Detoxifying Your Bathroom Cabinet & Beauty Routine
Take a closer look in your bathroom cabinet and under the bathroom sink and you’ll likely find some old prescriptions; products you’ve used once and didn’t like, but “didn’t want to throw away;” a seriously out-of-date moisturizer; maybe even some harmful personal care, and cleaning products full of synthetic chemicals...
According to the Environmental Working Group, the average woman uses 12 products and puts 168 chemicals on her body daily. That’s 12 opportunities to create a cleaner, green beauty routine.
As you detox your bathroom cabinet and entire body routine, start by upgrading the products you use the most and reduce the number of products you use in your daily routine. This will also help reduce the number of different ingredients you’re applying.
A favorite natural beauty hack is organic coconut oil: it can replace countless beauty and skincare products: from moisturizer and lotion, having cream, sunburn care, makeup remover to mouth wash (via oil pulling), and so much more. If you prefer to use makeup remover wipes, reach for ones that are free of alcohol and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). These ingredients are harmful for your skin and accelerate aging. Source certified organic cleansing make up removal wipes that utilize essential oils and certified 100% organic cotton cloth as an alternative.
Manufacturers of menstrual products generally don’t disclose the ingredients they use to make tampons, sanitary pads and panty liners, yet research has shown that a many of today’s menstrual and vaginal care products contain a multitude of chemicals that may cause cancer, disrupt hormones, or cause unnecessary allergic reactions. Advocacy organization Women’s Voices for the Earth focuses on industries that most heavily market and sell to women including those that manufacture menstrual products, and produced a fascinating free report available on their website called “Chem Fatale,” which can be found at: www.womensvoices.org/menstrual-care-products.
Learning more about common ingredients listed on those product bottles and jars in your bathroom is a good place to start. Some of the ingredients commonly used in beauty products are scary and potentially harmful. Fortunately, there are some great resources available to help us sort through all of this. Dr. David Suzuki has a simple list of 12 cosmetic chemicals recommended to avoid:
- BHA and BHT
- Coal tar dyes: p-phenylenediamine and colors listed as “CI” followed by a 5-digit number
- DEA-related ingredients
- Dibutyl phthalate
- Formaldehyde-releasing preservatives
- Parabens
- Parfum (a.k.a. fragrance)
- PEG compounds
- Petrolatum
- Siloxanes
- Sodium laureth sulfate
- Triclosan
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment and they rate over 70,000 personal care products in their Skin Deep Cosmetics Database www.ewg.org/skindeep
and nonprofit Made Safe® is America’s first comprehensive human health-focused certification for nontoxic products across store aisles.
When it comes to the products that you put in and on your body, manufacturers rarely have your health in mind! The more you know, the more informed choices you can make. Knowledge is power!
Resources
1. www.womensvoices.org/menstrual-care-products.
2. https://davidsuzuki.org/queen-of-green/dirty-dozen-cosmetic-chemicals-avoid/
3. www.madesafe.org/find-products/products/






