Avoid Toxic Ingredients when Coloring Your Eggs

Coloring Easter Eggs? What You Need to Know:

If you celebrate Easter and have young children you have probably grabbed a package of egg dye to color eggs with. toxic dyes

What’s really in that egg color aside vinegar?

According to packaging:

Yellow #5-while banned in Austria and Norway we still use it in the USA. In 2013 food was required to add a label suggesting it could cause allergic reactions and asthma. It has been linked to migraines, blurred vision, fatigue and anxiety.

Blue #1-has shown in studies to suggest kidney tumors in mice and may cause cancer.

Blue #2-has shown an incidence of tumors in and brain gliomas in rats. It is not recommended to be used in food

Red #3-has shown to cause DNA damage in human liver cells. It has been found to interfere with thyroid function and cause hyperactivity.  Red number 3 has also shown to induce cancer. It was almost banned by the FDA in 1985 but lost out to industry pressure. In 1990 it was banned in skin care products but is still allowed in food (Logical?)

Yellow #6-has caused adrenal tumors in animals.

Red #40-has shown to be damaging to the DNA in mice, may contain contaminants that contribute to cancer in humans and has been linked to hyperactivity.

Since anything absorbed onto your skin goes into your blood stream that means you are putting these ingredients into your body. If you are actually eating the eggs after coloring them with these kits…I wouldn’t!

Is there a solution?

Of course! It will take a few more minutes than dumping vinegar in a cup with a tablet but reading the risks-I will take the few extra minutes! http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-vibrant-naturally-dyed-easter-eggs-holiday-projects-from-the-kitchn-112957

Toxic Dyes


 

Wrinkle Remover Toxins

The last month has been a focus on laundry detergents and stain removers. It seemed like a good time to add in wrinkle remover. My Wrinkle Remover Toxinshusband used to keep several bottles around. My guess is before I came along folding wasn’t a priority so even t-shirts needed some love before wearing.  Several years ago when we eliminated toxin by toxin in our home this one had to go.

As you know from a previous blog post fabric softeners are very toxic.

Alpha Terpineol: Known to cause damage to the central nervous system as well as respiratory problems

Camphor:  Can cause disorders in the central nervous system.

Chloroform: A neurotoxic carcinogen

Benzyl Acetate: linked to pancreatic cancer

Benyl Alcohol:  Can irritate the respiratory tract

Ethanol:  Known to cause central nervous system disorders

Ethyl Acetate: Listed on the EPA’s “hazardous waste” list

Fragrance: A combination of any number of over 3,000 ingredients, many never tested for safety. Many include Plthalates.

Limonene: An eye irritant and known carcinogen

Linalool: Also known to cause central nervous system disorders

After researching I couldn’t find a safe store bought option. I also found the majority of the DIY options contained a store bought (unsafe)fabric softener. While that is great if you are looking to save money, it is not helpful at all if you are looking to eliminate toxins.

I have found several variations of a non-toxic DIY wrinkle remover. I have put them to the test.  It’s not perfect.  I would say it’s 30-40% effective. It is helpful in a pinch so we have a bottle mixed up. The easiest solution? Fold your clothing neatly after the dryer or pull out your iron for a few.

Recipe:

1 Cup of distilled water

1 Cup of white vinegar

10 drops of essential oil (Peppermint recommended /product/peppermint-organic-essential-oil/)

Store in spray bottle. Spray in a sweeping motion and hang to dry.

Wrinkle Remover Toxins


 

DIY Non-Toxic Stain Remover

Over the past few weeks I replayed my journey in research in finding a laundry detergent that actually worked and wasn’t bringing non-toxic stain removertoxins into my home. It was by far one of the hardest products to find a worthy replacement for so hopefully I helped you skip some of the legwork.

Finding a good stain remover was slightly easier. I did try out several “natural” ones but they didn’t seem to actually work.

What’s in your average stain remover?

