The Sunscreen Conundrum

This morning, the Mom of one of our son’s classmates told me that she doesn’t like to sunscreen her kids because the ingredients in her sunscreen “aren’t too good according to what [she is] hearing on the radio”.  Since I hear comments like this frequently, I think a second annual safe sunscreen blog is appropriate.

The good news is that there are safe sunscreens that actually do work.  The ones you want are mineral based, stay on the skin’s surface and do not include ingredient descriptors like “nano” particles, “micronized” or “ultrafine”.  An opaque consistency is another safety indicator so, sorry, but if the screen goes on clear it is probably not the one you want.  The good ones stay on the skin’s surface and contain active ingredients that include zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.  Then you want as many organic ingredients as possible and from there follow the common sense test – look for ingredients that are familiar and pronounceable.

The sunscreens you do not want are the chemical based varieties.  They include ingredients like retinyl palmitate or retinol, oxybenzone, a synthetic estrogen and octyl methoxycinnamate (OMC).  These ingredients are downright nasty and can cause everything from skin tumours to hormone disruption.

The Environmental Working Group’s list of acceptable sunscreens seems to be growing.  While this is an encouraging trend, your best bet, as always, is to read individual labels and comments from other users before choosing one for your family.  We’ve been using Badger sunscreen for years. It is long wearing, water resistant and it works.  None of us has ever had a burn.  They now offer an unscented formula which I much prefer.

The research coming out on vitamin D is startling.  We need it.  The good news is that the sun is our best source.  The less good news is that after 20 minutes we have our daily dose.  So while I am not a big fan of sunscreen there are times when it is necessary.  Why not be prepared by investing in a few minutes with this list.

Facing the Facts about Coconut Oil

A few years ago, during a visit to Whole Foods in Toronto, I found myself chatting with a woman – she had luminous skin – who swore that the only thing she put on her face is organic coconut oil.  I thought this was interesting but didn't pursue it, for two reasons.  First, I was going through a "wash with water and stop there" stage due to my frustration at being unable to find 'clean' facial products.  I've written about this before and did eventually find a few options that were o.k.  

The other reason was that I didn't yet understand that the coconut is much maligned due to its usage in a hydrogenated form in many products. The hydrogenation process is the problem, not the coconut.

Fast forward to a few months ago.  I started reading about coconut oil and its multitudinous benefits when ingested internally.  So I bought some and was dazzled by what it did for granola bars and chilli.  Then I remembered that woman's recommendation and tried it on my face.  Before long my first bottle had moved from the kitchen to my bathroom.  It goes on greasy so you don't need much.  But it absorbs quickly and has cured that parched, dehydrated look I used to sport.  

If you enjoy the smell of coconut, you might want to give the oil a try.  Where else can you get a year's supply of organic face cream, in a glass jar no less, for $10 or $12 bucks?  Worst case scenario?  It ends up in your kitchen.  I bet it won't.

  

Hand Sanitizers

I am not a big fan of hand sanitizers. I much prefer washing with non anti-bacterial soap.  But sometimes hand washing is simply not possible and those little bottles of sanitizer are a life saver.  Unfortunately, the alcohol, parabens and other assorted goodies present in most hand sanitizers cause me to wonder about the lesser of two evils.

I am currently packing two mini bottles of hand sanitizer, OE Sanitizing Spray and Clean Well.  They are rated at 1 and 2 (out of 10, with 10 being the most toxic) by Skin Deep.  For comparison, Purell sanitizers, the most common name brand, are rated between 5 and 7 on the same scale.

I was actually surprised when I checked Skin Deep in preparation for writing this post.  Even though the OE is all organic I guessed it would rank higher because it contains alcohol albeit in the form of organic ethanol.  Indeed the ethanol is ranked at 5 but combined with the other ingredients, the product comes out at a 1. 

Clean Well's active ingredient is Thyme oil – yes, as in the food source – which pulls a 1 rating.  I was jazzed to find this and figured, since thyme oil works on mold, it can darn well dispose of a little cold or flu virus.  And since I usually end up using this stuff on my son when he is about to eat, this is definitely my preference despite the marginally higher ranking.  Clean Well also appears to be slightly gentler ie less drying  although the EO contains lavender which is both fragrant and anti-bacterial.  

In short, both the EO and Clean Well smell nice and are not overly harsh. The EO is marginally more expensive for the 1 oz size.  

Whole Foods carries the EO and I've seen Clean Well at several health food stores including Ambrosia in Toronto and Eating Well Organically in Waterloo.

Its Just A Cream Sweetheart

We're all frequent hand washers in our house.  When the cool weather arrives our hands get chapped.  Decided to put cream on my son's hands last evening before he went to bed.  Within seconds, the little voice went from a vociferous "NO, NO, NO!" to an appreciative "That smells good!". 

