Amber Gordon - Functional Wellness Consulting

Dirty clothes that is...and the plethora of products on the market to clean those dirty clothes.

Oh the wonderful smell of a fresh load of laundry straight out of the dryer. The fantastic scent of Downy flooding your senses...makes me want to do a face-plant right into that clothes and do some deep yoga breathing. Not. That was how I used to feel...until I found out why those clothes smelled so delicious. The majority of conventional laundry products are loaded with chemicals that can harm you and the environment. Harm as in cause respiratory issues, cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, rashes and skin irritation, liver and kidney damage, lung damage...enough? I am sure I can come up with a few more reasons you may want to avoid doing face plants, let alone just using these jugs full of toxins.

The laundry product industry is not required to list ALL the ingredients on their labels which makes it VERY difficult to identify the good from the bad. It is so frustrating! We talked about "fragrance" in the Health & Beauty Series but if you missed it, fragrance is a sneaky way to hide hundreds of ingredients. Mother Earth Living put together a nifty little chart of "Laundry Chemicals to Avoid", and for a quick refresher on the EWG's rating system, click here.

Let's take a quick peek at a few of the most popular laundry products:

PRE-TREATMENT: SHOUT

DETERGENT: DREFT BABY

PRE-TREATMENT: OXI CLEAN

DETERGENT: THE HONEST CO.

DETERGENT: TIDE

DETERGENT: GAIN

FABRIC SOFTENER: DOWNY

FABRIC SOFTENER: SNUGGLE

As you folks know by now, I am super conscious about what is in the products I use and safety is key BUT if it is safe and doesn't work, what is the point? I have tried several products on my "safe laundry" journey, several of which did not work for our family. Well guess what? I FINALLY found a system that works for my family AND is rated an A from EWG...I want to do a back flip I am so excited but I will refrain and just go wash another load of laundry. The current regimen I am using:

PRE-TREATMENT: Bac-Out

With lil' G feeding himself, clothes can get pretty nasty around here. Bac-Out to the rescue!
Where to Buy: Amazon.com

DETERGENT: Molly's Suds

LOVING this stuff, and the price is one of the more reasonable for safe detergent.
Where to Buy: Amazon.com

FABRIC SOFTENER: Wool Dryer Balls with Essential Oils

I started using wool dryer balls ages ago and love them. You can snag a 3-pack here: amazon.com. Lately I have been using Now Eucalyptus & Lemon Oil but you can choose whatever scent you like. I utilize all three wool balls and put 4 drops on each ball for each load.

And that is a wrap. With this routine you can rest assured you are not sitting around all day in clothes soaked in chemicals. And an added bonus...you will still smell good. =)

WARNING: This is a long post, but an important one. In an effort to prevent "information overload", I created notecards, yes...we are back in school. 😉 I will explain the notecards in a bit. Let's get started...

Did you know 40% of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life? I don't like those odds. We will never be able to avoid everything that is linked to causing cancer & other health problems, but what we can do is limit our exposure to toxins by controlling the things we can. I lost both my grandmothers to cancer, I personally struggled with infertility for six years and I now have a son that is my responsibility as a parent to protect. I don't have a surefire, bullet-proof plan but I am diligent about the products that I use and I continue to research and learn so I may limit my family's exposure to toxins.

BIOLOGY: the skin is the largest organ in the body, remember that from biology class? With that being said, what you put ON your body is just as important as what you put IN your body. The skin is very porous and the absorption is high, therefore, products are quickly absorbed and end up inside your body. If the products you are using contain toxic chemicals, preservatives and fragrances, guess what? Those chemicals are now in your body (who cares?, you should). The majority of skincare products on the market contain parabens, phthalates and/or other carcinogens which are linked to cancer, asthma, behavioral disorders, hormone disruption and reproductive issues. Hmmm, not interested. Now let's move on to Chemistry.

CHEMISTRY: parabens, phthalates, carcinogens and other difficult to pronounce words have become part of mainstream marketing/media. In an effort to be cool, several companies like to market "paraben free" but leave all the other crap in there. Seriously? I thought it would be helpful to do a high-level overview of what all these "bad things" are, why it is in your best interest to avoid them and how to identify them in the products you use.

NOTECARDS: My recommendation is to not try to digest all this at once. To prevent overwhelm, follow these steps:
1. Print off the notecards one at a time by clicking on each image. For example, choose the "Paraben" card.
2. Start with looking at the ingredients in your makeup to identify if there are any parabens lurking in there.
3. Make a list of the makeup you find that has parabens and then choose ONE of the products and work on finding a replacement.
4. Once you are happy with your toxin-free replacement, move on to the next makeup product that needs replacing.

This is a SLOW journey. I am still on the journey and it has been many years, but it is about progress. Don't overwhelm yourself and don't feel like you need to make all the changes at once. Ready...set...dive in!

Phew. That was a lot, but hopefully you found it enlightening. Over the next several weeks, I will share the products I have found to replace the nasty ones that were hiding in my cabinets. I hope to make your journey a tad bit easier than mine as I have already done the homework...you can cheat off my notes. 😉

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Health & Beauty Series: Makeup