Many contain a petroleum base. We covered petroleum a few weeks back so you know that it is not biodegradable and non-sustainable.

Benzene, Toluene, Xylene: They are all neurotoxins that can do damage to the central nervous system.

Monoethanolamine: It can damage the liver, kidney, reproductive and central nervous systems.

Methylene chloride is a carcinogen and a neurotoxin that can also cause skin irritations, liver and brain damage as well reproductive issues.

Parabens are included in different versions which are known hormone disrupters. Some are carcinogenic.

Sodium Hypochlorite is a neurotoxin, liver damage and respiratory irritant.

My youngest gets dirty. He drinks a smoothie several times a day to get his special vitamins and supplements into him. Blueberries hide the taste of everything-but they also stain. We needed something that worked. I did not create this recipe. I have seen countless variations online so I am not sure where this one originated but it has been my go to:

Recipe:

1.5c water

¼ c Liquid castile soap

¼c vegetable glycerin

2TBSP baking soda

15 drops of lemon essential oil /product/lemon-essential-oil/

Note: You MUST use a stainless steel or glass spray bottle when adding a citrus essential oil. Plastic will not hold up.

non-toxic stain remover


 

DIY Laundry Detergent

Is Homemade Laundry Detergent really the answer?

 

I love homemade. You know what you are getting. You can skip the toxins and save money. A winning situation-unless of course you DIY Laundry Detergentare talking about laundry detergent.

 

Last week I began addressing laundry detergent at the request of many. In my quest for looking for a truly safe but effective laundry detergent I tried making my own several years ago. My son immediately had a reaction. Why? Borax.

Borax has sound its way into a lot of homemade “nontoxic” detergent recipes. Borax scores a 6 on the EWG ingredient toxic rating. Although “natural occurring” it can cause organ system toxicity and is considered a moderate hazard. My son, who was about a year at the time, broke out in a rash so I discontinued using it.

 

I tried other detergents (including an essential oil company one I wanted to love but it just was not getting my clothes clean and I could feel a residue on them. Later, still researching, I tried another powder form homemade detergent (no borax included). It definitely worked better than the detergent from the essential oil company I had been using since there was a visible brightness in my towels I hadn’t realized had been missing. Unfortunately it still didn’t seem to be getting the job done 100%. Doing yet again more research I found a few interesting posts:

 

The full article may be read here:

http://butterbeliever.com/homemade-laundry-detergent-soap-diy/

Some highlights:

-Soap residue in your washing machine can cause damage. Machines are designed to use detergents NOT soaps. (Most home made are made with castile soap of one form or another)

-Soap residue gets stuck to your clothing trapping dirt, and bacteria.

-Fabrics are not effectively cleaned by soaps unless you were applying elbow grease and friction like back in the day J

-Most homemade recipes contain mostly water softeners such as borax, baking soda and washing soda) they do not actually get your clothes clean.

Then there is this…people who used homemade detergent for a period of time then stripped the “clean” laundry and this was the water left behind.

http://www.fortheloveofclean.com/laundry-love/the-bad-the-worse-and-the-ugly/testimonials-from-former-users-of-homemade-soap-photo-gallery/

 

I know a lot of you are loving your essential oil based laundry detergent or your homemade laundry detergent but it may be wise to put it to your own test. The link below gives instructions on how to “strip” your clean laundry to see what’s really left behind. If it’s really working you should get great results to share!

 

http://www.fortheloveofclean.com/laundry-love/special/strip-deep-clean-or-sanitize/strip/

DIY Laundry Detergent


 

A Safer DIY Hairspray

Toxins in hairspray accumulate over time, instead create your own!

Luckily the 80’s are behind us, so we use less hairspray. But it’s important to think about what is in it and read your labels wisely. In the 70’s hairspray included an ingredient linked to liver cancer in humans (vinyl chloride). Despite awareness it was not removed from the market for 10 years.  Hairspray stillToxins in Hairspray includes many other ingredients that “may or may not” contain cancer-causing properties.

