EP. 12: Makeup Dump
I don't know about you, but I've found it challenging to find a lot of clean anti-aging products on the market. That may be an entirely separate episode, so today we're focused on looking through our makeup bags and uncovering our good-better-best options in clean cosmetics.
When I was having fertility issues, I immediately started looking through my makeup bag. If you weren't aware, chemicals commonly found in most of today's ready-to-go cosmetics often include highly toxic additives, carcinogens, and endocrine system disrupters. These EDCs like to mimic our own hormones and bind to our receptors wreaking havoc on our health. You probably recognize chemical names such as parabens, phthalates, polyethylene glycol, and even metals like mercury. Honestly, for those of you who have been struggling with infertility, PCOS, endometriosis, or adenomyosis, this one is for you! Stay away from these harmful chemicals.
Consider products like:
- Schmidts
- Rise Well
- MyCHELLE
- Hyaluronic Acid
- Young Blood
- Honest
- Ilia
- Replica
- Rescue Remedy
And please utilize the resource I reference: Environmental Working Group ewg.org
Show Notes
0:00:00
Hi everybody! Welcome to another podcast. So this one I'm very excited about. I've been thinking about doing this one for a long time and I know I've been talking about it on social media for a while. We're going to do a makeup dump. Alright, so take your time out, go get your makeup bag and then bring that out and then we can do this together and then either get your laptop or your phone and the resource that you'll want to use is environmental working group
0:00:32
EWG.org So I've talked a lot about this website. This website rates a lot of common cosmetics They rate everything from like baby products, diaper care, wipes Shampoos, detanglers, nail polish, you name it, they rate it for the most part. Some stuff's not on there, but if you know the company similar to another company, you can kind of deduce the toxicity level. And what I love about it is they'll have different
0:01:05
companies on it that go the extra mile and become what they call EWG verified. So you'll see this little stamp of approval or seal of approval. Those are completely, I don't want to say completely, for the most part safe. A lot safer than a lot of the other ones out there. And so I'm going to show you guys my makeup bag and show you kind of like good, better, and best. And then just hopefully encourage you to kind of detoxify your life a little bit, get a little bit cleaner.
0:01:40
So not only can you be healthier, right? We don't want breast cancer or anything else like that, but we want healthy anti-aging and just optimizing health and wellness, right? And if you have kiddos, you can always look up there, you know, bath bubbles or soaps
0:01:57
for girls that are starting cosmetics, and we'll talk about that. We can talk about healthy cosmetics and just kind of go on this journey today with me. So I did pull a few studies up. I wanted to share you guys the data, right? Because why do we care? Why are we doing this, number one? If we've been using cosmetics since the dawn of time, why now is it an issue? Well, modern society there's a lot more chemicals and there's a lot more chronic
0:02:28
disease, a lot more cancer rates, and again I don't believe that there's one cause. I think there's many factors involved and your genetics kind of can take it for a while and then it says I'm done. I can't do this check and balance system anymore. And that's why you'll see a lot of these pathologies or these chronic diseases, start in the 30s and 40s, because the genetics are good in your 20s and teens for a while. And then wear and tear comes in, oxidative stress, lack of sleep, kids come along,
0:03:02
and all that kind of just piles on your DNA and your health. So, the important thing. A lot of cosmetics have additives and chemicals, right? We know what's in our food. Our cosmetics wouldn't be any different, right? So the most common ones, and a lot of these terms
0:03:20
I'm gonna say you guys are probably familiar with, parabens, phthalates, polyethylene glycol is another buzz one, resorcinol, and then of course, heavy metals. For years we did dental work thinking adding mercury into the mouth was a good thing. Now we know every
0:03:41
time you chew and you bite you release some of that mercury into your system and what's right next to your teeth right your brain. So and that's another episode for another day because I got all of my mercury fillings out and there's a lot of safer ways to go a lot more bioidentical dentistry going on. But again, heavy metals, right? We don't think about that.
0:04:05
And contamination, regulation with cosmetics, depending on where it's sourced, where it's produced, we don't know what's in it, which is why, again, I love that environmental working group organization. So we know that a lot of these chemicals and additives can have a myriad of health issues.
