Spring Cleaning? You Should Probs Start With Your Makeup Bag.
Q&A: educating yourself about toxins in your beauty products
Mackenzie is my roommate who I met on Craigslist. When we first met, I told her I was looking for a compatible roommate, not a friend. She said, “Great! Okay!”
Two weeks later, I was telling her that I wanted her to be in my wedding and if I ever had a baby she was going to be in the room. A year and a half of living together later, I still stand by what I said when I barely knew her. She has become a soul sister.
Mackenzie has changed my life in a lot of ways – mostly with things that she’s taught me. How to work out. How to share (#OnlyChildProblems). How to be a better friend. And most recently – how to better protect myself from toxins that are in products that I use every day.
Though sometimes, I dig my heels in, she truly has made me more conscious and thoughtful about what I’m putting on and around my body. Unbeknownst to me, there are toxins and carcinogens in our products known to cause harm, but are still completely “legal” to be in there.
As a Beautycounter consultant, she is a well researched and a wealth of knowledge. Below is a Q&A to get you started on your own journey.
WELCOME MACKENZ!
Let’s back up and start from the beginning because I know I certainly didn’t know any of the facts behind Beautycounter or our current legislation or why I should care about what’s in our products.
Q: What is Beautycounter?
Beautycounter is a personal products and cosmetics company that is leading the movement of clean beauty. You may or may not already know this, but the personal care and cosmetics industry in the United States is overwhelmingly under regulated. Beautycounter, is a B-Corporation headquartered in Santa Monica (woo local brand!) and our mission is to get safer products into the hands of everyone.
Q: What is the current state of the union with legislation? What do our government regulations currently protect us against and not protect us against?
As I mentioned, the personal care industry is sadly extremely under regulated. Did you know, the US has not passed a major federal law since 1938, and the regulation we do have is majorly flawed?
Decades of studies indicate that serious health issues (including but not limited to asthma, cancer, and infertility) are on the rise and are due in some part to our ongoing exposure to toxic chemicals—whether it’s in the shower, on our commute, while we eat lunch at a local restaurant, or when we clean our kitchens at home.
Since very few of us were alive when the last major law was passed, this is what else was going on in 1938…
It was the year before World War II
Gas cost $0.10 cents per gallon
The average cost of a new home was $3,900.00
A brand new car cost on average $763.00
Walt Disney Studios released its first fully animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
And the most frightening of them all... Teflon (look it up!) was introduced.
80 years have gone by without any major federal law passed to govern the personal care industry! The EU has banned almost 1,400 ingredients, Canada has banned roughly 600, and the US has banned or restricted a slim to none 30 ingredients (mic drop). There are more than 80,000 chemicals on the market today. Many don’t have any safety data. This is particularly true of those used in the skin care and beauty industry.
Q: What are some key words we can look for on the back of our products that might tip us off for there being bad juju (ingredients) inside?
Personally, the easiest one for me to spot on a label is FRAGRANCE. Stay away from it!
Fragrance formulas are protected under federal law’s classification of trade secrets and therefore can remain undisclosed. Products with Fragrance may contain any combination of 3,000-plus stock chemical ingredients, including hormone disruptors and allergens.
Beautycounter has gone above and beyond the US and EU standards and has banned 1,500 ingredients that are commonly used in personal care products. We have a “Never List” that highlights some of the ingredients we will never use when formulating. It is a really good guide to cross-reference when looking for the said “bad juju”.
Q: Skin and beauty products are just one thing, right? What are other things in our house or lives that we need to be wary of or educate ourselves about?
Well, if you follow me on Instagram or have come over to our apartment in the past few weeks, you know that this is my favorite hobby right now! I like to call it #CleanSwap!
the First and easiest #swappage of them all, do not drink out of plastic water bottles. Just don’t do it! SEEK OUT GLASS OR USE A REUSABLE STAINLESS STEEL BOTTLE.
CHANGE TO CLEAN CLEANING PRODUCTS! (DISCLAIMER: I JUST #SWAPPED ALL OUR TOXIC CLEANING PRODUCTS FOR SEVENTH GENERATION AND THEY WERE ON SALE AT TARGET, WIN!)
SWITCH TO NON-TOXIC COOKWARE!
