Why You Should Get off the Green Bandwagon & Onto The Clean Bandwagon

Most people assume that green products are a safer option.  And based our experience with organic foods, they really should be.  But unfortunately, what's not common knowledge is, those green terms like "organic" & "natural" that we have come to rely upon for choosing our food don't actually carry over to our household products.  

Due to the lack of regulation in these industry's that create our household products (for example, the Personal Care Industry hasn't had an update to the laws governing it since 1938), companies are taking advantage of the "Green Wave" we are on in food to market to consumers.  So these buzzwords do not necessarily mean that the products we are buying are actually safe. 

So what exactly is CLEAN and why should you start shifting towards these products instead of choosing green products?  

To make it a bit easier to understand, I've broken it down to 3 major factors that you should consider when choosing household products so you can begin choosing CLEAN instead of green products. 

First, what exactly is clean?  There are many "natural" body washes, lotions, household cleaners & detergents on the market, but most of them are not much safer than the traditional products they're sitting next to.  This is called greenwashing and is becoming more and more common.

So how do you know if a product is safe?  Going CLEAN is focusing on the source of each ingredient and not just trusting what's said on the front of the bottle.  If you think about it, there are many natural ingredients that we don't want anywhere near our skin or in the air (think asbestos, lead, formaldehyde, etc.).  And when you take a look at synthetics/chemicals, the overwhelming majority of them have been tested and deemed safe. 

The problem is that it is very common for companies to use ingredients that are shown to have negative health implications in their formulas, usually due those ingredients being cheaper and in the end increase their profits.  Another issue is that due to companies not being in the habit of testing natural ingredients for contamination, like heavy metals & formaldehyde, many of the natural products can be bad for our health. 

So it's important to do your research and use resources like the Environmental Working Group's website to look into each ingredient.  I know it's tedious, but once you find a product that you are comfortable is safer & you've determined that it actually works, then you can move onto the next product.  

The next thing to think about it why choosing safer is important.  What we put on our body matters, what we spray in the air matters.  Our health has a directly link to our environment and our home is where we spend most of our time.  This is especially important for those moms out there who have children with health issues.  Both of my sons have asthma, and my son Jack has eczema and for many years I was unknowingly using a "natural" product that contained ingredients linked to both asthma & eczema.  It also contained ingredients linked to infertility & cancer, which obviously had I know, I wouldn't have purchased it.  Believe it or not, since my twins were born, I've always been someone looking for safer options for them, especially since they have health concerns.  But I ended up with this product containing harmful ingredients because I wasn't not fully informed and was buying products that were green and didn't know I needed to look into each ingredient.  So hopefully now you'll understand why that is so important. 

The last reason why you should go clean and not green is that supporting companies that are taking measures to be transparent & put our health first while also making products that work will help so shift the entire industry.  I've been in the clean beauty industry for over 4 years now and have seen a huge shift in consumer demand for clean products so companies are forced to be more transparent and provide clean options.  We still have a long way to go, but it's a great example of how we have tremendous power as consumers to drive a market.  My dream would be that some day the laws are updated so that it doesn't take as much effort to know if what we're using is safe, but unfortunately this is the world we live in, so we must do what we can to ensure the products we are choosing are safe.  Over time, the options will get better and prices will go down, so that should be motivation to keep buying clean!

I hope this information was helping!  I hope you'll join my mailing list & following me on Instagram to see all of my favorite clean product swaps that I've made in my household & more of what I've learned about choosing safer products over the last few years.  And if you are ready to jump in and really commit to making these changes, click here to check out my 5 Day Detox - One Week to a Healthier Home self-guided program!  It's on sale for $27, so go take a look now!

See you in a few days with one of my favorite clean product swaps I've made!

Jessica