Thought you might like to share with people the web site that they can check about the products they are using. It is http://www.safecosmetics.org You can put in any product and see what the scoring is. It is a great site to tell people about who don’t know why they should use natural products.

I too have friends that I know are happy using the store bought synthetic products and don’t see how important natural is. Until a few years ago I admit I didn’t see buying natural products as a necessity, I just thought if it does the job there’s no need to worry much about what’s in it. But I am SO Glad I starting reading about what those ingredients in mostly synthetic products are, and how damaging they can be. That added to the fact that natural products feel, smell and work much better I think, as well as giving you more of a sense of well being, but I don’t think I realised that until I started using them regularly.

I have changed nearly all the products I use for beauty, household etc. to ones with more natural ingredients and like you said I do have a more environmentally kinder holistic feeling, knowing they are more biodegradable and kinder to the environment, as well as to family health. I think making them as well yourself, even really simple ones like green tea toner makes you realise that simple natural ingredients can work as well, and you don’t need ones full of complicated chemical ingredients. I have made some natural products for friends, and they do love them but I think perhaps they are so used to buying the mass marketed products, as well as the fact they are cheaper, and they haven’t read about the dangers of some of the chemicals in them, although I’ve briefly talked about those.

I think as well, in the case of household products at least, they don’t trust natural products such as essential oils etc to disinfect well enough, I think because adverts scare us into thinking unless we use their product with loads of anti bacterial chemicals the house won’t be clean enough. I think beauty products advertised on the tv sometimes do the same thing, making us feel we need their products to fight wrinkles, have silky bouncy hair etc.

Hope this isn’t too long a comment, I thought your article was really interesting and sure it will reasonate with a lot of readers!

With Best Wishes,
Brigid Holmes UK

Thanks for the reminder, Jan. I hope other people chime in on this.

(p.s. – I bought a large order of organic cocoa butter from you a while ago. It’s wonderful.)