What to avoid?

Some of the ingredients you want to avoid are aerosol propellants, alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone plastic (a carcinogen), formaldehyde and fragrance.  Fragrance itself can contain any number of thousands of ingred
ients in that one trade protected word.

Aside ingredients you are applying to your head there are the ingredients you are inhaling when applying. Inhalation of denatured alcohol and hydro fluorocarbons can cause breathing difficulty, low blood pressure, skin, eye and lung irritation.

Environmental Concerns?

Moving on from immediate health dangers is the environmental issue. Hairspray is considered the most dangerous beauty product on the market.  Hairspray contains so many volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) that can harm the ozone layer, which protects the Earth from harmful UV radiation.

What can you do?

The easiest thing to do is swap any aerosols you may have. We don’t use a lot of hair spray at my house so I have not tried these first hand but there are brands that score low on the skin deep website making them much safer than others.  https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/browse/hair+spray/

If you are ambitious you can make your own! I was going to try this recipe out for my daughters last dance recital but in the end I didn’t need to spray her hair. I have talked to people who have tried this one with much success!

1 Cup – Filtered Water

4 TSP – Sugar

2 Drops – Geranium Essential Oil, Lavender Essential Oil, and Rosemary Essential Oil.

 

  • Heat the water and dissolve the sugar. Once your solution has cooled, add the three essential oils and store in a spray bottle.

 

Baby Powder Toxins

Yes, Baby Powder contains Toxins!

It was shocking news several months ago when a judge had found a well-known company guilty of Baby Powdercausing a 49-year-old woman’s fatal ovarian cancer. The cancer was linked to her daily use of baby powder. There was a brief panic and shock, and then most people seemed to forget and the same baby powder still sits on shelves today, and used by many.

What’s the situation?  Why is that same powder sitting on popular store shelves with an unchanged formulation?

There is still a debate, that has been taking place since 1971, over whether or not there is a link between talc and cancer. Despite various studies, a concrete link has been hard to find.  A variety of studies that do in fact show an increased risk, but never a double blind study to eliminate other possible factors.  Cancer links aside-it has been proven that if the powders are used on sanitary pads or in the genital area, that the particles have been found inside the body within 30 minutes.

What is in baby powder?

Most baby powders contain two ingredients: Talc powder and fragrance. Both of those ingredients are considered toxic.  (link: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/talcum-powder-and-cancer ) Many Talcum powder suppliers added warnings to their products a decade ago. Surgical gloves have stopped being “dusted” with it. Baby Powders have not yet followed suit. Unfortunately sometimes it takes too much time for studies and safety regulations to catch up. Remember when everyone wanted antibacterial soap? Now we know better, but are still awaiting it’s complete removal from the store shelves and company formulations.

Do we need baby powder?

You won’t find any in my house these days, but if you want an alternative there are plenty! An easy, cheaper and safer alternative:

Arrowroot Powder.

Add a few drops of Lavender Essential Oil 

Store in a jar with a shaker top out of reach of children.

(Inhaling powder is dangerous no matter the type!)


 

Hand Sanitizer Toxins

Toxins in Hand Sanitizers Create a Bigger Problem

The crisp fall weather means those first colds and the paranoia of germs. Hand sanitizer is everywhere! We want to stay healthy and prevent the spreading of germs but is coating our hands in hand sanitizer actually Toxins in Hand Santizerthe answer?  Personally I stay away from them. I am blessed with a decent immune system, built on four kids worth of germs and having taught preschool for 19 years.

Having searched high and low, I can’t find a single one that contains NO sketchy ingredients. Even those on the safer end of the EWG rating scale, all include some less than perfect ingredients.  I find very few situations where there is no place to wash my hands or a nice scrub with the kids wet wipes won’t accomplish enough for me to get by. Since that is not the case for everyone, let’s look at the best possible scenarios.