The elixir in question is Vanilla & Sweet Orange All Over Lotion by Hugo Naturals.  This stuff smells divine and is very emolient.  It is also very clean.  The similarly flavoured Body Butter is equally lovely.  

Hugo Naturals is on the shelves at Whole Foods but I'm hoping it is also available at other stores.  Several of you have written to ask where to get it and I responded with suggestions.  I have asked for availability feedback and will pass it along when I receive it.

Enjoy!

Facial Care and Hair Gel Product Update

Face Care

I'm sure you've heard the saying "If  you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all".  Well, further to my kvetching here in January, that's kind of the approach I was taking with my skin care.  I couldn't find facial care that was clean enough, pardon the pun, so I mostly did nothing at all, relying on water and a little of my son's Yemaya Body Wash.  

My face was unimpressed and let me know in no uncertain terms.  Blotches, dryness.  Yuck.

Things took a turn for the better when I saw former top model Carol Alt touting Raw Essentials, her new line of raw skin care products, on the Shopping Channel. After checking out the ingredients on the Skin Deep website I decided to try her cleansers.  

The
Raw-Covery facial wash is used for daily cleansing.  It also removes
the mineral foundation and blush I wear on occasion.  The Raw-Finish
vigorous face scrub is a deep cleanser that I use twice weekly. Both
products have a light citrus scent and do not strip my skin.  Overall
my skin is brighter but not but not tight or dry.

I am very pleased with Miss Alt's products but have yet to try others in the line.  Am curious about her moisturizers and serums but, unfortunately, am not a fan of a couple of the ingredients in those.  Having said that, her products are cleaner than at least 90% of what is available out there.  

Around the same time as I started on these cleansers, I also began using Femme Day Cream by Olivier Soapery in New Brunswick.  This cream also has a light scent, absorbs well and is not the least bit greasy.    

The combination seems to be working well and my skin is much happier.   

Hair Gel

Upper Management is the catchy name for the hair gel by Kiss My Face. Its a reasonably clean product (ranked a 1/10 by Skin Deep) that works well on curly, frizzy hair.  It is also great for taming the crazy, go where they will eyebrows I inherited from my father – sorry Dad!

Joint Pain Remedy

I was half way through yoga class the other day when I realized I was sitting back on my knees without pain.  This might not sound like a big deal but when you've had as much knee pain as me for as long as I have, this is indeed a great revelation.  

Background.  Osteoarthritis runs in my Mother's family. I was told, circa November 2005, that I had pre-osteoarthritis (I'm guessing there is a technical medical term that I've forgotten).  The deliverer of this news was a doctor of Osteopathy at the Mayo Clinic.  I'm sharing this information, not to drop names, but because of the treatment he recommended.  He told me to start starting Glucosamine Sulphate saying it would do me more good than anything (aka any pharmaceutical) he could prescribe. 

I have a lot of respect for medical doctors.  They spend a long time in school and they know lots of things.  Members of this profession perform miracles every day.  But like the rest of us, doctors do not know everything.  And, as you may have guessed, prescription drugs are not at the top of my priority list. So when a medical doctor makes a point of recommending a natural supplement I listen.   

I went to straight to Walmart – where he told me to get the Glucosamine. Unfortunately, while the Osteopath was right about the Glucosamine, the brand he recommended did not work for me.  Neither did several other products I tried.  Fast forward to my recent yoga class and my noticeably less painful knees.  I believe the improvement is a result of the consistent consumption, over several months of a product containing glucosamine, condroitn and MSM, a well known cocktail for the treatment of joint and tissue issues, suggested by my Naturopath. 

While I do not feel it is appropriate to publish the name of the product (I am not a doctor of any sort and would not presume to give medical advice) I am sharing this information because the Osteopath was right.  The natural route worked.  That is not always the case but I am always happy when it is.  This time, It was just a matter of finding the product with the right combination of ingredients for me.

Our Favourite Sunscreen

Wouldn't it be nice, after getting your healthy few minutes of sunlight each day, to be able conjure up a cone of perpetual shade to hover conveniently overhead?  O.K. so I'm having a psychedelic Get Smart moment.  But it would be nice!

The next best bet, if you don't want to go the covered-up-in-clothing route, is a safe sunscreen.  Badger SPF 30 is our favourite by a city mile. It's a physical block that relies on zinc oxide rather than a cocktail of chemicals to protect skin from the sun's harmful rays.  Its a bit thick and casts a whitish glow but works beautifully and has only a light scent. 

