If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed for free updates. Thanks for visiting!

When my daughter was born (May 2007), I bought and used the well-known products that most parents use, the common brands of lotions and soaps, the standard baby furniture and linens, the cute clothes that were given as gifts. I planned to make my own baby food, and maybe even buy organic foods, but I was totally unaware of the toxicity of everyday name brands and common personal care products, even the ones that claimed to be “natural.”

One day, when talking to a friend about homemade baby food and buying organic, she recommended a book to me called Raising Baby Green by Dr. Alan Greene. I checked it out at the library, devoured it, and decided I needed to buy it to have on hand as a resource. The book opened my eyes to simple ways and reasons why to de-toxify and pointed me to where my little green revolution really began: Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Skin Deep Database, and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

Growing up, my mom sold Avon products, so I always used (and loved) them, and a few years ago I began to sell them myself for convenience (mostly I just bought my own products). When I read in Dr. Greene’s book and later on EWG’s sites about the truth about cosmetics, I was blown away to say the least.

Was I endangering my daughter by using these products that I just assumed were totally safe? You’d think that the supposedly “#1 Pediatrician Recommended Brand” would be a safe bet (rather than the truth which is that it has a very high hazard score - 7 out of 10 - on Skin Deep). Well, that’s because we are all being mislead by labels on packaging with catch phrases (such as “all-natural”) that may or may not be completely true.

Learning that the FDA had such limited regulations on cosmetics and personal care products and that these products that I’d been using my whole life were filled with ingredients that interrupted hormones or caused cancer, among other health problems, made me feel deceived and extremely disappointed. I found hope in the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which encourages companies to sign the pact saying that they will phase out these dangerous ingredients and raise their standards towards those of the EU Cosmetics Directive.

But then I found out that all the multi-million dollar cosmetics corporations, including Avon and some companies that claim to “natural” like Arbonne, had refused to sign. It’s not a mystery to me that the FDA won’t regulate cosmetics better now when I imagine the monetary power of these cosmetics corporations (sounds a little like the chemical companies and the BPA issue, huh?).

So I began gradually looking up every personal care & cosmetic product I had on the Skin Deep database, searching out its “hazard score” - and have now almost completely de-toxified my family’s beauty/personal care routine.  These safer, natural products may cost a little more, but as a friend of mine told me once, you either “pay now or pay later.” (By the way, EWG has a great guide for buying healthy children’s personal care products!)

Going green with my cosmetics routine has set a precedent for other areas of my life as well. I’ve always tried to be considerate of the environment and of Creation, long before I knew about the green movement.  But I have made this an even higher priority in my life in the last several months (I guess having a baby will do that to you!), by attempting to green, as well as simplify, other areas of my life, too.

Nicole, or Gidget as she’s known in the blogosphere, blogs about her attempts at going green along with other aspects of her life as a wife and mom to the adorable “Chiquita” at Gidget Goes Home.

More parenting videos on JuiceBoxJungle