I'm Stephanie Safarian and this is episode 116.

You are listening to the Sustainable Minimalist Podcast, a show about living simply and sustainably with your family.

Here's your host, Stephanie Safarian.

Hello there and welcome back. On today's show we are discussing how, exactly, to find non-toxic and sustainably packaged beauty

products. Now humor me for a minute. Think about the last time you went shopping for lotion or shampoo or

mascara or some other beauty product. What is it that attracted you to the product? Was it the

packaging? Was it the product description? Was it the scent? Maybe you had even seen or heard of this product in a

magazine or from a friend? What was it about the product that excited you enough to purchase it?

The truth is that most of us buy a product based on its packaging.

Maybe it has a pretty logo in a whimsical font, or maybe the product

description makes some really bold claims like 25% longer lashes or decreased wrinkles in two weeks and let's be

honest who does not want ageless skin or longer lashes or smooth silky hair or whatever the claim may be?

It often happens that we are distracted by the claims, and so we neglect to actually read the labels.

The truth of the matter is that underneath all those impressive claims and behind that smiling gorgeous model on the

packaging there are some really frightening chemicals in some greatly over-packaged packages.

The average woman uses 12 different beauty products each and every single day

and those 12 different products add up to over 100

different chemicals that we put on our bodies every day. The real secret behind the beauty and personal care industries is that

they are virtually unregulated, right? So they are allowed to use untested chemicals in their products.

Now I have said this on the show before, but it bears repeating.

The United States and its laws for cosmetic safety has gone unchanged since they were created back in 1938.

And Canada in Europe they banned 1,300 unsafe ingredients in beauty products.

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