Hazardous Beauty Products?

Ever since being pregnant with Christian I have been more attuned to the food I eat, items I own, amount of garbage accumulated from packaging, use of chemicals, and even the products I use plus more. I'm still not perfect, not even close, but I've been on a mission to start becoming more of global citizen by being more natural and Earth friendly conscious. We cloth diaper Christian, we have always recycled, we use known and proven natural remedies before jumping straight to medicines, I have stuck to using no bottled water this year to cut back on waste (with an except of vacationing in Mexico for 5 days), and the list goes on.

Cut to the products we use every day. How safe are they really? What kind of ingredients are in the every day products we use like toothpaste, deodorant and even food? (hint: chemicals, pesticides and GMOs!) How do those ingredients affect our future bodies and health? Children and population? Animals? Earth? Many studies have proven that ingredients and chemicals found in the products we use and eat are loaded with carcinogenics (cancer causing agents) such as parabens (found in lotions, shampoos etc.), formaldehyde (found in cosmetics), parfum (fragrances), petrolatum (found in moisturizers, lip balms etc.), and phthalates (found in lotions, deodorants etc.). Not to mention that toxins from GMOs (like pesticides) have been found in our blood and even fetuses, causes gluten disorders, and can alter our bodies chemistry. SIGN ME OUT!

Don't get me wrong, medicines in particular, are great especially when they are necessary, like after a surgery. But if I have a headache, minor aches and pains, fever etc. I'd rather take (or even give to my child) a natural remedy first. It is the healthiest option for our bodies. For example, relieve a headache or fever by using a few drops of peppermint oil, or use Neem cream (an herb that's antiseptic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and immune enhancing properties) for a diaper rash.

I have never been one to use a lot of products, especially beauty products. But the ones I do use I have been pretty much set on since they have been tried and true for me. I'm sure I've got some hazardous products that I'm not even aware of. There are items (lip balm, lotion, deodorant, toothpaste etc.) that I use on a regular basis, that I wanted to check out. I'm already into tons of other natural stuff, why not check out natural beauty products?

After subscribing to a new YouTube channel, Beauty Nature's Way, (her other channel, Naturally Thrifty Mom, is my favorite mom channel) I found out about a website that rates products' toxicity based on their ingredients. 

Enter the Environment Working Group.

Needless to say, after I found out how easy it was to rate your products, I went straight to my bathroom, grabbed some items and plugged them in to see what they would rate. 

EWG Ratings
0-2/green= low hazard
3-6/yellow= moderate hazard
7-10/red= high hazard
*They show an exploded view of all the ingredients in the products and what each of them rates, then give an overall rating for the product.
  
Here's what some of my products rated:
Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion- 2
Blistex Lip Balm, SPF 15- 5, yikes
Dove soap- 2
MAC eye shadows & lipstick- not rated :o(
Neutrogena Deep Clean Cream Cleanser- 5, ugggh
Tarte Smooth Operator Foundation (tinted moisturizer)- Agent 04- 3

Like I thought, there were a few items I use that were considered moderately hazardous. Ekk! I'm going to start diving into natural products and see where it takes me! I'm also thinking this will be added to my 30 while 30 list.

Natural Products I'd like to try:
-Tarte Lights Camera Lashes Waterproof Inner Rim Liner
-Tarte Glamazon Pure Performance 12-Hour Lipstick in Fierce 
-Physicians Formula Organic Wear 100% Natural Origin CC Curl + Care Mascara 
-Physicians Formula Organic Wear CC Cream in Light/ Medium
-Caudalie’s Beauty Elixir
-100 %s Pure Fruit Pigmented Brightening Concealer
-Anti-Bacteria Wood Pulp Blotting Papers
-Physicans Formula Natural Wear Bronzer
-100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Eye Shadow
-100% Pure Organic Mint Lip balm


How do your products rate? Anything really surprising?

BONUS
Another fellow advocate for natural beauty products and way of living is actress Shailene Woodley! I have so enjoyed reading and watching her interviews, due to her new movies Divergent and The Fault in our Stars. She has a lot of knowledge in this area since studying many indigenous cultures and herbalism. But not only that, she's also a rewilder in the sense that she collects her own spring water and forgers for food. A little more extreme than me, but oh so interesting to listen to and learn about!