A Beauty Wake-up Call!

Three weeks ago I got a call from a friend in my yoga class. She just got involved with this new beauty company called Beautycounter and she was dying to tell me about it. Um. I wasn’t so interested. I have received countless, COUNTLESS phone calls, texts, emails from so many people about a few other beauty lines that I was starting to hide from these people.  She said to me, “Amy, this is not about me selling you products, this is about you making a difference. This is about you sharing and spreading a message to your readers. It is important everybody understands what is happening in the beauty world.”

Now I was listening.

“Go on”, I told her. This is where it gets scary. Read at your own risk and please do not say I didn’t warn you. Dana asked me if I understood the back of the ingredients on my cleanser, my shampoo, my kids shampoo, and all of the other 20 products my family and I use daily. I was like, well not only do I not understand them, I cannot pronounce them!  She asked, “How often do you use these products?” ” What do you mean “, I asked her, “EVERY DAY!”  and? I asked,  “AND our skin is our biggest organ, it absorbs up to 60% of what you put on it. 80% of the ingredients in our daily personal products we are using have NEVER been tested for safety. There are a NUMBER of ingredients that are KNOWN to be linked to cancer, birth defects, reproductive issues and learning disabilities (parabens, lead, formaldehyde, and phthalates) .” Wait WHAT?” ” What do you mean?” She told me that unlike the Food Industry where it is regulated by the FDA, the Cosmetic Industry is not. So when a food item says it is “organic” it IS. However, when a cosmetic  say it is “organic or natural” it does not mean anything. They can write WHATEVER they want on it. It is serving the needs of the leading companies and not the American consumer. The last time the federal government passed a law in the U.S regulating the ingredients used in cosmetic and personal care products was in 1938. I was starting to feel sick. 1938?? WTF. Do you know much things have changed since then? How many chemicals have been created? Do you know how much cancer and sickness there is now? OMG. Yes, there are 1400 chemical ingredients that are banned in the European Union. Do you know how many chemical ingredients have been banned in the U.S? I guessed maybe 300.

The answer is 30.

30 BANNED OR RESTRICTED  chemical ingredients in the U.S. Just awful. How is this even possible?

These are the facts (you can google it if you don’t believe me)

• 1 in 2 Men will be diagnosed with Cancer in their lifetime
• 1 in 3 Women will be diagnosed with Cancer in their lifetime
• 1 in 8 Women will be diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Only 10% of these women carry a gene for the disease.
• There are approximately 30 million children in the U.S., more than  1/3 of them will be affected by Autism, Asthma, ADHD, and Allergies

The good news is that there are a few companies who are striving to turn this around and Beautycounter has the strictest  “Screen” in the industry. The screen is the ingredient evaluation process. They screen for safety criteria like skin irritation, carcinogenicity, and reproductive toxicity as well as any information regarding cumulative exposure (are we exposed to this chemical from other sources?) and bioaccumulation (will it build up in our bodies over time?) They also work closely with green chemists and consider environmental impact working diligently to  avoid ingredients that negatively impact the ecosystem. I learned there was a helpful resource from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) called Skin Deep http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/.  You can type in any product name and it gives you a rating of the level of toxicity. You can also download their free app (Skin Deep) on your phone and drive yourself crazy looking up the toxic ratings of the products in your bathroom!

Okay I told her I was sold and I wanted to try the products and SEE the products before I invested in anything. She told me she would drop off the products for me to try and Gregg Renfrew, the founder of Beautycounter, was speaking at Neiman Marcus on Tuesday and would love to have me come to the luncheon. I told her that before I decided to come to that luncheon at Neiman Marcus, I had to first see if I liked the products. Personally, as much as I am into health, I didn’t want ugly granola products. They are just so unappealing and they all seem to have weird smells. She laughed and told me not only are these products safe and effective, they are very chic! She sent me a picture of the line and I told her to drop off the products.

With anything new, I get excited. I placed the kids body wash and shampoo in their bathroom and didn’t say a word. My 10 year old, of course, was the first one to notice even before he got in the shower. Instead of just telling him I wanted him to try this new shampoo and body wash, I explained why.  Since I have been teaching my kids about eating healthy and choosing better foods I know it is just as important to make them aware of the bad chemicals that are lurking in their products. Maybe, just maybe,  it will change their way of thinking, even if it’s in a few years down the line.

