Day 12: Vamoosing the Parabens – Sweet Victory

I read somewhere that the average woman puts 175 chemicals on her face a day. Ouch…that is a more than frightening statistic. I probably apply a lot more than that, given my strict obedience to a Mary Kay beauty regimen for the past 22 years. When I see Victoria wanting to imitate me in my routines, my desire to supply her with healthy habits and quality products is almost overwhelming. Equally overwhelming is the task of identifying those products…

In my quest for healthy cosmetics that don’t result in me slathering my face with cancer-causing and hormone-whacking chemicals, I spent my lunch hour at Drug Emporium yesterday. I started on the shampoo aisle, because Drug Emporium has a ton of products, and I knew I was going to run out of shampoo sometime in the next few days. Surely DE would have a suitable organic shampoo. Bottle after bottle, I grumbled and frowned as I perused the ingredients. Literally, every bottle of shampoo that said “Natural” on the front listed some of the worst ingredients on the back. What in the world???

Deciding not to let myself get discouraged by shampoo when I had trekked across town for cosmetics, I wound my way around to the makeup area. The walls were lined with the major brands. I knew better than to even look their direction. I remembered seeing something online about Physicians Formula and an organic line, so I began to search for their products. In a squatty middle aisle with its back to the nail polish, I spied some PF. I knelt down and began to peruse their ingredients, getting more discouraged by the moment. “Methylparaben,” “Ethylparaben,” “Sodium Lauryl Sulfate,” “DMDM.”

IS NOTHING SACRED??!???!!!!!!!

I shot a tired and defeated glance to my left and almost lost my balance. There, merely eighteen inches away from me, were green and brown boxes of Physicians Formula Organic Wear. They were instantly illuminated by a golden sunbeam shooting through the ceiling of the store, and I could hear angels singing the Hallelujah Chorus. I hopped over to scan their ingredients and LOVED what I read. No parabens. No SLS. No DMDM. Organic ingredients. First Ever ECO-cert cosmetic line in the US. I swear, I think my eyes started to water.

Second in importance to the ingredient list is, of course, cost. But those sweet little vintage DE price tags (the ones that tell you the cashier is going to hand-peck the prices one-by-one into the register) were single and low-double digits. I bought four items: tinted moisturizer, a blush/bronzer combo, eyeliner and mascara for $39.72. This is almost what I pay for MK with my 50% discount. Not too shabby!

Mom and I spent the evening looking up my new makeup in the Cosmetics Database. They rank around “4” overall in the database, largely attributed to the Titanium Dioxide which provides the sunscreen protection in my tinted moisturizer. Given that these new cosmetics don’t contain the most awful offenders and I can pronounce every ingredient on the box, I am satisfied with my purchase.

Now, I am going to enjoy my morning coffee before I shower and “put on my face,” as my grandmother says. If the new makeup is anything less than wonderful, you can be sure I’ll be the first to let you know!