Hi, I’m Sarah! Your featured guest blogger!
As a busy mum living in Sydney, Australia, I remember when I began investigating alternative natural ways to support my two young girls.
It was the times when they had a cough, when they needed to relax for bedtime, or when they needed a confidence boost when they were worried.
You know – natural, holistic kind of Mum stuff!
This investigation led me to using essential oils to support my family naturally – and it just made so much sense to me.
I made my own household cleaning products and body products (like bath salts, body scrubs, face creams, room sprays) – all out of natural, chemical-free products. I wondered where these amazing oils had been my whole life!
This led me down the path of becoming a qualified Aromatherapist so that I could guide other health seekers, and promote safe, ethical essential oil usage.
I was thirsty to learn everything about essential oils; from the plant extracts to chemistry (including anatomy, physiology, pathology) to the effective and safe use of them. As you may know, some are not safe for use in all situations – like ingesting them!
Today, I thought I would share how reducing toxic chemicals from within your home and your personal environment can be beneficial to not only YOUR health & wellness – but that of your family.
3 Easy Ways to Reduce the Chemical Load in Your Home (and live the low-tox life!)
1/ EAT ORGANIC. Your food choices can make a difference and is the easiest way to minimise toxins.
Eat foods free from pesticides and herbicides.
2/ OPEN THE WINDOWS. Fresh air and being in nature is good for the soul – plus, it’s free!
3/ READ PRODUCT LABELS. Identifying hormone-disrupting chemicals within your beauty and cleaning products is an eye-opener. And, don’t fall for “greenwashing”!Here are just a few of the many toxic chemicals which can be found in your products ingredient list:
- Phenoxyethanol
- parfum or fragrance
- phthalates
- parabens
- sodium lauryl…
For your hair care treatments, look for hair care products and treatments that are organic, cruelty-free, sulphate-free, and free from toxic chemicals.
To help you navigate the world of chemicals in your food and health & home care products, I personally use a book called the Chemical Maze by Bill Statham.
The book helps you identify toxic chemicals and which food additives and cosmetic ingredients to avoid. The Chemical Maze is also available in a clever app for your smartphone – that way you have the research in hand while out and about.
With the new information about chemicals and living a low-tox lifestyle, we can make more informed choices about what we purchase and when interacting with them in our environment.
Let’s talk about… GREENWASHING!
Put simply, greenwashing is when companies dazzle us with slick marketing words like “eco-friendly”, “organic”, “fresh”, and “natural” to describe and promote their products — when in fact, they are not. Sneaky!
This is a great topic discussing how manufacturing companies are not being truthful in their product labeling and may be using harmful ingredients in their products.
FYI – It’s a parallel marketing strategy to “health washing” in the food industry.
I find it useful to have a few online stores to shop at – trustworthy stores that have already done the research for you and sell only low-tox, chemical-free products.
Two of my favourite online shopping websites are Biome and Nourished Life.
Navigating the World of Natural Beauty & Low-tox Living
The world of beauty is full of toxic chemicals (unfortunately, that’s most of the big brands), and starting all over with finding the right makeup and beauty treatments can be daunting for any woman.
I love that Nourished Life offers a service where you can send in a sample of your old makeup and they send you a chemical-free sample that best matches your old products. Genius, right?!
For beauty treatments, call up your preferred clinic and ask for the brand of products they use in your planned treatment.
Armed with this information, you can research the product ingredients list online using the EWG’s Skin Deep Database.
If it’s your favourite clinic, feel free to bring in your own make-up, massage oil or beauty products – this could spark a beautiful conversation with them about using chemical-free products in their business.
My favourite hair colouring is an organic range called Natulique which was created in Denmark and you can now find a number of hair salons using this and similar natural, organic hair products.
SARAH’S HOT TIP: if the product ingredients you are looking for are not listed on the company website or the ingredients list appears incomplete, then the company is not being transparent and probably not low-tox — even though they may claim to be!
Discover more about carving out a low-tox life with Sarah:
Aromatherapy with Sarah® was born out of a passion to promote the safe and ethical usage of essential oils offering aromatherapy massage, low tox aromatherapy facial massage, Reiki healing, and private online consultations.
I am also a specialist in manufacturing custom aromatherapy products for other businesses. Let’s just say that I’m your local and qualified aromatherapist in the Inner West of Sydney.
I’m incredibly passionate about empowering clients with knowledge of essential oils safety for themselves and their families, as well as an advocate for self-care and adopting a low-tox lifestyle.
My daily values in life and business are: reducing chemicals | simple life | less stress | organic Australian products.
Xo, Sarah
P.S. connect with me on socials too – plenty of low-tox living tips & resources there!
Want even more great healthy low-tox living resources like this?
(I just love connecting my health network with my community!)
Low-tox Living: Top 3 Ways To Reduce Chemicals In Your Life