Teacher Gifts

Tomorrow is our son's last day in Sr. Kindergarten.  BC, before child, I thought it just the tiniest bit hokey that people got so jazzed about these mini-graduations.  Now I get it.  It's a milestone pure and simple.

We wanted to thank his teachers with a small, green gift.  Something they would use.  For Christmas we gave gift certificates to the movies.  Tomorrow we are giving soap.  Beautiful, locally made soap, fragrant with essential oils, that is clean in every sense of the word.

A Clean Green Trade Show

Our lawns are not the only thing (hopefully!) turning green this weekend.  From Friday, April 24 to Sunday, April 26 Toronto's Green Living Show takes the stage at the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place.  Last spring was my first for this event.  I was like a chocoholic in a Lindt factory! Didn't know where to turn first.  For those of us who like our 'stuff' to be earth and people friendly, it's all there – from food and fashion to personal care products and vehicles.  And just about everything for your home. 

There were lots of free samples and the show-special prices were super. I got the coolest light blue sneakers by Simple.  They're made of hemp and organic cotton with recycled tire soles.  My brother thinks they are weird but I wear them proudly.  And comfortably.  Am hoping for a new pair of sneaks and maybe a purse this year.  One of my last conventional addictions is leather handbags and I am determined to find a greener substitute. 

My date last year was my patient and supportive husband, Dave, who did his best but finally gave up after 5+ hours. This year I am going with my intrepid sister-in-law, Diana, (yes, she of the bamboo kitchen implements) and possibly my dear friend, Lesley (fingers crossed!)

Hope to see you there.  I'll be the one who doesn't know which booth to check out first.

My Kingdom for a ‘Clean’ Wrinkle Cream!

I may be environmentally conscious but I'm as vain as the next person and still want to look my best.  So here I am, age 40 a distant memory, watching the onset of forehead waves and the deepening of the daddy of all wrinkles – the dreaded "11" – between my eyebrows. 

You're probably wondering what the problem is. There are multitudes of anti-aging products out there proven to plump up, fill in and generally steamroll facial wrinkles in weeks if not days.  "Go get some, Marci!"

The reason I hesitate is worth discussing.  The reason is that the ingredients in these and in all personal care products – from shampoos, antiperspirants and toothpastes to moisturizers, foundations and eye shadows – are largely unregulated and many of these ingredients are highly dangerous to human health. 

But why should we care what is in products that go on us?  Its not like we're eating them, right?  With the exception of lipstick, toothpaste and certain products that go on our hands, that is technically true.  But the reality is that anything that goes onto our skin is absorbed into our systems.  The figure I've heard is 60% ie that 60% of what we put on our skin is absorbed by it.  But does the actual percentage matter?  Not to me.  If an ingredient causes cancer the only amount I want to be exposed to is zero percent! 

The startling and frightening news is that the majority of personal care products contain ingredients we probably don't want on, in or anywhere near our bodies.  The good news is that some products are safer than others.  The confusing part is figuring out which ingredients we're willing to expose ourselves to.

The other evening for example I was flipping channels and saw a product on Canada's Shopping Channel that looked very promising.  In fact it was just what I am looking for – an anti-aging system for the skin derived from organic ingredients.  It even came came in glass bottles!   

It sounded perfect.  All I had to do was pick up the phone and order.  But I didn't.  Instead I went to my computer and found the product's list of ingredients.  They looked  promising indeed.  But there were 2 that I had never heard of.  I plugged both of them into the extensive database on EWG's Skin Deep website http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com.  Boasting 92,989,791 ingredient and product searches since 2004, Skin Deep is clearly a go to site for the multitudes.  When nothing came up, I Googled both ingredients and found that they were the names of patented preservatives.  The manufacturer's web site told me the generic ingredients in the preservatives and back I went to Skin Deep.  Sure enough, the generic names were in the data base and were reported to contain ingredients that raise concerns around cancer, development and reproductive toxicity, irritation and enhanced skin absorption among others.  I chose not to order the product and my search, along with my wrinkles, continues.

But all is not lost, Skin Deep provides many, many options for personal care products that are safe to use.

In fact, I just heard about a new product – made in Canada and clean as a whistle – that I am assured works and which I just ordered.  I promise to tell you all about it as soon as it arrives and I've had a chance to slather it on.  Fingers crossed! 

In the mean time, I highly recommend a visit to the Environmental Working Group.  EWG, a Washington DC-based non-profit group, is an up-to-the-minute information-packed resource about all things environmental.  In addition to Skin Deep, EWG provides current articles and findings about everything from pesticides in food and toxic chemicals to the latest skinny about compact fluorescent lightbulbs.  Sometimes disturbing, but always informative, EWG's site will, at the very least, give you lots to think about and a basis for making what my son refers to as "good choices".