0:04:25
nephrotoxicity, so affected kidneys, there are carcinogens, a lot of them. The biggest one too, if you're having any fertility issues or how many people do you know have PCOS, endometriosis, adenomyosis, recurrence of adult acne, these hormone issues that come up in fertility,
0:04:49
the bigger one too are the endocrine disruptors, right? So these chemicals are kind of nasty because they mimic our natural hormones and bind to the receptors and they have a very high affinity for binding. So they'll actually kick out our own estrogen,
0:05:08
bind to that receptor and cause a lot of damage to our body. So the endocrine disruptors are something that you'll want to look up. And the short term for that are EDCs. There's a study that just came out this year, and it's funny, I've said this so many times, once you start to look at the research, you see a lot of this isn't done in the States for good reason, right?
0:05:33
So if you look at Europe, a lot of it's being done. This one was done in Iranian women, and I thought this was really interesting, a really good insight to study. So they were looking at how these chemicals potentially, we know that it affects reproductive health and hormones, but how could it affect breast cancer risk? So if you have a history of dense breast tissue, of estrogen dominance, of any hormone or infertility issues, history of breast cancer in the family obviously, this is something I want you to hear. So they found that there's an increased risk of mammographic breast density with these chemicals. And you're like okay so you have denser breasts so what?
0:06:19
Well that's a risk factor for breast cancer and it's also a biomarker for how chemicals are affecting your body. Again this is a podcast for a different day but one of my favorite ways to assess for lymphatic drainage and breast health in women especially if you have any of those issues that I just listed is to get something called a thermography. These aren't really talked about a lot. There are some providers and areas around here to get them done. I know that's what I get every couple of years instead of a mammogram. The reason for
0:06:58
that is the thermographies really neat and again we use this all the time in practice because they have you stripped down waist up and again you can do these over the whole body but we're talking about breasts. So waist up off they do a thermal picture and you just do different pictures up above different angles and it'll show me and the providers areas of heat and inflammation in your lymph nodes. So if we see an area that's blocked or clogged we can target that before it hits the cells and becomes a tumor. By the time you find a tumor on a mammogram,
0:07:41
you're behind the eight ball. You want to catch it when it's affecting the lymph nodes, clogging things up, adding heat, adding stagnation. So looking at thermographies, and I'll make sure I provide some local resources that you can get those done. The cool thing, and I've done this with so many patients, they get them done, we have a certain score, it's kind of like a bone density score, there's the score on how clogged you are or how open you are, and then we do a nutritional
0:08:10
protocol or intervention, get the lymphs draining, balance the hormones, retest in three to six months, you're good to go. So it's such an easy way to get the problem before it's rampant in the body. So that was a really interesting study. I'll make sure I share that with you guys. There's another one, again, if we're talking about, of course, you guys know I'm pregnant.
0:08:35
If we're talking about infertility and pregnancy, I kind of started on my journey with getting clean cosmetics when I couldn't get pregnant and had so many miscarriages. So that, you know, I've always led a relatively healthy life but that really made me up my ante.
0:08:52
And then I started looking at all my cosmetics, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I am getting all of this in my system, this is not healthy for me. And with my family history, I didn't want to add any stress to my body.
0:09:04
So there's a really good study that came out this year that looked at environmental pollution and preterm birth risk. So if you have issues with having kids come at, you know, 25 weeks, 30 weeks, well before they should, this is something to kind of look at. Maybe look at your makeup bag.
0:09:23
The study found that, um, biphenyls parabens and this one you'll, you'll remember triclosan. So when COVID was big, we were all sanitizing our hands, right? The main ingredient in a lot of hand sanitizer is triclosan, which we know is carcinogenic.
0:09:45
So those are the top three that are related to preterm birth. Thought that was interesting. And of course, not only preterm birth issues, but those three are linked to immune disruption. So we know for a fact cancer is on the rise, autoimmune is on the rise. Your immune system is so important, right?
0:10:09
Look at your chemicals that you're putting in your body. So it can affect that. Oxidative stress, you want to talk about anti-aging? Talk about oxidative stress and causing wrinkles, right? So that's a factor. And then the other one, which, again, we can have a whole podcast on this.