Choose: Cast Iron, Ceramic, Stainless Steel
Avoid: Non-stick pans (coated with Teflon)
STORE FOOD IN GLASS CONTAINERS VS. PLASTIC (ADIOS - PLASTIC TUPPERWARE AND CUPS!)
GALS - USE NON-TOXIC TAMPONS! (I KNOW DANIELLE’S PERSONAL FAVORITE IS LOLA)
Skip canned foods/drinks – the less BPA we are exposed to, the better!
INVEST IN A CLOTH SHOWER CURTAIN INSTEAD OF A VINYL ONE (GOOGLE WHY VINYL IS DANGEROUS)
SKIP THE LID ON YOUR TO-GO COFFEE CUP #GOTOPLESS (THIS IS GOOD NOT ONLY FOR YOUR HEALTH, BUT ALSO FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!)
Diffuse essential oils instead of burning candles
Take your shoes off at the door, and leave them there! (Pesticides, herbicides, and numeros other toxins are commonly tracked into the house on the soles of our shoes)
INSTEAD OF LETTING THE LIST OVERWHELM ME... I THINK OF IT AS A WAY TO EDUCATE MYSELF AND OTHERS - KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND WITH POWER, YOU CAN EMPOWER! #CLEANSWAPPING IS FUN! RIGHT, DANIELLE?
Q: Are there resources or a website where I can plug in what I use now and see how safe or unsafe they are?
A great resource is the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) Skin Deep Cosmetics data base. You can go on their website and look up your products and see how they rate on a safety scale. They even have an app that I like to use when I am shopping!
Q: Tell me about D.C. and what you and other Beautycounter consultants were doing there?
D.C. was one of the most empowering experiences of my life thus far! I was in D.C. with 100+ Beautycounter Consultants lobbying on Capitol Hill.
We spent a full day on the Hill asking our Members of Congress to pass the most health protective legislation possible for the personal care products industry. We educated elected officials on the need for greater transparency regulations, and the importance of removing harmful ingredients from the products that we use every day.
If you ever get the chance to lobby in D.C., do it! Participating in our democracy in that capacity and seeing how effective our meetings were has fueled my fire even more.
Q: What is something that an everyday person like me can do to take action?
My favorite question! Educate yourself and vote with your wallet!
Even if it isn’t Beautycounter, that's okay! Start shopping safer and more consciously by supporting brands that are doing the right thing. We rightfully assume just because a product has made it to the shelf, or is beautifully branded, or says “natural” that it is safe safe (I have been guilty of this too!).
Take as much (if not more) interest in what goes on your body, as you do what goes in your body! You spend $$$ on organic green juices, wild caught fish, $4 americanos, etc.…why wouldn’t you take a closer look at what's in the products you’re putting on your skin? – fun fact, your skin is your body’s LARGEST and most absorbent organ!
"Basically, when Danielle and I first became roomies she thought I was a hippie!"
Q: You’ve been a consultant for BC for a while now. What is your why?
Health and wellness have always been a passion of mine.
If you know me, you know I love to do yoga and I get more excited for a group fitness class than anyone I know, I am down to be #vegan (well, at least 68% of the time), I buy weird things at the farmer’s market and sometimes large boxes of imperfect organic produce get dropped off on our doorstep, I drink weird concoctions of vinegar and take all sorts of pro & prebiotics…
Honestly, when Danielle and I first became roomies she for sure thought I was some sort of California hippie! Fast forward a year, and she has started to buy-in on the things she’s comfortable with (and not allergic to) and it’s been fun!
Sharing Beautycounter’s mission of getting safer products in the hands of everyone, is one way I can show my friends I care about them and their health. I hope my friends, and your friends, never have to deal with the scary health concerns that are linked to the chemicals in their personal care products.
I feel lucky and proud to work for a company that is doing the right thing and is leading the way for other companies to do the right thing. Someday (hopefully, sooner than later) when stricter federal laws for this industry are passed, I will feel proud I stood behind something I believed so strongly in. Until then, I am going to continue to share what I know and I hope after reading this you'll do the same!
mackenzie's 5 fav Beautycounter Products!
mackenzie's Pro-tip:
There is no need to #CleanSwap overnight! That would be aggressive and would put a little dent in your wallet.
Why not try this – next time you run out of shampoo, or face makeup, or laundry detergent, or mascara invest in a clean brand! #CleanSwapping can be gradual and I promise you, it is cost effective. A little bit goes a long way for both your $ and your health!