How to Avoid Toxic Build Up From Your Personal Care Products

If you were to check the label of your favourite lotion, I will bet that it contains phenoxyethanol. PHENOXYETHANOL is broad spectrum preservative is used in most water based cosmetics, and like parabens, it extends a products shelf life. It prevents things like bacteria, fungus, mold and other microbes from making a nice little home in your creams, lotions and makeup. These little critters will infect the tiniest cut or open sore (like a recently picked at pimple) and may cause blood poising! This is why it is SO important to have a preservative in WATER based cosmetics. 

Microbiologist  Alain Ménard says, “products are made without any preservatives because there’s no water in them—products that are oil and wax based like lip balms."

PHENOXYETHANOL is used in very small quantities as the preservative alone isn't so bad. (If you don't consider it suspicious that it is banned in Japanese cosmetics, or that it is "classified as toxic or harmful only for products for use around the mouth; products for use on the 

Ménard notes, “Many companies have traded parabens for another class of chemical preservatives called ‘formaldehyde slow releasers.” He says these appear on ingredient lists as quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea and diazolidinyl urea. lips" European Union-Classification &Labelling) It becomes a bigger issue when you consider that we all use so many different types of products, all with tiny amounts of preservatives like PHENOXYETHANOL, or worse formaldehyde releasing preservatives, that the accumulation of small amounts can be dangerous.

Health Canada allows the use of formaldehyde in cosmetics at levels of no more than 0.2 percent. 

“The problem is, we all use more than one product a day,” says Ménard, and that can add up. (Read more at http://www.besthealthmag.ca/best-looks/beauty/the...

The safest way to protect yourself is to limit the amount of water based products you use.  Below is a list of preservative free personal care products that can help:

1. Choose products like ZCC Anti-Aging Light Daytime Lotion that uses Vitamin E as a safe natural preservative, and is packaged in a hermetically sealed pump dispenser.**Avoid creams in open jar type packaging. Jars can easily become contaminated from dirty fingers or even air born contaminants.
2. Always choose an all natural wax/oil based lip product like ZCC Moisture Rich Lip Balm that contains no additional preservatives
3. Use powder based foundations like ZCC Clay Mineral Full Coverage Foundation to **avoid all the siloxanes,(see dimethicone) and formaldehydes. 
4. Use a natural hard bar soap with skin soothing ingredients (I like Bulk Barn's selection, they are about $2.00/bar and have tons of options, my favorites are Tea Tree and Rose Hip) to **avoid SLS's.
5. Seek out a good natural toothpaste, I really like Green Beaver's Frosty Mint. 
6. Raid your kitchen pantry for coconut oil it's an easy home solution for makeup remover or hydrating moisturizer and use old fashioned witch hazel as a skin toner. 
7. Find a natural shampoo and conditioner. I am still on the hunt for the best shampoo and conditioner but for now I am using Desert Essence Coconut Shampoo and Conditioner. Most of the ingredients are good but here are a few sneaky dirty list culprits in both. I just really make sure to rinse out the product right away, even the conditioner so that my scalp absorbs a little as possible.  All the shampoos I find have some sort dirty list chemical in it to make possible those lovely sudsy foamy bubbles we all crave in a shampoo and they contain toxic perfume and fragrance. Hard core natural people have told me that apple cider vinegar makes a good shampoo, but I could only do it for a few washes then the smell of vinegar got to me.

It is almost impossible to avoid all the preservatives that are out there. The best thing to do is limit the amount of products you use and always, always READ THE LABEL!

SYNONYMS: 2-HYDROXYETHYL PHENYL ETHER; 2-PHENOXY- ETHANOL; 2-PHENOXYETHANOL; 2-PHENOXYETHYL ALCOHOL; ETHANOL, 2-PHENOXY-; ETHANOL, 2PHENOXY; ETHYLENE GLYCOL MONOPHENYL ETHER; PHENOXYTOL; 1-HYDROXY-2-PHENOXYETHANE; 2-FENOXYETHANOL (CZECH) ; 2-PHENOXYETHANOL

(Read more at http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/704811/PHE...