0:10:26
Epigenetics. So, the things that I'm eating, putting on my body, are not affecting my baby right now, but my baby's babies. Which is crazy. There's so many cool studies that show your environmental influences now translate into the DNA of your offspring's offspring.
0:10:50
So, epigenetics, that's a really cool one. So that's a fun study. And then as I was putting together this episode, it was so funny. I had two patients. They're both teachers and they both have young girls. They don't know each other. And we were just talking about pregnancy and kids talking about how their lives are. And their kids are 12, about the same age, 12 and 13. And the big thing, and of course I don't have any teenage girls, but the big thing
0:11:22
is that these girls are all about Sephora, which cracks me up because I don't think I discovered Sephora until my mid-20s. So all of these Sephora products that you're buying for your adolescent girls or that they're buying with their money have a lot of these chemicals.
0:11:40
And there's a study that came out this year that specifically looked at those endocrine-disrupting chemicals in adolescents, which I thought was really interesting. We also call endocrine-disrupting chemicals obesogens because they contribute to obesity
0:12:00
and a lot of hormonal issues and inflammation. And they found that these endocrine disorder chemicals are critical in affecting obesity, chronic disease in these young girls during that window of development. So I'm gonna say like between 10 and 15, right? Or even nine and 15,
0:12:21
depending on when they start their menses. So if you're buying these things for your daughters, make sure that they're clean. Please, please. And then the last one, and we'll talk about healthy nail products. You guys have seen me, obviously. I'm pretty low-maintenance. I am pretty much pure with stuff. I don't really color my hair. I'm overdue for a haircut, and I research the heck out of anything that I do put on my body. And of course my nails are super neglected. Do I love a gel manicure?
0:12:53
Absolutely, but knowing what I know now, I try to do my nails at home and there's some really healthy companies that you can use at home. There's a study that came out last year and now they're starting to research it more and more on the UV light with nails and malignancy. So this one's really interesting and I hate to ruin your your pedicures and your manicures for you, but they took a UV light and they exposed human cells and mouse cells to it for 20 minutes. Not a lot of time,
0:13:28
right? So my mother-in-law gets her nails done all the time, I think every four or six weeks, right? So that adds up over a lifetime. So 20 minutes, 30% of those cells died. And of those that survived had significant DNA damage. So now they're studying what do we do with this UV damage around the beds. And the damage that showed up in the DNA was correlative to that causing melanoma. Right? So just little things to think about. Maybe you just need to use a certain protective lotion or a
0:14:03
certain glove and that might be something that they come out with. But just trying to limit our toxic load is really important. So let's dig in here. I've talked about this company before when I have gotten my Thrive shipments. This is Schmitz deodorants that frankly don't work. This is just my favorite. I know a lot of you have shared what you like as well. I've also tried like the crystal which I know they use for breast cancer patients which is just a stick
0:14:41
that you wet. It's messy. I didn't really care for it but this is great. My favorite is a rose scent and I just recently switched to lavender and sage. No aluminum, no artificial fragrance, and the most important thing is it works. So that's my go-to for deodorants. As far as toothpaste, and I'll just bring out the toothpaste a little bit here. Again, dental talk is something for a whole episode, but look at what you're brushing your teeth with. If you're using like Crest or Colgate,
0:15:17
something with fluoride, and again, we'll talk about fluoride with metals at another time. This is the company that I like the best, RiseWell. There's a lot of similar companies out there, but what I like about it is it actually has the trace minerals that puts the nutrition
0:15:35
back into your bones. We used to think bones didn't move once we were adults, right? We used to think teeth really weren't bioactive. We know they're bioactive. They're a direct reflection of our whole body and our heart health. So this actually has hydroxyapatite in it, which helps the enamel, which helps prevent cavities. It doesn't have any artificial sweeteners.
0:16:01
It has things like lemon, tea tree, cinnamon, peppermint, stevia. I didn't bring my sons, but they make a really cute kids toothpaste that has a little monster on it. And if they swallow it, it's OK. But no fluoride.
0:16:17
And again, it puts the healthy stuff back in your teeth. So that's my go-to. They also make a mouthwash. But of course, since our conversation with Dr. Corey, I don't use my mouthwash anymore. So I'm learning along with you guys.
