Eco-beauty resources

Sometimes trying to figure out how to find safe personal care products and what ingredients to avoid can be overwhelming. Depending on where you look, you might even find conflicting information that will only aggravate the headache you’ve developed in the process of your search. Below, I’ve provided a list of helpful resources that break down the details for us in a palatable way.

• Health Canada’s Consumer Product Safety website on Cosmetics and Personal Care This website is crucial if you want to know how cosmetics are classified and regulated in Canada. It also provides a “Hotlist” of ingredients banned from use.

• Guide to Less Toxic Products developed by the Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia This site compiles an extensive list of common hazardous chemicals found in beauty products and explains why they are problematic. It also ranks and recommends a wide range of natural product brands for eye and face make-up, hair care, feminine hygiene and much more.

• The Little Green Book of Beauty: 250 Tips for an Eco Lifestyle by Sarah Callard This collection of advice works as a guide for navigating away from toxic additives, and offers do-it-yourself beauty suggestions in an easy to read and visually appealing format.

• Green Cricket The “Personal Care” section of this online store provides a green rating and review of the products it sells, including an assessment of ingredients, packaging and process. Amazing!

• Dr. Samuel S. Epstein’s column on The Huffington Post Dr. Epstein is a professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. His blog posts focus on health and cancer prevention, many of which are dedicated to highlighting the human health risks associated with personal care products.

• The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Supplies an array of information on ingredients found in beauty products, multi-national legislation on cosmetics, as well as links to scientific studies, books and eco-blogs.

• Cosmeticsinfo.org sponsored by the Personal Care Products Council and its member companies. This website shares data on the testing, safety, and regulations of beauty care products and their ingredients.

Posted by Jenna Owsianik on Mar 22 2010. Filed under Blogs, Facing Facts: A closer look at eco-beauty products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry