The Green Beauty Guide

I am bombarded by the demands to review a new “green” skincare line. Sometimes (quite rarely) these lines are truly spectacular and really green, and I rave and urge you to give them a try.
Sometimes these lines are overpriced and often contain hazardous ingredients that you must beware of.
One of such lines is Luvalla (L’Uvalla? [...]

[Read more →]

Sometimes it’s tempting to ditch the no-paraben rule, especially if that pretty pink lip gloss is just what’s doctor ordered on a gloomy day. But even if the gloss is pretty, parabens themselves are perhaps the ugliest ingredients out there.

It was once believed that parabens, known as esters of para-hydroxybenzoic acid, are not stored in [...]

[Read more →]

               In winter time, our skin requires gentle cleansing, and that’s when plant-based, low foaming cleansers come handy.

                All cleansing products, whether they are meant for use on the face, body, or hair, are based on one of three types of cleansing agents: detergents, plant soaps, and saponins.

                Detergents are the most ubiquitous type [...]

[Read more →]

Benzyl alcohol, a popular ingredient in natural beauty products, is an aromatic substance naturally found in essential oils including jasmine, hyacinth, and ylang-ylang.

Even in small dosages, benzyl alcohol may cause various toxic effects including respiratory failure, very low blood pressure, convulsions, and paralysis.

MSDA Safety Data Sheet for Benzyl Alcohol: “Toxicology: Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or [...]

[Read more →]

In my book, THE GREEN BEAUTY GUIDE, I give you lots of theory on why certain cosmetic ingredients are bad for you. However, some people cannot believe things are really that bad with their trusted brands that you can find anywhere, in distant villages and gorgeous supermarket chains.

In the next few posts, I want to [...]

[Read more →]

Popular lipsticks contain massive levels of lead, found the new study by FDA - and these levels are even higher than those reported in 2007 by the consumer advocacy group Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.
This new analysis, conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, used a technology called “inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry” to assess lead [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve been always cautious about recommending natural beauty products, and I always recommend triple-checking the ingredients list.
Just because a company makes a nice natural insect repellant, it doesn’t automatically mean their moisturizers and shampoos are just as good.
Not many companies are consistently green in their offerings, and I sadly have to add Kiss [...]

[Read more →]

Just a few clicks ago I was checking out a lovely Pink Grapefruit Organic Bath Oil by a Brit spa line NaturallyThinking. The core of the “organic” bath oil was sunflower oil - not organic. The word “organic” on the label was justified by the use of organic essential oils  - mere a drop or [...]

[Read more →]

My sister is a bit slow in grasping the basics of cosmetic label reading, so when she buys a shampoo with a word “organic” on the bottle it’s most often will be used to mop floors. So this time, when she came back with a happy yellow tube of Australian Organics shampoo which contained cocamide [...]

[Read more →]

These days, anywhere I look at the label, I see these letters: BHA. What is it? And why does it pop up even in so-called natural products?
According to Skin Deep, BHA (butyl hydroxy anisole) is a mighty phenolic compound. It’s banned from use in cosmetics in the European Union yet U.S. health authorities happily [...]

[Read more →]