Body Products

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The Truth About Body Products

Body products have been used since ancient times.

In 2003 a 43,000 square foot perfume factory was unearthed in Cyprus.

Lipstick was used 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia, made with crushed, semi-precious jewels"

It seems that people have always wanted to look good and smell good. Imagine a PERFUME FACTORY in 2000 BC! Experts believe it was destroyed in an earthquake around 1,850 BC.

The ingredients in many of these body products, scientists say were, perhaps among others, pine, coriander, olive oil, parsley, bergamot, bitter almonds and laurel. In ancient Egypt, perfumes were used for cosmetic and pharmaceutical purposes, as well as for religious ceremonies.

The Greeks painted their faces, and the Romans used oil-based perfumes in baths and fountains. In fact, they even applied it to their weapons!

In the 17th century, new fragrances were developed in France by blending ingredients. Of course, these were all natural perfumes made from flowers, roots, fruits, rinds or barks or other naturally occurring aromatic plants. Huge amounts of natural ingredients were used to make even a small amount of fragrance for different body products.

Over the centuries, different methods were tried in an effort to enhance one’s appearance. Some people used a whitening agent on their face which was highly poisonous. Other poisons like antimony (eye shadow), mercuric sulfide (lip reddeners), and belladonna (eye sparkle) were also used for awhile.

Surprisingly, antiperspirants and deodorants came into use in the 1890s, with aluminum chloride as the active ingredient, which was replaced by aluminum chlorohydrate. This is still in use today. Between 1910 and 1950, advertisers were telling women they would be more attractive with proper diet, exercise, and use of body products such as cosmetics and hair products.

The movie industry, with the production of technicolor pictures, contributed to the use of mascara (developed by Helena Rubinstein), colored powder, pancake makeup, lipstick etc.

In 1927, the ‘perm’, permanent waving of hair was developed.

With the advent of television, this meant more prevalent advertising and of course, employing visual effects. The body products industry has grown to over $20 billion in sales.

Today, the desire of people to ‘look good and smell good’, is unprecedented. The cosmetics/personal care industry is big business, with countless millions of dollars being poured into seductive advertising, eye pleasing packaging, irresistible scents, silky, sophisticated lotions.

The marketing is phenomenal and deliberate for body products.

In 1938, the cosmetics industry got control of that entire chemical industry. In other words, the industry is self regulated.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has found more than 2,500 chemicals in cosmetics and body products that are toxic, cause tumors, reproductive complications, biological mutations and skin and eye irritations.

Perfume is composed of many of the same toxic chemicals found on the EPA’s and CERCLA’s hazardous waste lists, and one or all of which in combination with one another, may cause when inhaled: “ventral nervous system disorders, dizziness, nausea, lack of coordination, slurred speech, drowsiness, irritation to the mouth, throat, eyes, skin, lungs and GI tract, kidney damage, headache, respiratory failure, ataxia, and fatigue, among other symptoms and illnesses.”

“Not a single cosmetic company warns consumers of the presence of carcinogens in its products - despite the fact that a number of common cosmetic ingredients are carcinogenic or carcinogenic precursors.

Some experts estimate that 20 percent of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cases among women are attributable to their use of hair dyes.”

Cancer Prevention Coalition

Material Safety Data Sheets on each chemical confirm these findings. Many of the chemicals in perfumes have been shown to cause serious health problems and death in animals.

We are ingesting these chemicals, we are breathing them, and we are rubbing them into our skin.

Up until 1960, it was thought that the skin was a 'protective armor'. Then experts realized that the skin is actually an excellent way of delivering substances to the INSIDE of the body. In fact, a whole industry has been created using trans-dermal delivery. The 'quit smoking' patch is perhaps the best known of these.

“Cosmetics are being marketed in the United States, which may pose a serious hazard to the public. Over 3,000 chemicals are used in cosmetics, and one third of these ingredients have been reported as toxic substances.”

Senator Ted Kennedy, Quoting a General Accounting Office Report

What is your routine when getting ready for the day? Here are some possibilities:

You have a hot shower, using body wash or bar soap.
You wash your hair with shampoo.
You condition your hair with conditioner.
You run some gel through your hair.
You dry your hair and maybe spray it to hold it in place.
If you are a man, you lather shaving cream all over your face, and shave.
After your shave, you pat your face with some nice smelling aftershave.
You brush your teeth.
Maybe you gargle with mouthwash.
You apply your deodorant/antiperspirant.
If you are a woman, you likely rub your arms, face, hands, maybe your legs with a nice silky body lotion.
Then, of course, comes the makeup, and maybe a splash of perfume.

