I was recently doing the makeup of one of my dearest friends Alicia, her daughter was with her at the time (who is a little over 2 years old) & was very interested in watching my and her Mom's every move during the process, & it wasn't long before she started to reach for the bright coloured pallets of makeup. (after clearing it with Alicia first of course) I opened up a few of my older pallets, and various other makeup products. After we got over the initial ADORABLE factor - ( because she truly took creating her look seriously, and had an obvious process in mind - we watched as she was drawn to and chose the BRIGHT & BOLD colours, and despite subtle suggesting on my part of a more natural tone, she quickly returned to her original choice of blush - Black. ) We got to talking about some of the cosmetic knowledge we had picked up along the way. As many of you who know me personally, or take the time to follow my blog will know I use exclusively Arbonne cosmetics & products. But WHY?!
Now I am not going to get into naming/bashing other companies or products, & I will spare you the list of all the disgusting Animal Testing practices/ or animal products that are found in almost ALL cosmetics & personal care products of ANY kind in North America, versus what it means what it means to be Vegan certified (thought I will be talking more on this topic in the near future). I simply wanted to share some of my thoughts on the subject of chemicals in cosmetics, and the potential risks they pose on our health. As advanced a society we are, it came as a HUGE shock to me that we have one of the lowest standards of what is aloud to be sold on shelves & even have practices in place that protect the use of the harmful chemicals, carcinogen and additives that are KNOWN to cause cancer & have been removed from products in other countries around the world. There have been many companies who are actively being sued due to harmful ingredients, some of which have been removed from the same exact products sold in other countries due to their risk but are still in the bottles you will find on any North American shelf.. buy how is this even possible? Well, I had this fantasy mind set that a products had to be safe, in order for them to sell it to us, but i have some shocking truth to share. The reality is, it's the exact OPPOSITE that is true. Before an ingredient becomes banned and has to be removed from products sold on the shelves here, it has to first be PROVEN not that it is beneficial for you - but that it in fact can cause disease, cancer, or some other direct linking cause of illness or death. & if that alone doesn't sound bad enough, all of the trials, and tests (almost always practiced on animals) and studies on these ingredients are conducted 'biasly' by the same exact people who stand to gain or lose biased on the results found. You may also find it interesting to know that there is a mandatory "shelf life" on ANY personal care product sold in stores, forcing the use of harmful preservatives in our products.
Our skin is the largest and the most vulnerable of our organs, anything placed onto the skin is absorbed into our blood stream in just 26SECONDS - it is exposed to so much environmental stresses daily, why would we ever want to start loading something harmful onto it?! I have gone ahead and attached a few credible sources I recommend to start off your research. "The David Suzuki dirty Dozen chemicals in Cosmetics" Here, "Harmful Chemicals in Beauty Products and Their Safer Alternatives" Here, & "You have the right to know" Here.
I am very proud to use exclusively Arbonne cosmetics and personal care products because I know that not only are the products causing no harm to any innocent animals or to our planet in the process of production, but that they will actually be beneficial and nourish me!
I don't want to drag this post on to long, because truthfully it was done in hopes that each of you will go out and do your own research on the subject, flip over the backs of your bottles, and be able to make your own educated decision on what products you use personally or on your family!
An old quote that has always stuck with me, and came to mind when writing this, & I think it is the perfect way to wrap-up this post.
"When we know better - We do better"
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