Ben

Body care is a huge money making industry, consisting of everything from hand soap to shampoo to lipstick to hand lotion. Usage of these products varies greatly from person to person, some women spend hundreds of dollars on these products while some guys tout that all they have is a bar of soap.  Wherever you might fit in, you will inevitable use some of these products.

When you go to buy something like soap, shampoo, lotion, conditioner, cosmetics, etc…, there is apparently a huge selection of different brands and products to choose from.  You will compare dozen of products based on how they smell, how you like the label or design of the bottle, whether or not the product is on sale, how recently you saw a commercial for the product, etc.  There is a marketing term called “Skin-Cream marketing” which refers to the diversity and price ranges that lead to a $$70 skin cream product that is found in a high end boutique. However, despite all of these apparent differences, the vast majority of these products are actually the exact same thing, and often even made by the same company (ie. Unilever or Proctor and Gamble).

What should really get your attention is what’s in the bottle: more literally, the ingredients.  Most body care products, in fact are made with toxic chemicals that are not actually good for your skin or body.  One look at the ingredients on a bottle of shampoo or body wash and you’ll see what I mean.  Does a bath in cocamidopropyl betaine really sound like a good idea?

In fact, most soaps aren’t soaps at all.  Technically, soap is made from a natural oils, such as almond, coconut, olive, or hemp oil, that undergoes a chemical reaction process called saponification that has been used for thousands of years.  However, since the early 1900’s, soap has become something entirely different; and is now made from petroleum byproducts and a cocktail of toxic chemicals.  None of these are actually good for the skin, but they do happen to mimic the effects of soap to such a degree that the average consumer cannot tell the difference.  But don’t be fooled, THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE!!  Olive oil castile soap is actually good for your skin, it has natural vitamins and it gently cleans dirt as it naturally moisturizes.  Detergents, on the other hand, can only mimic the effects to get rid of dirt.  They don’t do a great job, they don’t moisturize, they’re not natural, and they contaminate the water.  Let alone everything that went into manufacturing the chemicals!

To add to the confusion, companies add “natural essential oils” or “infuse” the products with things like vitamin E, antioxidants, etc.  This makes it seems as though the products are good for you.  To make matters worse, upon adding these extracts, they will call their product “herbal”, “natural”, or even “organic”.  But this is not the case!  It’s still the same a cocktail of petroleum derived chemicals, just with a splash of something else!  Would you drink motor oil if it had a dash of all natural lime??

Dr. Bronners Magic Hemp Soaps is working to change these practices and bring back true soap.  They use hemp in almost all of their products and it’s really the best soap on the market.

To learn more about this issue, the Dr. Bronner’s is working with the Organic Consumers Association to make sure that cosmetic companies “Come Clean” about the truth.

You can also watch this video, from the makers of the Story of Stuff, comes the Story of Cosmetics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfq000AF1i8&feature=player_embedded

Next time you wash your face, read the ingredients first!!