Our skin is our largest organ and what you put on your skin (make-up, skin care, deodorant, lotion, shampoo, etc...) goes directly into your bloodstream. Sadly, in America there are only 9 chemicals banned by the FDA compared to Europe where there are 1,342 ingredients banned. The FDA does not regulate personal care products and hopes that cosmetic companies will do their due diligence and issue safe products. In the word "fragrance", companies can legally hide any of 600 ingredients under that one "trade secret" word. Companies market products as "organic", "pure", "natural", "botanical", and many other catchy words to make us THINK the products are safe to put on....but the reality is most are not 100% free of toxins.
I knew there had to be something out there that was truly free of toxins, but the thought of sorting through the 1000's of products out there felt overwhelming. Then a few weeks ago, while hanging out at a good friends house, I was introduced to a product line that is truly non-toxic!! The product line is called "Ava Anderson Non-Toxic". Ava Anderson is a 19 year old gal from Rhode Island. She started the company at age 14...you can read her story HERE. Unlike many skin care/cosmetic companies, you CAN see all the ingredients in every product BOTH on their website and directly on the product containers. (And you can actually understand what the ingredients are!).
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) Cosmetic Database rates over 65,000 products for their toxicity levels. The categories it rates are: overall hazard, cancer, developmental and reproductive toxicity, allergies and immunotoxicity, and use restrictions. Ava Anderson products all rate at a 0-1 on the cosmetic database website (0=safest and 10=highest level of toxins). Feel free to see how your skin care/cosmetic products rate on this site. Be aware though if the word "fragrance" is listed in the ingredients the rating is most likely much higher than what you see, as there is no way to know all the chemicals hidden behind that one word.
So what is so great about Ava Anderson products? All organic ingredients from the earth/essential oils!!! NON-GMO sourced, NO parabens¸ NO PEGs or SLS, NO synthetic “fragrance” and NO hidden ingredients or contaminants. NO phthalates, NO nitrosamines, NO formaldehyde, NO Glycol, NO Sodium Laureth Sulfate, and NO Petroleum Byproducts and NO animal testing. All products are Gluten free. Most of Ava Skin and Ava Body lines are Vegan. Recyclable packaging too!
If you are health conscious and care about things like this (and making homemade everything isn't something you have time for), I thought Ava Anderson Non Toxic products may be of interest to you! And I need to insert in here that I am LOVING the products...very light, fresh, with a delicate and natural scent. A little goes a long ways too! They have skin care, cosmetics, sunblock, non-alcoholic hand sanitizer, no deet natural bug spray, pet products, household cleaners, Dish soap/laundry soap, baby products, anti-aging, deodorant, body butter/sugar scrub, 100% coconut oil candles and shampoo/conditioner.
Please take the time to do your research! What we put on our skin and on our children's skin does matter.
Please take the time to do your research! What we put on our skin and on our children's skin does matter.
Here is a product review of Ava Anderson products from a naturopathic doctor: http://steveclarknd.com/?page_id=308
Here are a few links addressing the issues of toxins for anyone who wants to research this in more detail:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/report/2009/07/21/6431/reproductive-roulette/
I too use non-toxic products and have been using the Daisy Blue Naturals products on my skin and body for over 10 years! I haven't heard of the Ava company, but it sounds very similar to Daisy Blue!
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