What's in this stuff anyway?

Have you ever wondered what was actually in that new bottle of shampoo, or body lotion, or face cream?  And wondered if that stuff was actually good for you?

Chemicals and pesticides and toxins, oh my!  That's all you ever hear about any more.  Everything you eat and wear and put on yourself is loaded full of crappy chemicals that are unhealthy for you and probably will cause cancer at some point.  It can be pretty frightening.

But if the answer is label reading, then crap, we're sunk.  Nobody can decipher all those huge long words on every bottle, label, can, tube etc.  I know the saying, "if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it" and I suppose that is generally true.  It's the chemicals and synthetic additives that have the long scary names.  But even natural ingredients can sound bad sometimes, and I don't know about you, I never learned latin in school either.

If you want to really know what's in your beauty product something, check out Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database.  It's online, if you've got the time.  But they've also got a mobile app, which is genius if you're in the drug store browsing the shelf and just don't know which way to go - you can check it out by phone.

There is so much information over there it's ridiculous.  They have over 68,000 products by name, plus a search bar for every ingredient known to man (or woman).

They cover food too, and cleaning products for your house.  Articles, the latest research - its a wealth of great info.  Great place to get started if you're serious about taking some of the junk out of your daily routines.