With all of the recent controversy over safe ingredients in body care, New Leaf has decided to implement a Red, Yellow, and Green system similar to our Sustainable Seafood program to inform customers of the safety of their favorite body care products.
Why don’t we just get rid of all of the bad products? That wouldn’t stop people from buying them elsewhere, this way we get to educate and not alienate. For years the Bloom staff at New Leaf has been reprimanding companies for their unsavory ingredients, but as long as the customers keep buying them, those companies see no need to listen to us, but they will listen to the people who want to buy their products, but may choose not to once they learn about some of the ingredients in them.
So, what’s so bad about some of these ingredients? Synthetic fragrances and colors have been linked to hormone disruption, ingredients derived from petrochemicals can be carcinogenic, and heavy metals in cosmetics can suppress immune function, the list goes on and on. And we’re not just thinking about your body, we’re thinking of this celestial body we live on; the body care industry is one of the world’s largest polluters and by far the least policed. Chemicals used in mass market shampoos have been found in polar bear fat, and arctic core samples. It goes down the drain, and out into the ocean. We live on a self contained orb; our refuse does not simply “go away”.
These companies all keep making products to satisfy the populace; people love foamy shampoo and toothpaste; they love smelly lotions and high SPF sunblocks, not knowing that the ingredients that make the foam, the fragrance and the high SPF can be potentially dangerous to their health and the health of our planet. We try to offer the best products we can find, but our customers keep asking us for products we know to be risky. So, here is where we get the chance to do some educating.
We’ve chosen to follow a rating system set by the Environmental Working Group on their website, Skin Deep (www.cosmeticsdatabase.com) which has gathered information on thousands of chemicals present in bodycare and cosmetics and matched them with hazard data from over 50 toxicity and regulatory databases. From there they created a red, yellow and green rating system based on the amount of hazardous ingredients present in each product. Luckily, there are only a handful of products that can be considered “red” at New Leaf, like certain sunblocks, but together; we can send a message to the bodycare companies that we are mad as heck and not going to take it anymore.
Ask your friendly neighborhood Bloom employee to show you the companies that are walking their talk, making great products ethically and without chemicals like Wyndmere, Sensuous Beauty, Isvara, Weleda, Grateful Body and John Masters. And those larger companies that have reacted to the trend and started to clean up their acts, like Zia, Jason and Alba Botanica. Beautiful skin shouldn’t be won at the cost of anyone’s health or the health of our planet.
Why don’t we just get rid of all of the bad products? That wouldn’t stop people from buying them elsewhere, this way we get to educate and not alienate. For years the Bloom staff at New Leaf has been reprimanding companies for their unsavory ingredients, but as long as the customers keep buying them, those companies see no need to listen to us, but they will listen to the people who want to buy their products, but may choose not to once they learn about some of the ingredients in them.
So, what’s so bad about some of these ingredients? Synthetic fragrances and colors have been linked to hormone disruption, ingredients derived from petrochemicals can be carcinogenic, and heavy metals in cosmetics can suppress immune function, the list goes on and on. And we’re not just thinking about your body, we’re thinking of this celestial body we live on; the body care industry is one of the world’s largest polluters and by far the least policed. Chemicals used in mass market shampoos have been found in polar bear fat, and arctic core samples. It goes down the drain, and out into the ocean. We live on a self contained orb; our refuse does not simply “go away”.
These companies all keep making products to satisfy the populace; people love foamy shampoo and toothpaste; they love smelly lotions and high SPF sunblocks, not knowing that the ingredients that make the foam, the fragrance and the high SPF can be potentially dangerous to their health and the health of our planet. We try to offer the best products we can find, but our customers keep asking us for products we know to be risky. So, here is where we get the chance to do some educating.
We’ve chosen to follow a rating system set by the Environmental Working Group on their website, Skin Deep (www.cosmeticsdatabase.com) which has gathered information on thousands of chemicals present in bodycare and cosmetics and matched them with hazard data from over 50 toxicity and regulatory databases. From there they created a red, yellow and green rating system based on the amount of hazardous ingredients present in each product. Luckily, there are only a handful of products that can be considered “red” at New Leaf, like certain sunblocks, but together; we can send a message to the bodycare companies that we are mad as heck and not going to take it anymore.
Ask your friendly neighborhood Bloom employee to show you the companies that are walking their talk, making great products ethically and without chemicals like Wyndmere, Sensuous Beauty, Isvara, Weleda, Grateful Body and John Masters. And those larger companies that have reacted to the trend and started to clean up their acts, like Zia, Jason and Alba Botanica. Beautiful skin shouldn’t be won at the cost of anyone’s health or the health of our planet.
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