What to avoid

First and foremost avoid Triclosan. The FDA has recently banned 19 ingredients, including Tricolsan however the new regulations do not include hand sanitizers or wipes. Starting  January 2017 it is banned in Minnesota products. It HAS been proven to cause thyroid and hormone disruption in animals. A major pitfall is that it takes 1 minute for Triclosan to kill germs. Most people do not wash their hands or use hand sanitizer for an entire minute so the effectiveness has not quite weighed in.

Ethyl Alcohol: This is what kills the germs. It also enhances the absorption into the skin of other chemicals. (So take note if you are using one that contains Triclosan). Unfortunately for your skin it also dries out the natural oils. Making your skin dry enough to have cracks would increase the ability of germs to get in. An alarming observation? Adults have shown to have alcohol in their blood stream after using large amounts of hand sanitizer. Children have never been tested.

Isopropyl alcohol: This is a known neurotoxin with a 4 rating on the EWG site.

Fragrance: Fragrance is that one tiny word that may contain any of up to over 3,000 ingredients including phthalates. Many are toxic and have never been tested for safety. (Essential oils will be listed as essential oils, not as fragrance) Fragrances rate an 8 out of 10 on the toxic scale!

Amino methyl propanol: Shown to be an endocrine disruptor and having respiratory effects.

Tocopheryl acetate. This is a tricky one for consumers. Tocopheryl is Vitamin E. However-this ingredient is vitamin E with an added acetate group now making it a 4 on the toxicity scale and certainly not as natural as vitamin E.

Propylene glycol: An ingredient found in antifreeze, processed foods, and cosmetics. It can be irritating to the lungs, skin and eyes.


Solutions

For my family, I opt for washing hands when possible as a first choice. A second choice is pulling out the water wipes (at least we are getting the dirt off right?) Last choice when needed is my DIY hand sanitizer.

Disclaimers:  Judgment call: If we are at the local farm and there is no running water I will opt for my hand sanitizer over theirs before we eat. If my child were sick in the hospital I would likely take my chances with the toxins and use theirs. Obviously my DIY hand sanitizer has not been tested for how much bacteria it can kill, nor have any others from what I can find.  Essential oils have shown to have natural antibacterial, antiviral and anti fungal properties. Tea Tree has been tested in clinical studies (link to study https://nccih.nih.gov/health/tea/treeoil.htm).

There are MANY variations to this recipe and you can add and tweak as you like.

1/4C of Aloe Vera Gel

1 tsp of Witch Hazel (omit if you wish to keep it alcohol free or if using on children under 2)

15 drops of Germ Destroyer

10 drops of Tea Tree Oil

½ tsp Vegetable Glycerin

½ tsp of Vitamin E.

Want us to make it for you?

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Facial Toner Toxins

Facial Toner Toxins Can Do More Harm Than Good

Before I started making my own, I never used toner. In hindsight, I am glad that I was skipping what would have been anotherFacial Toner Toxins bunch of toxins applied daily, but it does have it’s benefits (so long as it’s toxin free).

So what does toner actually do for your skin?

Toner’s job is to balance the pH levels (an abnormal pH can promote bacteria growth and make our skin more susceptible to infections and wrinkles), remove dead skin cells, dirt, oil and traces of cleaner left behind.  Toner will help temporarily minimize the appearance of pores when used between cleansing and moisturizing.

What is in a Facial Toner?

Unfortunately the majority of toners will contain synthetic ingredients. Toners specific to oily skin will likely contain salicylic acid, and benzyl alcohol. Both of these ingredients are neurotoxins and skin irritants. In addition most will contain phthalates if they have a fragrance and parabens as a preservative. Some even contain synthetic colors!

So what is the solution?

Can you live without toner? Yes. However-this DIY recipe along with our skin care moisturizer has my skin clearer than it has been since I was about 12.  Before you jump to conclusions and click off the page-let me assure you that you will not smell like vinegar!