 

 

 

I tried all the face products and the shampoo and conditioner:

I loved the smell of all the products!! My stand out products were the Countermatch Adaptive Lotion, Countermatch Pure Calm Cleansing Milk,  Balancing Facial Mask and Countermatch Eye Rescue Cream and the Instant Eye Makeup Remover and Color Intense Lipsticks! Those I wanted to purchase right away. My husband even used the face wash! I called Dana and told her I definitely wanted to go to the luncheon at Neiman’s. I even wanted to purchase some products.

Tuesday rolled around and I was excited to meet Gregg, the founder of Beautycounter. I had a lot of questions about her company and what her plans were in the future. There were a lot of women who came out for this event. I wasn’t surprised by the turnout, I was surprised by the energy and passion in the room around this product line. We sat down and Gregg introduced herself, explained her success with two other companies and why she started Beautycounter. After watching Al Gore’s move, Inconvenient Truth and reading Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry,(this book is a scary look at the cosmetic industry and what is “really” going on),Gregg decided it was time to be part of the solution. She created Beautycounter in the hopes to make her family, friends and people she loved aware of the dangers in our products. She was just like us, she applied sunscreen, lotion, and any number of beauty products on herself and her kids, She never thought for a second they might not be safe: After all, she thought, we live in a country that regulates everything. So imagine her surprise when she learned that when it comes to the personal care industry, that’s simply not the case. Companies are allowed to use known toxins—ingredients that have been linked to cancer, reproductive issues, hormone disruption—without telling us. Gregg’s hope is that one day, our children will not have to read labels because the laws will change to protect the consumer.

The company developed a Never List  – a list of chemicals that we should we should avoid at all costs. If you click here, you can see WHY each of these chemicals are dangerous.

After hearing Gregg speak about her mission, I left there thinking I need to get this message out as soon as possible. Not a day goes by when I do not hear about someone being faced with cancer. It is everywhere. I do not think it is normal that  my parents who are ONLY in their sixties are losing their friends left and right to this awful disease.  I do not think it is normal that my husband lost his father at 66 to pancreatic cancer. I do not think it is normal that my son was diagnosed with Crohn’s last year which is a purely genetic disease and there is no family history. I think about when I was pregnant. What was I eating? What cosmetics was I using ? I know it is not just the foods we eat, the products we put on our body or the air we breathe. It is a combination of everything. You can paralyze yourself with mounds of information and try to do live perfectly and still get sick. However, something has got to give. Now that I armed with this information,  I just can’t turn my back on it. If I can make simple changes by using safe, effective products, I am IN!  Do you know I went home and looked at the back of Greg’s shaving cream and I saw the word “Paraben?!!” I have been using this shaving cream for years! So happy to know Beautycounter is coming out with a safe shaving cream in the next few months! Phew.

Look I am aware that we can’t eliminate all the carcinogens we come in contact with,  but to me skin care and food seem like an easy jumping off point and something I can integrate into my life without a radical change .

One final note: It has taken me some time to realize that having a blog and readership (so excited and thank you all) comes with some responsibility.  I will always be transparent when I am selling something (a girl has got to eat) and a topic I am so passionate about.  Beautycounter is the FIRST post that I am writing about that really blurs those lines for me.  I am a true believer in these products and will be standing behind them from a professional and passionate standpoint.  Click here to take a peek!  If you are converted as I was after trying these products and believing in the underlying message, get in touch with me by sending me an email or private message and I will gladly share additional ways to further your involvement. If you live locally I will happily stop by, drop off the products for you to try or play around with  or you can make an appointment with us to come by.  The purpose of my blog is to inform and have fun.  From time to time I may get behind a company or product but please know that if I do I have fully vetted it and completely stand behind it.P.S. I am MOST excited for the new sunscreen line for the summer!

 

 

It has taken me a long time to really fall in love with a line like this but I am passionate, devoted, and excited to be part of a movement that I know in time will make a huge impact on ourselves and our children.

This has truly been a beauty wake-up call for me and I am assuming you too!! Meet Gregg!!

Contact me for more info!!!