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How to Find Safer Products - Empowering Yourself With Facts and Labels

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By Jen Anderson September 14, 2016
Now that you may be more aware of the need for safer products and safer beauty, the next mission is how do you know and find that which is safer and how do you know what to avoid. Label reading can feel overwhelming and sometimes disappointing or shocking. I currently rely on the safety and screening of Beautycounter products as well as information from the Environmental Working Group. 

Beautycounter is committed to maintaining a high standard of safety, beyond even what is required in the United States. Remember that the United States does not ban many ingredients (only 11 banned ingredients in personal care products compared to nearly 1,400 in Europe).

Beautycounter maintains a "Never List" which is a list of more than 1,500 ingredients Beautycounter never chooses to use. 

You can view the list here and more importantly you can educate yourself as to why each ingredient will never be used by Beautycounter and where you might otherwise find it so that you can be on the lookout and can investigate some of your current products to see how they compare. From this same link above, you can even print out a Never List PDF pocket guide.

The Never List contains the 1,400 chemicals banned in personal products in the European Union, as well as additional ingredients found by Beautycounter to be of concern.

Beautycounter notes that "while all of our ingredients are sourced with a higher standard of safety and quality in mind, it is well recognized — and accepted by regulatory authorities around the world — that incidental, trace levels of a chemical may inadvertently be introduced in a cosmetic product due to the complexities of the supply chain and manufacturing process. At Beautycounter, we work incredibly hard to minimize — but unfortunately, can’t eliminate — the potential that a product may contain trace levels of a chemical from our Never List." (Source: Beautycounter.com)

One of the things I respect most about Beautycounter as a company is that there are no secrets and they are very clear and forthcoming with product information. You can easily determine the ingredients in each and every product. Beautycounter makes it easier to make well informed choices when it comes to personal care products.

In addition to consulting the Never List, you can also read the ratings of many personal care products at the Environmental Working Group's website at EWG.org. The 
Environmental Working Group is a non-profit organization aiming to help people live healthier lives. They ask the important questions about what is in our products and have compiled much of this information into a searchable database. This database rates products in terms of safety (a lower score indicates a safer product). Take the challenge, find one of your most-used or favorite personal care products and see how it rates on EWG.org. I was shocked to learn of the unsafe ratings in just about every product I was using before I knew better. From that point on I began taking small steps to change my products over, learning as I went along. 

EWG also has an app that you can use to search and scan products at home or in a store. Speaking of stores, did you know that a limited amount of Beautycounter products are now available at our local Target stores? Hurry over to check them out, they won't last long. The product line includes some limited-time-only products and a special coupon with purchase. Once you get your special coupon, contact your Beautycounter consultant to redeem it. 

I'd also be glad to share more with you about the Never List, the EWG rating system or about Beautycounter products. 

To learn more, please join my group on Facebook, where I'll occasionally post product information, specials and tips on healthy living. You can also visit 

http://www.beautycounter.com/jenanderson1/ and shop the link anytime. Contact me with questions and stay tuned for more great Beautycounter information! 

Find part 1 of this series here to learn more about my journey to finding safer products for my entire family: Finding Safer Products for My Family

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZfV91Ybmnc