Yes Please, I'd Like Some More
Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 10:01AM Over the last few months I've been getting into making my own 'product'. There's a couple of reasons for this, one being that my good friend Casey is an amazing aromatherapist and I routinely go to her for some all-natural Jen-loving which has naturally spilled over into my home life and the other being that shit, I'm broke, so it's sort of a long-term money saver.
I've found as I go along that I love being able to whip up something that is 'aromatherically suited' to what's going on with me that day (my leg hurts!) or that week (7 am shifts? good god, I need something for the shower to wake me up!) etc. So far, I've made bath oil, body wash, leave-in hair conditioner, hand soap, mouthwash, clay masks, bath salts, various skin oils and perfume. I also love being able to make specifically tailored gifts for friends such as the bath oil for N that helps with her fibromyalgia and the body wash for T that makes his skin all lovely (in that uber-manly, non-sissy way, of course).
That above bit is some background for this next bit so forgive me if it seems like I'm changing the subject...
A couple of months ago my face started to get all eczema-y. It started around my mouth and gradually seeped up over my cheeks and into the space between my eyebrows. I assumed it was stress-related although, to be fair, in a life chock-full of stress I've never ever had a problem with this particular symptom before.
But, whatever, I'm getting on in years and we all know that things change as we age, right? Otherwise, why would my doctor be advocating massive doses of Vitamin D (get thee to the sun-vitamin, pasty white British devil!) and calcium? Would I rather become prone to the horrors of scaly face or would I rather suddenly lose my ability to effectively metabolise the bag of chips and chip dip, chocolate chips in the jar of peanut butter with the spoon (see! another way of saving money!) and bowl of ice cream I had for dinner last night well enough that I can do that regularly and still weigh, without any kind of exercise but walking a couple km's a day, what I did in high school - 22 years ago?
Eh, simple choice there, I'd say. Bring on the skin cream!
I'd thought that maybe my little homemade skin stuff was the problem as well so I've been avoiding putting anything on my face besides a nice neutral moisturizer.
Six weeks later, it's continuing to spread.
Whilst at work today as I was idly leafing through a magazine during a lull in the high-maintenance flood of patients I noticed an article about sudden scaly face. The 'doctor' commented that the sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) used in foaming toothpaste will cause such a phenomenon.
Behold! The Aquafresh Extreme Clean Toothpaste I JUST started using 2 months ago.
I've noticed on the site where I order my supplies that they've got a line of SLS-free soap. And, yanno, I sort of wondered what that was all about but I just kind of assumed that was something the rabid and freakish organic people demanded or whatever, blah blah, it'll all kill us help help!
I mean, we all know that everything is harmful, right? Life's goal is to kill us. I'm not, however, a big believer in avoiding eating, smoking, drinking, sun, fun, sex and breathing in the hopes that I will be able to climb mountains when I'm 90. If the Alzheimer's doesn't get me first. All that stuff, frankly, is too far in the future and I AM a firm believer that cancer is going to kill us all. What form of it is really just a toss-up so I normally don't bother to worry about what I'm doing and how it can/maybe/could/would/should affect me. I don't have to look at my mouth, tongue, skin cancer etc, since I don't yet have it. I frankly couldn't see the lung cancer, even when I did. Maybe all the coffee gives me an ulcer and the red meat is shrinking my heart but I can't see it and neither can anyone else. I've realized, though, that I do I have issues with doing things that I can WATCH hurt me. Crashing cars. Walking out in front of buses. Stabbing myself in the neck with a plastic fork. Pouring bleach in my eye. Hanging out in a colony of recluse spiders. Whatever.
You get what I'm saying, right? There's a LINE there that each of us have drawn in our heads that defines what is enough to make us stop doing something.
Turns out that SLS is an ingredient used for its thickening effect and its ability to create a lather. It's nice and cheap. Cheap as chips, as some of you would say.
Unfortunately, it's also a bunch of terrible terrible things!
Perhaps the most dangerous ingredient in personal-care products is Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS). Because SLS has a foaming property, it is added to toothpastes in order to generate foam and give the impression that the toothpaste is working. However, SLS has been found to be quite corrosive and harmful to skin tissue says a report by the American College of Toxicity.In the cleaning industry, SLS is used in products such as garage floor cleaners, engine degreasers and car wash soaps. Elsewhere, SLS is used for clinical testing as a primary skin irritant. Laboratories use it to irritate skin on test animals and humans so that they may then test healing agents to see how effective they are on the irritated skin.
The journal of the American College of Toxicology reports that SLS can penetrate and be retained in the eye, brain, heart, and liver with potentially harmful long-term effects. Also found in most shampoos including "no tears" baby shampoos, SLS can keep children's eyes from developing properly, can cause cataracts in adults, can retard healing, and can impair hair growth.
I especially liked the part where it can impair hair growth and (not noted above) causes DANDRUFF. My shampoos actually cause dandruff and could be making us all bald? Where's the common fucking sense in that? Hello?
Another article about it is here.
I could be wrong about this but it seems a pretty big honking co-ink-y-dink that my face went crocodile on me when I got the toothpaste.
And maybe, just maybe, I'll start ordering some of that SLS free shit. With a mental apology to the rabid organic freaks.
As a side note, last time I was getting my mouth scraped raw in the dentist's office I noticed a poster on the wall that indicated a mouthwash/gargle that included essential oils was the best defense against gingivitis and gum disease. The 8 oz one I make for myself is mostly distilled water with baking soda, a little bit of peroxide for whitening slash bacteria killing, a couple drops of tea tree oil for same and peppermint for that minty fresh feeling. It costs me about 50 cents.
Not only does that rock but for the first time in my life, I'm actually doing something my dentist recommends. I'm so proud.
what these years have brought me
what these years have taught me
heartache and fame
a chance to change
a hope to be stronger
that beauty can smolder
a stage and a curtain
that nothing's for certain
oh these years have been hard on my bones
Reader Comments (3)
can i also recommend for your homebrew dental gargle thang, Basil? seriously. it's seriously antibacterial. without the overpowering taste of the mega-antibacterial clove oil.
i discovered this via a you-beaut utterly fantastic toothpaste i discovered in banglatown. most of the "traditional ayurvedic" stuff they had was pants, but this stuff is the dog's bollocks -- gives you squeaky teeth all day long and the active ingredient is basil.http://www.healthstore.uk.com/p448881/DABUR-Herbal-Toothpaste-Basil-100ml.html
or banglatown price on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DABUR-AYURVEDA-BASIL-HERBAL-TOOTHPASTE-FOR-ORAL-HEALTH_W0QQitemZ230064986602QQihZ013QQcategoryZ67422QQ_trksidZp1723.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem