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Why Buy Organic?

• To reduce the number of carcinogens (cancer-causing substances) entering your body. All chemicals penetrate the skin – that’s why skin-patches are now used for things like quitting smoking and birth control. As our largest organ, the skin absorbs everything and this includes the many carcinogens found in almost all body care products for women, men, and babies. Many people now believe that the less carcinogens you put into your body (whether through products, food, or environment), the more you can help to decrease your chances of getting a number of chronic illnesses and diseases.
  
  Note: The Canadian Cancer Society says that cancer now affects 1 in 2.3 men and 1 in 2.6 women. Numerous studies suggest that these rates are caused by the increasing number of carcinogens in food, products, and in the environment.



• To reduce the amount of pesticides entering your body. Most body care products on the market today are a combination of plant-derived ingredients and synthetic ingredients. Any plant (whether it’s used for cosmetics, body care product, or food) can be heavily contaminated with pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. By using organic body care products, you’re ensuring that the ingredients are naturally raised and free of contaminants.



• To know you’re putting only the best, most pure, ingredients into your body. Take the time to read the ingredient label of any name-brand product you currently use; chances are you don’t know what half the ingredients are, and chances are you wouldn’t want to. Truly natural products without chemical ingredients are more safe and more effective than mainstream products because they don’t contain synthetic ingredients which may be toxic to our systems; synthetics are less expensive to use which is why there’re used in most brand-name products.

Not all organic product lines are created equally. Chances are that when you venture into your local grocery store or health-food store to buy organic body care products, many of the products are not chemical-free as well. Any company can use the word natural or organic on their labels, and what often happens is that a product will contain a few organic ingredients but will also have many known carcinogens or otherwise unsafe ingredients on the list as well. What makes our product lines different is that we have carefully chosen product lines which contain as many organic ingredients as possible and are made with natural, chemical-free, ingredients.

Although there is often disagreement in the natural cosmetics industry over which ingredients are considered safe and which aren’t, there are a number of ingredients which are currently found in most mainstream products that everyone agrees are unsafe. Our products do not carry any of the ingredients on the following list; our list is not exhaustive and is only meant to be a summary of some of the most common chemical ingredients to avoid.

INGREDIENT NAME(S):	REASON:	OFTEN USED IN:
parabens (methyl, propyl, butyl, ethyl)	can cause skin rashes; toxic, found in breast tissue of cancer patients	almost everything
synthetic fragrance	highly allergenic, chemicals used in fragrances unregulated and unlisted, toxic	almost everything; look for fragrance from essential oils instead
synthetic colourants; labeled as FD&C or D&C	skin rashes, suspected carcinogen, may contain aluminum	hair dye, cosmetics
petroleum derived ingredients (petroleum, mineral oil, vaseline)	blocks pores, acne-causing, may contain carcinogens, causes dry skin	baby products, cosmetics
sodium lauryl sulfate	can damage outer layer of skin, suspected carcinogen	soap, shampoo, toothpaste
formaldehyde	suspected carcinogen	hair products, makeup
aluminum	linked to alzheimer’s disease	deodorant, makeup
toluene	toxic, narcotic	cosmetics, nail polish
phthalates	mimic estrogen in the body; can cause hormonal imbalance; affects reproductive toxins; associated with birth defects in children and low sperm counts in men	cosmetics, nail polish, hair spray, (and toys, soft plastic, furniture, flooring, glue, etc!)

Reading labels of any body care product can be difficult, so we want to explain a few things:

• Labelling laws in various countries are not consistent; some countries are allowed to sell unlabelled body care products (meaning the ingredients are not listed), while in other countries all ingredients must be listed on each product.



• There is an international system of ingredient listing called INCI (International Nomenclature Cosmetic Ingredients); it was created to be multilingual and multinational and is based on the Latin language. The INCI system is now used in the United States, the European Union, and Canada (as of November, 2006).



• What this all means is that depending on the countries’ laws, ingredients may be listed in their Latin names, or in another language(s). For example, a bilingual country like Canada may have ingredients listed in its Latin, English, and French names. This can make ingredient lists seem more complicated than they actually are; as well, if a product label uses only INCI terms, the ingredients may appear to be synthetic chemicals because many Latin terms are scientific sounding.



• If you’re interested in becoming more familiar with cosmetic ingredients, see our Interesting Reading section on some good books you can read.