Low Tox Personal Care Swaps
Ever since I moved into my own home and began buying my own items and reading labels, I’ve been on a journey to choose products that are “clean”. What this means for my house, is that I’m purchasing products that are free of chemicals that are known to be harmful – such as carcinogens, phthalates, parabens, SLS, fragrance, petroleum, etc. These things can disrupt your endocrine system, increase cancer risk, cause inflammation, and more. 60% of what we put onto our skin absorbs right into our bodies, so I’m very particular about the products we use in our home. I often get messages from friends and family asking for “clean swaps” for products they use every day, so I thought I’d do a small round-up post here of some small swaps you can do to begin your own low-tox journey.
- Shampoo & Conditioner
This is a great first swap if you’re starting out on a low-tox journey. The misconception is that the “cleaner” swaps are more expensive. I’ve tried basically every clean shampoo on the market, and the one that I’ve found to love the most is no more expensive, if not even cheaper, than what you are probably already purchasing. I absolutely LOVE the Accure brand, and currently use their Hydrating Shampoo & Conditioner (PS, this smells just like Aveda’s Cherry Almond!) and their dry shampoo. Not only do they smell amazing, but I’ve also found this set to work better than any other clean brand.
2. Toothpaste
Another great inexpensive swap is toothpaste. We choose to avoid titanium dioxide (genotoxicity), cocamidopropyl betaine (listed as the contact allergy ingredient of the year by the American Contact Dermatitis Society), and PEGs, PPGs, and other ethoxylates, flouride, & grapefruit seed extract (contains parabens). So far, we really enjoy the Boka brand for Jake & I, and Attitude for Mila.
3. Hand Soap
A lot of ingredients in hand soap have ingredients like formaldehyde and ammonia, that can act as respiratory irritants, and cause harm to reproductive, endocrine, neurological, and organ systems. We love the Everyone brand hand soap, and the Mandarin Lemon scent is our FAVORITE!
4. Body Wash
This one is a huge one for us since we use it almost every day and all over the body. For ourselves, we love Everyone Citrus & Mint or Attitude. For Mila, we use Attitude Baby.
5. Body Lotion
For the reasons above, we’ve also swapped out our body lotion. Our favorites are Everyone, Attitude, and for Mila, we really like Pipette.
Take it slow, and only swap out what you need. Don’t feel pressure to change everything up all at once – that can be extremely overwhelming. Make little changes, become more aware of the things that are hiding in our normal household products, and do the best you can!
