Canary in the Coal Mine

Here is a great explanation of why I gave up almost all of my personal grooming potions.  Granted prior to getting CFS I had already converted to organic products but now I only use three items: homemade toothpaste or organic toothpaste (I alternate between the two), baking soda and water "shampoo", and soap (I am switching to South of France products once I'm done with my Yardley.  I love the smell of my Yardley and I'm going to miss it but two lovely scented South of France soaps just arrived in the mail so I can still be a little girly.)




Cosmetics and personal grooming are big business and contain a huge variety of chemicals.  Personally I know that since contracting CFS and possibly before, my body has a really hard time ridding itself of toxins.  I've mentioned before that I take activated charcoal and bentonite clay fairly regularly to help with this.  The fact that cosmetics are basically an unregulated, unsupervised industry is bad for everyone not just us CFSers.

I did buy Organic Body Care Recipes which is a wonderful book but I'm too sick to make the often  complicated recipes.  I'm looking forward to making quite a few of these once I'm feeling better.  Right now make up is the furthest thing from my mind.

Another good resource for make up recipes is Wellness Mama.  She recently did a series of blog posts on very simple home made cosmetics:

• Make Up
• Tooth Powder (I want to try this one.)
• Shaving for Men
• Bug Repellent
• Hair Color
• Dry Shampoo (I SO have to make this)
• Skin Care
• Deodorant
• Sunscreen (or you can just use coconut oil or for a higher SPF sesame seed oil)
• Moisturizing Lotion
• Shampoo (for those of you who haven't had any luck with the baking soda and water trick)
• Sugar Scrub

And who can pass up Chocolate Massage Butter !?!