Apple Cider vinegar  (raw unfiltered) is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory. It can help treat acne and reduce redness for those with oily skin. For those with normal and dry skin it can help reduce wrinkles and exfoliate.


Recipe:

2TBSP Raw unfiltered organic Apple Cider Vinegar

4TBSP witch hazel or filtered/distilled water (I use witch hazel)

Several drops of essential oils (good choices are Sandalwood, Frankincense, Lavender or Tea Tree)

Store in bottle. Shake. Spray onto cotton ball and apply. Moisturize as usual.

Shop Face Moisturizer

 

Is Dust Toxic?

 Household Dust Poses More Problems than You May Realize

Dust itself is toxic since it contains particles from any air pollutants, pet dander, fungal spores, hair and skin, and furniture made of particleboard etc. There is no way of avoiding dust. It can cause respiratory Is Dust Toxicissues and aggravate allergies.

When I began our journey into removing toxins from our home I read every label and looked everything up on the EWG guide to find less toxic choices. Unfortunately, in this instance there didn’t seem to be one! Adding a toxic spray to “get rid” of toxic dust seemed counterproductive. Dusting wands and Swiffer dusters also scored a D or an F. Pledge Dust  & Allergen dry cloths? They score a D. Most contain ingredients “suspected of causing cancer” as well as toxic fragrances in mineral oils.

What’s the solution? Vacuuming frequently, leaving your shoes at the door, and investing in a HEPA filter will help cut down on the amount of dust created.

Getting rid of the dust that will inevitably exist is actually easier and cheaper than you may think! I have been using this recipe for quite a long time and I believe it works better than any spray I have used in the past.

1 Cup  olive oil

¼ cup white vinegar

5 drops of lemon essential oil

Or arborvitae essential oil (I actually use both)

Combine in a stainless steel or glass spray bottle (lemon essential oil is not compatible with plastic bottles)

When ready to use spray ON CLOTH (microfiber or a strong paper towel) and wipe.

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DIY Non-Toxic Eye Serum

 

Looking for a Non-Toxic Eye Serum?

Eye Serums. They come in the tiniest tubes and are generally full of a host of ingredients, many toxic. They are marketed to “erase” the lines under your eyes making you look younger.  What is the cost?  For the most part, eye serums are full of synthetic chemicals. If yours is lotion based, it likely contains parabens.  A majority seemed to contain 6-8 different parabens. Several I found contained retinyl Acetate (also labeled as Vitamin A acetate or palmitate). This ingredient scores a NINE on the EWG database for concerns including cancer. It is not worth the damage it does to your health. Non-toxic eye serum

So what’s the real solution to helping those fine lines under your eyes without compromising your health? There are lots of ideas and suggestions out there, but we put Plant Therapy’s recipe, from their blog, to the test. We like it for it’s simplicity and safe ingredients. (Note: we opted to use our own face serum as the included oil, since we are very happy with it’s effectiveness!) Caffeine has been shown to work wonders with dark circles and puffiness around the eyes.

What to do:

  • Place 2TBSP of unused caffeinated coffee in a glass jar (a recycled baby food or any small jar will do).
  • Pour in ¼ Cup of your oil of choice (we opted to use our Face Moisturizer, Meadowfoam, Jojoba and Rosehip are also great oils for your face).
  • Allow to sit for one week.
  • Strain through cheesecloth. (We got ours from Amazon).
    Put in an essential oil roller bottle or small pump bottle for easy application.
  • Enjoy!

Check it out here at:  www.planttherapy.com/blog/2015/08/22/diy-eyeserum/

Download a free checklist Eye Serum Toxins OR Shop Face Moisturizer

Face Moisturizer Ingredients

Our Face Moisturizer ingredients: Camellia oleifera (Camellia) Seed Oil*, Limnanthes alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Simmondsia chinensis (Jojoba)*, Virgin Rosa Canina (Rose Hip) Seed Oil*, Virgin Argania spinose (Argan) Nut Oil*, Vitamin E.

*Organic Ingredient