My husband and I make every effort to be as earth-friendly as possible. This past year has seen two major changes in our household. 1) We installed a heat-pump. In our part of the country, this means our furnace rarely runs, even in the dead of winter. 2) We now compost all food waste. This has made a huge difference in our trash output. You’d be surprised at just how much "garbage" is reusable, in one way or another!
But there is still much more that can be done! In honor of Earth Day, Raging Rouge has conducted a Q&A with Christina Marcaccini, the founder of RAW Natural Beauty… and an expert on environmental and safety standards in the cosmetics industry. She has some fantastic advice on how we can all strive to reduce the carbon-footprint of our beauty regimen!
Jen: You’re an expert on safety in cosmetics, having gone as far as meeting with Congressional staffers to advocate higher safety standards in the beauty industry. What are some ingredients consumers should avoid when buying cosmetics, and why?
Christina: In 2004, scientists found pesticides in the blood of newborn babies. A year later, researchers discovered perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel, in human breast milk. Today, people are testing positive for a litany of hazardous substances from flame retardants to phthalates to lead.
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention have reports that reveal that Americans of all ages carry what they call a ‘body burden’ of at least 148 chemicals that should not be there, this is a result of what we put on our body and put in our body. Keep in mind that the average woman uses a dozen personal care products containing 168 chemical ingredients every day!
Here are some ingredients used in personal care that should be avoided:
Parabens– Methyl, Butyl and Propyl Parabens are used as preservatives in food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics products. Measurable concentrations of six different parabens have been identified in biopsy samples from breast tumors. Check out this link to support what I said about parabens.
Petrochemicals– from non-renewable resources (by-products of oil), these can be identified on ingredient lists as PEG, buytlene glycol, propylene glycol, petrolatum, to name a few.
Phthalates– hormone disrupters. These can’t always be identified by looking at the label as they are often part of fragrances. Look for products that claim to be “Phthalate Free”.
FD&C and D&C colors– from coal tar – can be irritating to the skin.
The below (about lead) is taken from the article titled “A Poison Kiss: The problem of lead in Lipstick” from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics Oct. 2007.
Lead is a proven neurotoxin linked to learning and behavior disorders. New Product tests released Oct. 11, 2007 by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics showed that more than half of 33 brand-name lipsticks tested contained detectable levels of lead and none of these lipsticks listed lead as an ingredient.
One-third of the tested lipsticks exceeded the US Food and Drug Administration’s .1ppm limit for lead in candy – a standard established to protect children form directly ingesting lead. Lipstick, like candy, is ingested directly. Nevertheless, the FDA has not set a limit for lead in lipstick – which fits with the disturbing absence of FDA regulatory oversight and enforcement capacity for the $50 billion personal care products industry.
Among the top brands testing positive for lead were:
I would encourage readers to check out this site which lists safety ratings for both individual ingredients and products: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/.
Jen: Packaging is increasingly a concern among consumers, and more brands are offering recyclable packaging or recycling programs as a result. What brands do you feel are "greenest" and why?
Raw Natural beauty uses 30% post consumer recycled paper in our unitcartons. This is important as it creates a need for recycled material that might end up back in the landfill otherwise.
Pangea Organics– Boulder, Colorado based company, uses product boxes made with a zero waste process using 100% post-consumer paper and organic seeds. Click HERE for store locations.
Nude Skincare– (Bono and his wife Ali Hewson are co-investors) Their packaging is entirely recyclable and 40% of our bottles are made using post industrial recycled plastic. For a list of stores that carry the product (mostly Barney’s) click HERE.
Jen: Tell Raging Rouge readers more about RAW Natural Beauty. What void in the market does your new line fill?
Christina: Three words – performance – safety – prestige.
