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Sunday, March 17, 2013

Why Choosing Natural Organic Products Can Be So Confusing

Choosing natural and organic products can be so confusing if you're a newbie and rely on marketing buzz words like "natural", "organic", botanicals" when shopping. These marketing jargons don't tell the whole truth. Since there are no government regulations when it comes to personal care products particularly natural products these labels are often clever marketing.

Unless you're a certified organic company which is held to the strictest guidelines by the USDA, ingredients such as "fragrance" in your products can mean hundreds of hidden chemicals. There is just no way to know what's really in your products.

The only way to know what's really in the products you're using is looking at the ingredients. The longer the list, the more skeptical, especially if you have no idea what those ingredients mean. Organic and truly natural products have ingredients that are recognizable such as olive oil, shea butter, vitamin E, etc. And less ingredients is more often than not, better.

Here's a tip: look for ingredients in descending order. Let's say if the products say "made with essential oils", I would check to see where the essential oils are on the ingredient list. If it's near the bottom this means you're more likely getting itsy bitsy amounts, perhaps just traces of essential oils.

For some people, they either don't care what's in their products or sometimes just not aware of the potential harm of using toxins in personal care products. There was a time I didn't know any better. But for those that care about using only organic products, your safest bet is to look for the USDA organic seal of approval or the Soil seal for the UK certification.

The USDA in particular is the strictest organic association and does not allow any synthetic chemicals in organic products.

If going organic is the utmost important to you, the seal of organic approval from the USDA is a safe bet or another reputable organic association. But you can easily learn to look for toxins in skin care and personal care products and what ingredients to avoid by spending a few minutes to familiarize yourself. Once you have these down, shopping for truly natural and organic products becomes a lot easier.

That said, organic doesn't necessarily mean it's better or more effective than wholesome, natural products. See what I mean when I said confusing? :) Some people are allergic to certain organic ingredients. I mean, poison ivy is organic in its compound but that doesn't mean you'd want to use it. It's more important to be an ingredient reader and educate yourself on what ingredients to look for and make an educated decision whether something can be potentially harmful or not.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of information online that is outdated and tend to scare people that using certain ingredients cause cancer. The more you know, the more informed you'll be to make the best decision for you.

Here are helpful articles on what ingredients to avoid and why:

http://www.truthinaging.com/ingredients/peg-100-stearate

http://www.goodguide.com/ingredients/255256-peg-10-stearate

http://www.organicbeautytalk.com/ingredients-to-avoid/

http://www.wellnesstimes.com/articles/top-toxins-avoid-personal-care

Best,

Janette Stoll

P.S.  If you'd like to learn more about natural/organic products- email me Janette at campopfan@gmail.com for more info and FREE samples.

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