrochemicals, lead, and triclosan where they end up in our bodies accumulating to ! create our individual toxic body burden.!

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Once they enter your body, the toxic chemicals found in conventional beauty products can harm your health in a variety of ways including disrupting hormones (e.g., mimic or block estrogen), impacting respiratory system (e.g., allergies or asthma), playing havoc with your reproductive system, and the introduction or aggravation of cancer through carcinogenic chemicals.!

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According to Environmental Defence, you should avoid the following ten toxic ingredients2: 1,4-Dioxane, Artificial Musks,Coal Tar Derived Colours, BHA & BHT, Formaldehyde Releasing Agents, Petroleum, Parabens, Phthalates, Silicone Chemicals, and Triclosan!

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Pregnant Or Trying To Conceive?! ! !

Conventional wisdom used to believe that it was just the mothers who were susceptible ! to these chemicals but recent data has shown that babies can be impacted in the womb. !

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In 2013, Environmental Defence Canada released a report called, Pre-Polluted3. They ! tested the umbilical cord blood samples of 8 Canadian newborn babies and what they ! found was disturbing-a total of 137 chemicals that represent common North American t! toxic pollutants that are linked to human health issues. !

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Fetuses grow rapidly and they lack the systems to flush out toxins leaving their body’s ! hormone system more sensitive to toxic exposure. !

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You can see why cleaning up your personal care products is a step towards healthier ! living, especially while pregnant! Not only do the ingredients absorb into our skin, our! developing babies may also absorb them!!

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1

http://environmentaldefence.ca/issues/just-beautiful

2http://environmentaldefence.ca/reports/just-beautiful-personal-care-products-pocket-shopping-guide 3http://environmentaldefence.ca/prepolluted

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Start With A Beauty Product Audit!

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Most of us don’t have the time or the money to upgrade all our beauty products at once.!

The process to ditch toxic beauty products won’t happen overnight but I can help you speed up the process. The first step is to figure out which products you want to change. !

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What do you use most often? It’s the things we do everyday that have the most impact on our health. Maybe you only use eyeshadow a few times a year so you’ll stick with your products but you use moisturizer twice a day. Choose the moisturizer to swap out as it will have more impact on your day-to-day life.!

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Gather the 10-12 items you use most frequently. For me this would be moisturizer, sunscreen, mascara, soap, exfoliating face wash, deodorant, bronzer, lip balm, hair serum, shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste. Give these products an audit to educate yourself on their toxicity and learn which products may need to be upgraded to a more healthful choice. !

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Three Tools To Get Started With Your Audit! ! !

I recommend the following three tools to investigate personal care product ingredients.

You only need to use one but I find having all three is really helpful. Both the EWG database and the Think Dirty app are consistently uploading new products into their bank which means you have a good chance of getting the details on your the products you have in your beauty cabinet!!

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1. Download and print Environmental Defence’s wallet-size green beauty guide4. You can eyeball each of your product’s ingredient list to see if they contain any of the most toxic ten chemicals.!

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2. Get the EWG’s Skin Deep database app5 (or use it on your computer) to help you scan and search products. I have long relied on this database to help me search products toxicity ratings and find better alternatives for clients and myself. It is a comprehensive database detailing and rating the potential health concerns of an item.!

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3. Download the Think Dirty Shop Clean app6. It quickly scans products to give you the low down on their ingredients including how they rate on the “dirty meter”. Any item that comes up a 3 or below is reasonable to keep. An item that rates between 4-6, I’d think about replacing when it runs out. Items rated between 7-10, I’d take the precaution to stop using, and find a replacement for them (especially if pregnant). Think Dirty is my favourite tool because it’s Canadian, and often provides cleaner options of your product right in the same screen. Plus, it’s just so easy to use.!

4http://environmentaldefence.ca/reports/just-beautiful-personal-care-products-pocket-shopping-guide 5http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ 6http://www.thinkdirtyapp.com/

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Make A Better Beauty Shopping List !

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Write down your 10-12 items. Do the audit using one or all of the research tools.

Checkmark whether the item falls under Keep or Upgrade. !

Beauty Products

Keep

Secret Deodorant

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Green Beauty Shopping List ! !

Upgrade

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Print off the last page of this booklet. Write down your beauty products that require upgrading to a better product. Record a green beauty product beside it for swapping. I’ve included a list of beauty brands worth checking at the end to help you start looking. !