First, let me give you our philosophy on performance. We are approaching the category with a completely new and fresh perspective. Traditional “natural” brands have developed the category from a linear approach only – making products with “natural” ingredients with very little emphasis on how the products perform. I have been working in the traditional, prestige beauty industry for years as a product developer. Through this time, I have conducted extensive research to determine what women want from their beauty products. First and foremost, it is performance. Right now, the natural category has a negative reputation to overcome. I have surveyed literally hundreds of women and the overlying opinion is that they want “natural” products but the ones that they have tried do not function well. My mission is to develop natural products that perform better than traditional beauty products. This is the first level of performance – immediate results but there is also the second level of performance that is important to us – long term. I conduct extensive ingredient research to seek out new, efficacious ingredients sourced from around the world. Every product in the Raw Natural Beauty line contains these exotic, natural, active botanicals clinically proven to improve the skin over time. This is something I have not seen yet from any other brand, natural or not. In addition, we believe in giving back. In sourcing these ingredients, we seek out suppliers who practice sustainable agriculture, help support fair trade and give back to the local economies.
Secondly, we make ingredient safety a priority. If you ask people why they want to buy natural products, it’s because they think that these products are safer for them to use. Just because an ingredient claims to be natural does not make it a safe. In fact, there are numerous natural ingredients that we would never put in our products because of this. Every one of our ingredients is evaluated according to the safety ratings established by the EWG’s database Skin Deep. We have also signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, meaning we are committed to using ingredients without any known human toxicity. We really feel as more and more data emerges concerning the fact that we all carry man-made pollutants in our bodies (scary!), the safety of the ingredients found in our daily products is going to become more and more of a factor in consumer purchasing decisions. We have to remember that our skin is our first line of defense against the environment, but it’s not a perfect barrier and we need to be aware of what we put on it.
Finally, prestige – it is our “eco-luxe” positioning, which was really important to me when creating this line. Our packaging and brand imagery is gorgeous, sexy and modern, which was not previously seen in the natural category. We want our customers to be proud to showcase our products in public and in their homes. Cosmetics are a luxury item, so why not make them look and feel that way?
Jen: What are some habits cosmetic consumers should break for the benefit of our planet?
Christina: Just switching to more natural products is a good start! It will keep you from washing potentially toxic chemicals down the drain and into our environment. Also, try to cut down on the number of products you’re using, across all categories! This is especially hard for me, as I love to buy and try everything. But we need to think of the bigger picture.
Look for packaging that contains Post Consumer Recycled waste/paper. This creates a need for recycled material, unfortunately now a lot of recycled material goes right back into the landfill.
Recycle your beauty products that come in glass bottles – every month, we throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper And guess what? All of these jars are recyclable!
I have long, thick hair, so this was a great tip that I’ve been implementing: Use a strainer on all drains to catch hair and prevent drain clogs. If you do get a clog, use a metal snake to work the clog loose, not toxic drain cleaners! I also let my hair air-dry whenever possible!
Also, turn off the water while brushing your teeth or shaving. Running the water continuously for just two minutes can waste three gallons of water! Fill a cup with water when brushing your teeth and fill the sink bowl to rinse your razor instead of running the water.
And remember to buy quality products that will last, not cheap disposable items (like disposable razors).
Here are some other tips I follow. These are listed on the EWG website under their Skin Deep site:
Jen: What are some best-practices we should employ in our beauty routine to reduce our carbon footprint?
Christina: Along with the tips above, here are some other recommendations:
Step 1: Change your lightbulbs. Replacing three incandescent lightbulbs with three compact fluorescent lightbulbs will reduce your carbon footprint by 5,000 pounds over the life of the bulbs.
Step 2: Use rechargeable batteries to reduce your carbon footprint by 1,000 pounds over the life of the batteries.
Step 3: Replace your existing showerheads with low-flow showerheads to cut your carbon footprint by as much as 7,000 pounds.
Step 4: Convert your hot water heater to a solar hot water heater, which will eliminate nearly 200,000 pounds of carbon over the life of the water heater.
Step 5: Drive a hybrid car, and reduce your carbon footprint by approximately 500,000 pounds over the life of the car.
Step 6: Buy local. Goods and services that are produced locally eliminate untold thousands of pounds of carbon by slashing fossil-fuel-reliant transportation demands. Plus, everyone knows a tomato from the local farmers market is a lot tastier than the styrofoam ones your grocery store trucks in from 1,000 miles away.
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