0:16:33
So that's one of my go-tos. A little bit about anti-aging, right? So we can do a whole podcast episode on Botox and how to healthily age and natural alternatives. But I just want to give you guys a little preview of what I do. So if you if you're a patient, if you've been to me before, you know I use this little torture tool
0:17:02
that's metal. It's called Graston. It's derived from the Chinese version called Gua Sha. And this is a facial Gua Sha tool and this is a roller. So these both work to basically iron out the connective tissue under your skin and kind of break up adhesions. It helps with lymphatic drainage and there's certain directions that you want to use this. I will be honest where I have the most wrinkles is in my forehead and this really hurts along my forehead so I kind of focus a lot of my time there. But there's really good research,
0:17:41
again in Europe, that shows that this is a healthy alternative to Botox as well as the roller. The other one, and you know you could always do microderm or you know get the care yourself through the spa, I'll put my collagen on and then I will roll. And that just helps to optimize collagen deposition. So I do that just a couple times a week when I have the time. These are great because obviously you can use them on your face and your neck, but you can also use them
0:18:22
anywhere else on the body and they work. So they've been used for centuries over in Japan and Korea and Vietnam for good reason. So these are my favorites as far as self anti-aging practices. As far as just clean moisturizers, so I love
0:18:42
Mychelle Dermaceuticals. It's on the environmental working group and that's how I discovered them. This is just a toning mist. It smells like grapefruit. It makes me happy.
0:18:57
So after I get out of the shower, I just spray it. I don't know if it does anything, but it just kind of helps to keep me as hydrated as I can be. And then I also from that same company had purchased their retinol cream. But between my last pregnancy and this pregnancy, I haven't used it because of the time,
0:19:19
and you're not supposed to use retinol when you're pregnant. So this is on my to get back to list once this baby comes. So after I do my mist, I will use my, let me get this one out, my collagen, my hyaluronic acid, this I just got on Amazon and I'll share it with you guys. This is great because it's clean, there's no additives, it's made in the U.S., domestically sourced, and it just it hydrates, it feels really good. So I'll do my mist, I'll put this on,
0:19:54
and then I will do my serums. So when you start researching clean anti-aging, there's really not a lot out there. Retinol, right, which right now I can't do, but there's really good studies and we know this for sure. Omega-3s help with healthy tissue, anti-aging, anti- inflammation. So there's a chemical in here, a chemical extract called squalene and it's paired with omega-3s. They're based out of London and it just it's a great daytime moisturizer and then I just switched to a squalene
0:20:43
with lactic acid at night to help with exfoliation and night serum with wrinkles. So that's my night serum. So far those have been working really well. And then again, we can talk about natural alternatives to Botox another time. But that's what I start out with.
0:21:02
Makeup wise, gosh. So when I first started using makeup, I think my mom took me to Mary Kay, right? Mary Kay and then we went to Clinique and my mom still uses Estee Lauder and then I kind of just have used whatever I've gotten it Sephora up until the last few years. Looking at foundations and cosmetics there are some really good companies out
0:21:28
there. Youngblood is really really good so they have a whole list of chemicals that they don't use that are banned. They are not on the environmental working group but they do their own third-party testing. So this is a company I really like, they're mineral cosmetics. I just feel like they hydrate, they work, they don't clog, they cover nice and they have things in there like grapefruit, chamomile, cactus flower extracts. So just really clean. So Youngblood and I know there's a couple of spas in this
0:22:06
area that carry it of course you can get it online as well and then the other company that is right now my favorite who is certified who has that seal on the EWG is the Honest Company right? Jessica Alba's company. So I love her stuff because it's mineral-based. This is just my setting powder I use. This is my eyeshadow palette which you guys can see I only use for special occasions. Amazon, right? You can get it so many different places but Amazon is where I order most of that. They also have, they call it a cream cheek and lip color. Love this. So it kind of like stains your
0:22:56
lips a little bit so it wears well and then you just put a little bit on your cheeks and a little goes a long way. This one is Plumberry. So this is my favorite lip coverage as well as blush. I do have two different companies that I use as well for some lip coverage. One is at Youngblood again, Mineral Cosmetics. And then there's also one called Mineral Fusion, which you can get at Whole Foods and of course on Amazon. Those are both good, but I really like that stain from Jessica Alba's company.
