Mom Goes Green

I’ve never really been a girly-girl (in fact, in my college days, my husband referred to me as “goth lite”), but I always wear make-up, lipstick, all that “presentation jazz!”

Because I’m a daily lipstick wearer I find that, at the end of the day, I need to put something on my lips or they just feel dried out and naked.  My husband uses lip balm (am I allowed to disclose that?) and our kids are always grabbing our stuff and putting it on too!

Now that winter is around the corner (ugh!) I’ve been thinking more and more about what we put on our lips and the need to keep our mouths healthy.  Our daughter is notorious for licking her lips and they get super chapped… and this is where my concern comes in.

Too many products on the market are made of the stuff we really don’t want to ingest or have absorbed into our bodies.  I read the label on a bunch of our products – ingredients #1 thru 3: petroleum and waxes.  They don’t even protect your lips and I’ve seen research calling some ingredients potentially carcinogenic… Oh, that’s not good.

So, I found a great line of lip balm products that will accommodate our entire family – Eco Lips!  Their ingredients are organic, natural, nutrient rich, cruelty-free and even made in a solar powered plant!  They have a tinted version for me (made with natural mineral pigments), a scented version for the kids (they’re 100% edible, though not encouraged!) and a sport version (that can be waved about by Mr. Man!).  And they really work!  Plus, they donate a percent of profits to environmental initiatives.  Bravo!

It may seem really simple, but when you consider that our lips are the most absorbent part of our bodies (and all of the synthetic ingredients contained in the more common products) it’s really quite a big deal that you keep your lips protected, healthy and NON-toxic.

See, I got you thinking.  Now you, too, will reconsider what you put on your precious little pucker!

Going green can be a long process…it certainly doesn’t happen overnight, in a week, or even a month, without massive changes and a lot of expense.

You can’t just take everything from the cupboards, cabinets and under the sink and toss them.  (Wouldn’t that be contradictory… just blobbing it all down the drain!) And sometimes it’s really difficult to leave behind those products that you’ve given your loyalty to for so long.  But don’t you just wonder… what have I pledged my allegiance to?

My dear husband (yes, he’s finally catching on… if I could just get him to turn off that perpetually running faucet!) told me about a brand new fab site he discovered called the GoodGuide.

They have researched, reviewed and rated over 61,000 (!) personal care and household chemical products for safety, health and green criteria, so they’re making it easy to find products that are right for you and good for the planet. Can you believe no one else has done this! You can “verify” manufacturer claims, “identify” the content and make a “green-ified” decision… Finally, a central resource for seeing what’s behind the label instead of trusting what the label tells us we need to know!

And they don’t just pan some products…they actually give you alternative choices. It’s really hard to explain how much great info they give you, but they even rate the companies that manufacturer the products – if their products are good, but their business practices stink, they let you know.  You really have to try it…

Isn’t it great to sometimes land on the ground floor of something new and cool.  Congratulations… you have landed!

(if you feel compelled, this is a video of the creator of GoodGuide talking about the site at TechCrunch50 earlier this month — Click here.)

Well, I was stuck. Now I’m a little un-stuck…at least for a few new products.

I’ve been really concerned about soaps, shampoos, lotions…all those things that smell oh, so yummy, but go down the drain …and are full of synthetic chemicals that actually harm our skin and contaminate water and the environment.

Many of them actually commonly contain petroleum synthetics, sulfates that are harmful to the environment and marine life, synthetic stabilizers that contain suspected carcinogens, non-biodegradable detergents and forms of formaldehyde (!?!) preservatives. Well, fabulous! I can hardly wait for my next shower so I can poison the earth and MYSELF!

I’m taking my first step and I’ve replaced our hand soap and my kids’ bath wash and shampoo with Method products. I’ve heard a lot about them (and knew they were available in tons of places) so I’m giving them a try. Method products are naturally-derived, biodegradable products and placed in recycled/recyclable containers from factories and offices that operate using some of the greenest practices I’ve heard of yet!

Not only are they wonderfully green, the packaging is great (my feelings about ugly, green products are no secret!) and they smell fabulous!!! Ahhh! More of my criteria met!

I have to be honest and say that while I purchased them, I haven’t yet put them to use. I still have a small supply of our current products and wouldn’t it be ridiculous to just dump them down the drain??? I mean, they’re going to wind up there anyhow, whether we use them or dump them down in one big blob!…

But I will certainly keep you posted…check ‘em out during your next store visit and let me know what you think!