Natural Soaps and Lotions

It seems that lately people are all about anything "organic" or "natural". Shopping at whole foods is all the rage. And trust me, I adore whole foods as much as the next person. What you put in your body is super important. But what about the soaps and lotions that you put on your body? Aren't those important too?

I have some friends who walk into Ulta and drop $300 on all sorts of things that they "have to have". And I have other friends that pick up all of their beauty products from the glorious aisles of target. Now, I have been on both sides of that spectrum. When I can get shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face moisturizer (with spf), and body lotion all for under $50 my bank account is pretty darn happy.

Then I got to thinking. Ideally, I would like to have the skin and hair of a 22 year old forever. I'm not delusional and I know that is impossible. But it couldn't hurt to start investing in high quality beauty products. So I was sucked into the world of high end beauty products. Now, I don't know about you, but I can hardly figure out how to choose a product in the aisles of target. So instead of getting lost in the aisles of Ulta, I went to Bluemercury. The sales woman there was super helpful. The first thing she asked me was my price range. In my head I was thinking that I didn't really want to spend that much but I also wanted to avoid sounding naive. So I told her $100. Apparently the store is set up by price range; with the more expensive products in the back. Needless to say I was directed toward the front of the store. But not to worry, there was a great line, according to the saleswoman, called M61. She was super excited that this line is fragrance free and paraben free. So I pretended that I knew what parabens were and left the store with eye cream, face wash and lotion, all for the low price of $200.

But it was worth the investment...or so I thought.

After a little research I found out that parabens are just preservatives, used in lotions and other products because they sit on store shelves for so long. So it really is a good thing that the M61 products that I bought were void of these chemicals. But it also has a whole slew of ingredients that I cannot pronounce and do not recognize; including phenoxyethanol which is a synthetic preservative.

Just like we are told that we shouldn't eat food if there are more than five ingredients, or if we don't recognize some of them; wouldn't it make sense to use the same process to choose our beauty products? Granted, we can't stay clear of all things "inorganic", or at least I can't. I love cheetos with the fake orange cheese. And I haven't found a great sunscreen without some foreign ingredients. But I did find a place where I now get all of my soaps and lotions.

I get my soaps and lotions from Little Egg Harbor Soaps. It is a small company that makes handmade products. Because they are not made in bulk the products have no preservatives. All ingredients in the products are food grade. If the ingredients have a scientific name, in parenthesis they write its common name. They don't even add color to their lotions, butters and scrubs. And they really have it all. They have bath fizzes, eye treatments and lip scrubs and because they are made with many household ingredients they aren't that expensive

My daily moisturizer contains purified water, sunflower oil, vegetable derived emulsifying wax, rose hydrosol, grapeseed oil, hazelnut oil, sweet almond oil, olive oil, and vitamin E, and only costs $13.95.

Maybe all of the chemicals in generic lotions and soaps don't cause cancer or other adverse affects. But maybe they do. So why not buy beauty products with natural ingredients? They cost the same, if not less, they are just as effective, and in my case I get to support a small business.

I believe that what you put on your body is just as important as what you put in it.

Which will lead me to future posts about hard shampoo and conditioners, as well as nontoxic, healing and nourishing make-up.

#soap #lotion #natural #littleeggharbor