Detox Your Bathroom Shelf
When I found out I was pregnant, the first thing I did was take inventory of my personal care products. Now that it was impacting someone tiny and new, it suddenly felt pressing to understand exactly what I was putting on (and, therefore, in) my body.
Around this time, EWG (Environmental Working Group) and Morning Consult put out a study showing that, as of 2023, adults, on average, use around twelve personal care products per day (thirteen for women, eleven for men – and for many, much more than that). Shampoo, soaps, toothpaste, deodorant, body lotion, face wash, serum, toner, moisturizer, detangler, hair spray, perfume, makeup… the list goes on. According to EWG, these products could be exposing us to around 112+ unique chemical ingredients, many of which are not necessarily safe for our health. With the rising popularity of TikTok trends like the ‘everything shower’ and Gen Z’s robust skincare routines, this stat is only going up. The fact is, it wouldn’t be a problem if the ingredients in our products were regulated for safety. But, sadly, they often aren’t.
Enter: Yuka. I conveniently discovered this app around the time I was feeling anxious about the ingredients in my favorite skincare products. If you haven’t heard of it, Yuka is an app that allows you to scan products of any kind (packaged foods included) to find out how they rank in terms of health and safety. To put it in their words, Yuka “deciphers product labels and analyzes the health impact of food products and cosmetics.” Yuka started in France a few years ago, and has only recently started to catch on in the US (thanks, initially, to a TikTok posted in January 2022). It’s totally free to use, and unlike most apps – they don’t run ads, partner with brands, or accept funding from anyone that would create a conflict of interest. They break down the ingredients in each product and explain why they’re potentially harmful. The best part? They’ll recommend a better-for-you product alongside the one you’re reviewing if it doesn’t meet their standards.
My first Yuka victim, as you might imagine, was the bathroom. So much goes down in the bathroom. You brush your teeth, wash your face, shower, shave, put on your makeup, etc etc. I started scanning everything on my bathroom shelf and was genuinely shocked at what I found. I’d never thought twice about the toothpaste I used but, sure enough, Sensodyne was rated ‘poor.’ Oral-B floss was deemed ‘bad’ (even worse than poor), with BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene) as the main hazardous ingredient. Right in the app, Yuka explained that BHT is a known endocrine disruptor that can impact thyroid function, fertility, and development. It may also be found in placenta and breast milk. Great! As I scanned the items I use daily, I adios-ed shampoo (both mine and Tim’s, which got a 0/100), conditioner, bar soap, deodorant, eye liner, bronzer, tinted moisturizer… The list goes on. For your viewing pleasure, I’ve made a little graphic below of some of the swaps we made. By the time I was done, the exercise felt really gratifying. I can proudly say that most of* the products Tim and I use now contain non-toxic ingredients. The baby, too, obviously! Speaking of, The Clean Bean is a new website launched by a friend of a friend that is an incredible resource for clean, safe, and extensively vetted baby products.
*I say ‘most of’ because there were a few products I couldn’t part with that weren’t terrible, but also weren’t totally ‘clean’. I think ‘perfect can be the enemy of the good in some cases. I do my best, but a little imperfection isn’t the end of the world.
Another tool worth mentioning is EWG’s database called Skin Deep (and Healthy Living app). It essentially does the same thing as Yuka (though I’ve found it a little less user-friendly and their rigorous standards often limiting). I’ll sometimes reference both of these, if, for example, one doesn’t have the product I’m looking for. It’s also nice to get a second opinion. I’ve found that EWG tends to have fewer of the products I’m looking for. If Yuka doesn’t have it, you can add it yourself, and they’ll review.
While I highly recommend Yuka and EWG’s Skin Deep (and Healthy Living App) as quick and easy resources to gut-check your products, they aren’t perfect. They’re great because they distill complicated ingredient information into a single, easy to understand score but, that said, they often lack the nuance required to assess whether something is truly a risk to your health. EWG takes a very conservative approach rating ingredients and products for safety (and is widely respected because of it). This can be frustrating, though, when we’re trying to find a product that actually works and is safe to use. EWG doesn’t, for instance, take concentration of each ingredient into account. It can be defeating to see a ‘clean’ sunscreen product score poorly, dinged by zinc oxide being the main ingredient. EWG even rates an ingredient like Green tea with an orange 4.
While I still use Yuka and EWG regularly, the best way to be absolutely sure about a product’s ingredients is to do the research yourself. I’ve started working with a professional biochemist who has spent more than a decade focusing on natural products and cosmetic chemistry. Any product you see recommended on The Lacey List, he will have manually vetted for ingredient safety. So, with that, here is our 'this, not that' list, along with a few trusted brands and resources for discovering safe makeup and skincare products of your own.
If doing your own research, familiarize yourself with the below lists of ingredients to avoid. If a product has none of these banned ingredients, I would feel comfortable assuming it’s safe to use.
As promised, here are a few of our swaps! We added Necessaire Shampoo & Conditioner in and tossed Phillip B Peppermint Shampoo & Conditioner. We replaced Sensodyne toothpaste with David’s Premium Natural Toothpaste. BioOil Skincare Oil was swapped out for Goē All Over Body Oil. Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream was replaced with Tammy Fender Intense Repair as a night cream. I won’t bore you with the exhaustive list. Instead, sharing a few other ‘clean’ favorites below.
If you made it this far — thank you! 👏 You’re a champion. 💪 I appreciate you so much. ❤
Until next week!
Yes of course Beautycounter is great. but did you see they’re going through some changes right now? https://www.beautycounter.com/
Lace, how about Beautycounter? I'm still 100% devoted to them 10 years later, thanks to your introduction 🩷