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How To Make The Switch To Green Beauty Products!

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Now that you’ve figured out how your beauty products rate it’s time to decide when you will make the change. !

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Pick A Time To Start! !

When the bottle is empty, perhaps? If you want to switch to a better alternative beforehand what will you do with the existing product? You’ve acquired your conventional beauty products over time. Doing the same with your green beauty products is a more sustainable, and financially feasible way to restock your cupboards.!

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Never Throw Out All Your Beauty Products ! !

After completing your beauty audit it can be tempting to stop using them altogether but tossing them into the trash is bad news for our planet. Decide whether you will continue to use each item until empty, pass them onto a friend, or dispose of the beauty product following your city’s household waste guidelines.!

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Be Open To Starting Fresh! !

Since you’re starting fresh with beauty products remember that it may take you awhile to settle on which ones are your favourite and work with your skin. Most of us grew up using conventional beauty products and probably have been buying the same brands since we were teenagers. !

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Be open to trying different items. Look for promotions to explore different brands, and take advantage of the sampling programs many online retailers have. !

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Find a product and/or brand you like, stick with it. Just doing this step measurably reduced my overwhelm! Putting your time into researching eco-beauty products will be well worth it when you discover products that look and feel good. !

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Shop Small! !

The reality is that most green beauty brands that you can feel good about wearing are small businesses. Their natural cosmetics and skin care lines will be carried by your local health and eco-conscientious retailers or sold online via their website shops. If you’re ordering beauty products online, don’t hesitate to send the company an email asking for help choosing a colour or personalized product recommendations. There is a good chance when you email a question, you will be talking with the person who actually made your product. I find the customer service and quick response is one of the best parts of shopping from small businesses!!

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Speak To The Owners! !

Its how I eventually ended up with a natural deodorant that worked for me and didn’t irritate my sensitive skin. Finding a replacement for my conventional product was proving to be difficult. I went through five different products. Then I spoke with Stacey Davis, the owner of Lovefresh. She suggested that I may have sensitivities to baking soda which is a main ingredient in most natural deodorants. I’ve been using her baking-soda free cream deodorant for almost a year. This is the longest time I’ve stuck with a better deodorant because it works. No rashes, no stink!!

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Look For Full Disclosure! !

Don’t shop from brands with something to hide. Green beauty companies are proud of their ingredients and will show you exactly what you’re putting into your body. It’s empowering to be able to decide for yourself if you are comfortable with the ingredient, particularly if you have fragrance sensitivity or a gluten allergy.!

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Know What To Avoid! !

Narrow down your choices by eliminating products which contain toxic ingredients makes shopping for beauty products easier. Don’t feel you need to memorize all the worst offenders. Use the three tools you used for your beauty audit to help you shop well.!

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Be A Greenwashing Detective ! !

Be careful of products with pretty leaves and earthy colours. Watch out for claims of natural or organic without evidence to back it up, like transparency of the ingredients.

Ask yourself if the ingredients are recognizable do they actually come from the earth, like minerals and plants, or whether they are synthetic.!

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A Getting Started Green Beauty Brand Guide !

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I’ve used products from almost all of the below brands on myself or my children. Each brand mentioned on this list is one that I feel comfortable shopping from based on my research and feedback. There are a few brands that I have worked with in the past for compensation and/or product. No payment was received for inclusion on this list. !

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The green beauty brand list is not exhaustive but merely a place to help you get started on your search for green personal care products. There are many great brands out there. Companies do change formulas over time. I recommend you to do your own research, use the tools from the beauty audit, prior to purchasing a product to ensure you are comfortable with the ingredients. !

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Canadian Green Beauty Brands Worth Checking Out! !

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Clinical Luxury by Graydon!

Ella’s Botanicals!

Province Apothecary!

Cocoon Apothecary!

Kaia Naturals!

Lovefresh!

Anointment!

Rocky Mountain Soap Co.!

Causemetics!

Stark Skincare!

Consonant!

Pure+Simple!

Sappho!

Pure Anada!

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100% Pure!

Odacite!

One Love Organics!

Zoe Organics!

Earth Mama Angel Baby!

RMS Beauty!

Ilia!

W3LL People !

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International Beauty Brands Worth Checking Out ! !

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