0:23:34
I just feel like it stays well and it works well. As far as mascara goes, the other popular company for clean cosmetics is Illya, which is good, but if you look them up on the Environmental Working Group, some of their products are like a 4 or 5 out of 10 with toxicity. So after I'm done with this mascara, I'll probably switch to the Honest Company mascara. It's still better, this is still better than Maybelline. So good, better, best. And I'm also working on getting as better as I could. But this really, it stays well. Sometimes at the end of the day I get these little raccoon
0:24:17
eyes, so I have in here? I have an eyebrow shadow. So when we do our anti-aging podcast, we'll talk about tattooing your eyebrows, right? I've had that done once. It was an experience. I didn't get it done again.
0:24:45
I'm just more of a natural girl. I have friends that get it done and they look great. With my Hashimoto's, I don't really have any eyebrows, so I just use a mineral powder. This one is Anastasia that I got at Sephora, but again, I could do better.
0:25:02
So I'll be switching to Youngblood's eyebrow pencil when I'm done with this. So that's there. And then perfume, oh my gosh, perfumes. So I have a hard time going into Kohl's or Sephora without getting overwhelmed by that toxic smell
0:25:20
of all those chemicals and perfumes. If I walk in on an elevator or go to church and somebody has perfumes around me, I have to move. I'm pretty sensitive to that stuff. So when I wear stuff, or even when my husband wears something we have to kind of be careful what it is. This I actually get at Sephora.
0:25:42
It's a company called Replica and I switch scents. My favorite is Fireplace. This one's Beachwalk. It's by Mason Margiela. It's out of Paris. It's clean. You need to make sure that your perfume is clean because again those endocrine disrupting chemicals and especially if you have kids I noticed that when my daughter when she was first born when she's held by somebody with a lot of perfume or cologne she'll get a little rosacea on her cheeks from the chemicals so perfumes
0:26:14
another really important one if you wear it a lot just to make sure it's clean you can use essential oils I use essential oils just every day because we do have some health benefits but they're not perfume, right? Especially for date night or special occasion. So this is my favorite company for perfume. And then the other little fun thing that I always have either in my briefcase or my makeup bag when I travel is something called rescue
0:26:43
remedy. So this is fantastic. I was introduced to this by my homeopath, gosh, probably 25 years ago for anxiety, stress, right, a natural alternative. The cool thing about this company is it's made out of flowers, and it was developed by a Dr. Bach in England. And there's so many different kind of flower essences that they use in that company. This one is just purely for stress.
0:27:11
So this one is a spray. You can just spray it in your mouth. They have tinctures that you can use. I know in grad school, I had really bad test anxiety. So I would, they have these little pastilles that I would pop in my mouth.
0:27:27
And that just, it takes the edge off. It doesn't make you loopy or dopey. It just calms that nervous system a little bit. It gives you clarity of mind. And the beauty of it is that being flowers I've never seen anyone have a reaction to this with medications or anything else so this is a really cool
0:27:46
company if you look them up they also have kids support so if your kids have stress or anxiety this is a really great natural option and this is kind of funny So we had a rescue Weimeriner a long time ago who had separation anxiety and I would give him this and it works wonderfully. So if you have rescues or pets that have thunderstorm anxiety or separation anxiety check out their pet line because that's pretty neat too. So really that's all I have in my makeup
0:28:20
bag. The only other fun thing I have for when I occasionally do my manicures or my pedicures, face masks. There's so many out there. There's so many that aren't clean too. Sephora is on the environmental working group and these are pretty good. They're like a one out of 10. I'll just switch up.
0:28:44
There's an anti-pollution with dragon fruit. So I'll kind of switch it up and do a little spa night when everyone's in bed. But yeah, look at your face masks too. So hopefully you enjoyed the dump out of the makeup bags. If you have any questions, please send them my way. I always look forward to that.
0:29:08
Or if you have a product that you would like some guidance on or a substitute for send that question my way as well and we'll do future podcasts on anti-aging. So see you later guys!
Transcribed with Cockatoo