By the time you leave the bathroom, you have just exposed yourself to about 200 chemicals through your body products.

You have rubbed them into your skin, sending them into your body system, and you have inhaled them. And they will be with you all day. In fact, they will be with you a lot longer than that.

Not only have you exposed YOURSELF to these synthetic chemicals, many of which are toxic, you are now carrying them around with you for others to smell. The soap, shampoo, conditioner, gel, body lotion, makeup or aftershave, all have different fragrances.

Your have also just added to the pollution in your home. Mainstream body products, along with other factors like household cleaning products, flooring, furniture, and electromagnetic frequencies are making our homes 5 – 70% more polluted than the outside air. Even some of the most industrialized cities cannot compare to some of our homes with respect to the air quality.

What is a fragrance? It is the combination of hundreds of chemicals, many of which are toxic. Up to 600 chemicals will go into just one scent.

We have moved a long way from the original body products and perfumes of our ancestors, who started all of this. Where they used natural, aromatic ingredients, we are now using up to 6,000 synthetic chemicals, many of them toxic, and the industry is not even regulated!

Even though the quantities of chemicals in these products are small, it is the combination of them, and the buildup over time that causes the problem. I don’t smoke, so dropping into the occasional smoke filled room is not going to hurt me. In fact, it does not concern me at all. But being exposed regularly over a period of time, even to second hand smoke has been proven to be a dangerous and risky thing to do.

The same could be true with body products. I am OK to go into a public washroom (or one in someone’s home for that matter), and use smelly soap. I rinse and rinse. The scent usually stays on for awhile and though I don’t like it, I am fine. I stay away from these types of products and fragrances in my own life, so a small exposure here and there is OK.

It does bother me immensely, though, when I have to sit on an airplane or at a concert or in a meeting or whatever, and have to breathe in second hand perfume. The headache starts over my left eye, the cough starts, then the sneezing and the overall discomfort.

But I do have a wonderful little device now that I wear around my neck. It neutralizes odors and kills viruses and bacteria around my head. It is sort of like being in a little bubble, and it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Many people with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) have developed this terrible affliction because of their repeated exposure. It has been explained to me like this. If you have a glass full of water (the analogy is that the glass of water is your exposure, your building sensitivity), and if you add one more drop to that glass, it will overflow.

So it is with for some people with MCS. They were there when that one extra drop was added to the glass.

Read Bonnie’s story for a first hand account of how this happens, and how fragrance in body products can affect one’s life.

Personal body products are simply part of our lives today. We would not think of NOT using deodorant, (though we SHOULD think hard about wearing antiperspirant), we want to soften our skin with lotion, condition and tone the skin on our faces, enhance our appearance with makeup, have a shower, wash our hair, run the gel through it, and yes, even smell good. And we accomplish this by using combinations of body products.

The thing is, you CAN do ALL of that and keep yourself AWAY from the dangerous chemicals that we risk our health with every single day of our lives when using many of these body products. It is even possible to safely SMELL good! Just change the products that you use, switch over to good quality, toxic free body products, and know that this is one thing that you CAN take control of in this modern world.

Over the years, I have succeeded in making a complete switch and I have to tell you it feels great to know that everything I use in my house and on my body, is safe.

I’m one of the lucky ones. I developed an allergy to perfumes. If I had not, I would still be using all the stuff I once did. My house would be polluted, my body building up the toxins. Some thngs you can control - some things you cannot. Take control of your body now.

Besides our MiEssence organic personal care products, we are offering Dr. Mercola's variety of fine products. We have been following Dr. Mercola for several years, and we are so pleased that we are able to represent his products. When you get to the site, check out the body butter. This is just THE best thing I have ever put on my skin. And it is 100% organic so no worries about absorbing any of the nasties through my skin.

I would suggest signing up for his free newsletter. There is SO much information on his site and through his newsletters. I cannot imagine NOT receiving his valuable information.

Stay tuned. We are working on more pure, organic body products to bring to you.

Did you see our body products for babies?

Exclusive USDA Certified
Organic Body Butter
(Click on the image to the left)

You will find links to outside sites regarding body products, on the 'fragrance' page.