I recently found this great article-

5 EASY WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR TOXIC LOAD AT HOME

I’m slowly following the advice. I’ve made great strides to reduce my plastic- I have a cute Swell Bottle I love to carry around and a 40 oz Hydroflask that’s great on my desk. I’m slowly working towards drinking the contents of both every day, but lately find myself stuck in all day meetings and not wanting to attract attention going to the bathroom every hour… As for the water itself, I’m lucky to live somewhere with nice deep wells and high quality water. By bringing water from home, I can avoid the highly fluoridated and otherwise potentially full of particulates water that I might run into out in the world.

Cleaning green is a process I’m working slowly towards. I was well stocked on traditional cleaning products and after two years of home renovations (and admittedly little cleaning) I’m just now getting back into the habit of more consistent cleaning. Add the layer of working full time and chasing a toddler and there are some days you’re lucky to find a surface to sit on, never mind something ready to photograph for a lifestyle magazine…I’ve switched our laundry products to cleaner alternatives and have maybe two more loads of dryer sheets to use up (I’m trying to balance all this with reducing my waste impact) and I have dryer balls ready to go when the time comes.

Organic food is something I look to improve a little bit each week- as I use up conventional foods from the pantry, I replace them with something better. I’m lucky to live in an area flush with farmers markets and I have the land to grow a lot of our own food. I do my best to avoid the Dirty Dozen and load up on the Clean Fifteen. With the food, I try to do the best I can without worrying too much. Now that I’ve learned Cheerios are at the top of the list of cereals full of Glyphosphate (more info here), we’re going to finish the box we have and look for something comparable with a lower pesticide count.

The thing I’ve really made progress with is my beauty detox-

The average woman uses about 12 personal care products a day! Most products contain hundreds of endocrine disruptors, which interfere with hormones. I usually say that if you can’t pronounce it, you probably shouldn’t be putting it on your body. When in doubt, refer to Skin Deep, which rates cosmetics and offers tips on safer options. Replace your cosmetics and perfumes with chemical-free options whenever possible! The most important products are the ones you are using constantly, like your shampoo, toothpaste, face creams and foundations. Replace your perfume with essential oils!

I’m not a big perfume person, and I’m still testing out toothpaste options, but Beautycounter has the rest of it covered- from the luxurious cleansers, to the spa quality moisturizers to the beautiful cosmetics, I know that the entire line is screened for safety, and I can trust the Never List and the research behind it.

Since beginning my #switchtosafer, I’ve learned some startling truths- that the multi-billion cosmetics industry is largely unregulated and the laws haven’t been updated since 1938. Our skin is our largest organ and absorbs what we put on it in under 30 seconds. With years of studies to support that reducing your toxic load is important for your health, and the EU well ahead of the US in restricting known toxic chemicals from use in personal care products (1400 chemicals banned in the EU versus 11 in the US), I’m proud to lend my voice to the Beautycounter mission to get safer products in the hands of everyone.

We put a lot of effort into eating well, exercising and taking care of our mental state- why are we negating that by covering our bodies in known carcinogens?

If you’re interested in joining the mission, reach out and let me know. The more voices we can lend to moving the needle to improved product safety, the better.

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