Deodorant: Another Success Story

Taking the advise of my teacher Jen, today I thought I'd share my deodorant/Wally World story.

I have recently discovered that the main active ingredient in antiperspirant deodorants is aluminum.  Even if the deodorant isn't an antiperspirant it can still be found in the inactive ingredient list.  Aluminum is on Sophie's Red List of ingredients to avoid.

Aluminum has been thought to cause Alzheimer's disease.  "Aluminium has also been reported to accumulate in the brain tissues with age and it can cross the blood–brain barrier through transferrin receptor-mediated endocytosis." (Neurotoxic Effects of Aluminium Among Foundry Workers and Alzheimer’s Disease)  This can basically be summed up as: too much aluminum built up within the brain affects some of the brains functions.  The paper that I sighted is actually a decent study on it, if you're interested.

Aluminum builds up over time.  People use deodorant everyday.  As of 2007 the life expectancy of a woman in the United States is 80.4 years, for males it's 75.4.  That's over 50 years of applying small amounts of aluminum directly into your blood stream everyday.  (Anything applied to the skin is absorbed directly the blood stream, just in case you didn't know.) Sorry I'm slightly freaking out.

So I searched for a natural alternative.  Wally World surprised me!  They had three products that fit within Sophie's rules!  Two of them were by Tom's and were a bit pricey, but I bought one that fits the rules and didn't break the bank.  It's a product called Naturally Fresh and it's a solution that you shake (liquid form) and role on.

Now for everyday use it's been great.  I don't smell and for the most part I don't overtly sweat.  It does stop working during the evening, most of the time I just don't care because I'm done with my day.  However, I do not recommend the deodorant for physical exercise.  For that I'm going to try to find a low level of aluminum antiperspirant.  The links given in the book are no good.

*Sorry this was suppose to be a short post.

Excercise. What is this phenomenon?

As I turned the page between chapter 2 and 3, I immediately wished for anything else.  Sophie lays out a 20 minute (sorry Kiah but I'm stealing some of your formatting techniques) yoga program to be preformed every day.

I don't exercise everyday, hell I barely exercise twice a week.  This winter semester I enrolled in a modern ballet class to force myself.  The fact that it's modern ballet is just another slacker term too because Maria (my teacher) isn't that worried about getting the poses/dance moves exactly correct, unless you're at the bar (ballet bar).  Though I must commend her for her everlasting patience because I'm not a very coordinated individual.

I am glad that it's yoga, and that I've already taken yoga prior to this project.  Learning yoga from a book and/or a video is extremely dangerous and should not be done.

As I'm reading this chapter she explains how to preform a pose, how to move into the next pose, and provides a detailed sketch to what the pose should look like.  Cue the visual flashbacks.  If I hadn't already taken yoga, I would be preforming all of them wrong.  There is a feel for a pose that one must learn.  And what it feels like when you aren't doing the pose right.  Listen to your body.  If something feels off, 99.9% of the time it means that your doing something wrong.  Which can potentially cause massive amount of pain or screw up a bodily function that has no reversal.

Will I actually be doing the 20 min program everyday?  Probably not, but as of now I have every intention of trying to exercise on the days I don't have modern ballet.  I'm using the fact that in modern ballet one of our warm-ups is two sets of Sun Salutations, as a semi-reasonable excuse.

Cosmetic Solution

Sophie addressed cosmetics with a simple section that can be paraphrased as: don't trust any mainstream line no matter their advertisements have the same chemicals within, only at a higher concentration.  All this translates into I cannot use any of my cosmetics.  So they've been boxed up for the project and will most likely be used but not bought again with a few exceptions.

My roommate sent me a link to Origins.  It's a company, that sells 100% all natural (mostly) plant based products.  Before I even got to read an ingredient list, the mission statement of the company listed all of the chemicals commonly used and how none will be found within their products.  Which was backed up by every product ingredient list that I read.

I'm still using my concealer and blushes.  I'm hesitant to by a concealer without seeing it in person; often times the color online is not that of reality.  Blush only comes out for two occasions: I'm bored or there is a special occasion that calls for it.  I ordered only one of the following basics: eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, and lip gloss.

Now that the products have come it, I'm so excited.  They are really easily applicable.  The eyeshadow doesn't clump, nor does the mascara.  The eye liner doesn't require heavy pressure to apply, light touches are a stress relief. Bonus: the lip gloss smells great and leaves the fun minty feeling in its wake.

The only downside to this natural alternative is that any water removes the product.  Crying is now off limits...not that I cry a lot.  It's just no longer an option, but so is being caught out in the rain/wet snow.

Target Shopping Excursion

Now that I know what to avoid, I went in search of shaving creme at the local Target.  I know that they have a wider selection of the "natural" lines.  Originally I searched online for products sold at Target that fit the guidelines.  At the store I discovered none of the products were sold at this particular branch.

This was rather disheartening.  There must be an affordable way to by green products and not have to order them online.

I searched through all of the available shaving creams.  Skintamate, Venus, Aveeno, all of the major lines were worthless.  I settled on a paraben free shave cream that had Fragrance listed on the lower end of the ingredients; it also had propylene glycol  as the fourth to last ingredient.  Which is sad that I had to settle but hey a girl's got to shave.

There was an unexpected bonus to this shopping excursion!  I found a toner that doesn't have any of the red or orange alert ingredients.  The toner removes excess oil from ones face.  It comes highly recommended by skin care professionals if one has oily skin (aka me).

The toner I found is created by a company called The Power of Plants BOTANICS.  Face Rosewater Toner's ingredients include: Aqua (water), Alcohol denat*, Glycerin, Rose damascena flower oil*, Citronellol*.  After using this product for about a week, I've got to say it's amazing.  Sometimes after cleansing my skin just doesn't feel clean enough, especially after a workout.  This product fixes that problem.

*Certified Organic

Grooming and Sunbathing? Really that bad?

After reading that hairdyes contain chemicals that are known for causing bone marrow cancer and bladder cancer, and the conflicting ideas that some of the chemicals within fake tanning and many sunscreens are known to cause skin cancer; I have never been so glad that I don't die my hair or tan my skin.

The human body needs a solid fifteen minutes of uninterrupted sun absorption everyday, for vitamin D intake.  Vitamin D is necessary for the body to metabolize vitamin C.

Winters in the UP are always lacking in sunlight but avoiding the tanning beds won't be that difficult for me.  I'd rather be vitamin D deficient than knowingly risk skin cancer.

Unfortunately the links that Sophie provided are no longer valid.  However, when summer does decide to arrive I found sunscreen online at: http://store.elementalherbs.com/sunscreen-p12.aspx?gclid=CJapqdWs76YCFQNrKgodVhXFCw