In the world today with all of the cancers, etc, one of the main reasons that I started making bath products was because I was allergic to over the counter products and they didn't work for me. That was many years ago and I wanted to share the knowledge that I have acquired along the way. I hope you will find the following information useful. It is not my intention to scare anyone into buying my products or be "Chicken Little". I just want to share not scare. So read on if you like. The resources I've used to create this are Environmental Working Groupwww.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php a large lobby in Washington DC dedicated to getting the FDA to clean up what's in cosmetics and food products as well, You can take just about any product and see exactly what's in it and the hazards of particular ingredients. I also used "A Consumer's Dictionary of Costmetic Ingredients" By Ruth Winter, MS for ingredient descriptions for ingredients I have not yet found from Environmental Working Group.
Jane Griffith
Skin Essentials Owner
Information Regarding Ingredients In Most Cosmetics
Remember that anything you put on your skin you are eating. Your body absorbs it as if it were food. Keeping that in mind, please read on if you are interested.
Parabens
Cancer survivors are particularly concerned about parabens.
Alcohols
Alcohols are used to preserve lotions, but they dry out your skin.
Testimonials
Massage therapists love our natural products and so do their clients.
Why do you use lye?
Saponification is a chemical process that naturally changes the oils and lye into soap.
Propylene Glycol
Propylene glycol is a synthetic ingredient that has been linked to skin irritations.
Petroleum/Mineral Oil
Petroleum/Mineral Oil (by-product of gasoline) products are widely used in bath and beauty products.
Fragrance/(Parfum)
Fragrance oil are very strong and are often associated with headaches and skin irritations. Find out what Skin Essentials uses instead of fragrance oils.
Mandate safety studies
Only 11 percent of the 10,500 ingredients the FDA has documented in products have been assessed for safety by the cosmetic industry's review panel. Find out if your products have the untested ingredients.
Potassium Sorbate
Potassium Sorbate is the only preservative that is considered GRAS (generally regarded as safe) by the FDA.
Sodium Ingredients
Many products contain sodium ingredients that dry out your skin. Find out their common names here.
Sensitizers
You know how sometimes you can use a product for a while and then all of a sudden you break out and can't figure out why?
Autism
Autistic children are exceptionally susceptible to chemical and synthetic ingredients in bath products.
Cancer Survivors
Find out what ingredients are known to cause cancer.
What are Essential Oils?
It takes 10,000 pounds of rose petals to make 1 pound of essential oil. That's why real rose oil can be as high as $5000-$10,000 a pound.
Sodium Hydroxide is lye. Bar soaps contain sodium hydroxide, which is lye. After the soap is made it is cured for 4-6 weeks during which a chemical process called saponification takes place. This is a chemical process that changes the oils and lye into soap. After this waiting period the oils are no longer oils ( although the healing properties remain) and the lye is no longer lye and the soap is safe to use. Commercial soap companies salt most of the oils before they are made into soap so the shelf life is forever, they also dry the skin.
Tallow is used by many soap makers. It is the oldest way to make soap. They buy or get fat from the butcher for free and render it a process of melting down the fat to make soap. It is free or inexpensive but a big job to melt it. This is one of the main reasons cost of soaps are so different. A tallow soap will be less money than an all vegtable soap (Skin Essentials are all vegtable soaps).
The natural world such as the Environmental Working Group in Washington DC, and the Edgar Cayce Foundation along with many other natural groups have found that the herbacides, pesticides (found in the food of these animals) along with the antibiotics and hormones growth and otherwise are stored in the fat (tallow) of the animal. That's why they tell you not to eat the fat from that steak!
