September's coming soon...
Sorry, this post is a little aimless. I actually don't like that song, or much from REM. Anyway, it's another long weekend. I'm sure many of you are celebrating marking back-to-school with this one last chance for another couple days of summer fun.
Me, I really need my nails done. I'm thinking better of it, despite those snaggle toes, after seeing this website, the National Healthy Nail and Beauty Salon Alliance. I found it through SafeMarkets.org. The website itself hasn't been updated since Summer '12, making me wonder if the Alliance is still active (though it must be if they are involved in the Workgroup for Safe Markets), but there are loads of links to loads of information about just how bad that French manicure is for you.
Jazzy, are you trying to ruin EVERYTHING? Believe me, it's as much a quagmire for me as it is for you. Regular pedis were a huge stress relief for me during chemo, and there is something so clean and neat about the look of fresh, glossy polish. I mean, you can't spit on Pinterest without hitting half a dozen pins for fun nail designs.
I don't know what the answers are here. Maybe, in the spirit of Labor Day, we agree to skip that next mani/pedi? If not for our own sakes, then for those of nail salon workers, who are exposed to who-knows-what everyday, all in the name of our own vanity.
I do know that this first summer here at SMACK! has been a great one, and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have! As always, have a safe, FUN weekend, and we'll see you on the other side!!
-- Jazzy
Or at least there will be.
I know I've been beating it into SMACK! readers since the beginning that EWG's Skin Deep database is THE go-to source for rating your favorite products for chemical toxicity. Soon it will your on-the-go source, too.
EWG is launching a Skin Deep app for mobile devices next month, so that we all can avoid jamming up traffic in the health and beauty aisle while we squint at our screens trying to make out what the website is telling us about this bodywash or that shaving cream. Oh wait, that's just me?
Probably the only time I was eager to fork over my email address, to find out when the app is launching (good for them for building hype anyway they can). Though not surprising that I'm now also signed up for every email blast they send ad nauseum. No matter.
Of COURSE I will let you know as soon as the app launches, and give a full report on how it works, because I want you, too, to have all this great information at your fingertips. In other words, I'll be hounding your a$$ until you download the app and start using it every time you go to the market. Too bad I can't make it a mandatory condition of readership!
Yours in mobile fun,
Jazzy
I love the Method brand of household cleaning products...that is, until now.
I was wooed and won over years ago by the great packaging, the witty and smart product messaging. The French translation didn't hurt, either, since I'm a bit of a sucker for such things. It was one of the first instances where I justified the added expense of something that [seemed like it] was environmentally friendlier.
Except that Method isn't. Maybe this isn't news to you, for which I'm glad. But I just yesterday was perusing EWG's Guide to Healthy Cleaning and decided to check out some of my favorite products. Of the 57 results that EWG has listed in its database for Method products, only 18 of them take a passing grade (products are graded, A through F).
Disappointed? I know I am. I want to take a closer look so that I know what I'm buying and how I need to adjust my choices the next time I'm stocking up. Some versions of products are better than others, while some just. completely. fail.
As for those fave Method products with which I have to break up, I will miss them. But I know I'm better off going without than sticking with something that's no good for me.
Vinegar to the rescue! What are some of your favorite 'green' cleaners?
-- Jazzy
Um, hi???? How freaking embarrassed am I. Deadbeat blogger! I was away last week, trying to squeeze another few days of recreation out of the end of the season, and I promise, I fully intended to blog my way through. But my sh*tty laptop and sh*tty wifi had other plans.
As nice as it was to be disconnected, I missed SMACK! It's good to be back. I just want to say up front, that this week will be a lot of catching up, plus the holiday weekend sneaking up on us, so I'm going to do my best to flesh out a few good posts.
I am actually a little excited to have found a new website devoted to lower-chemical living, www.safemarkets.org. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics ran the press release announcing it here. It looks pretty comprehensive, although the link to the parent organization, the Coming Clean Collaborative, is under construction. I would like to know more about both organizations.
In the meantime, though, it's worth checking out Safe Markets' page on flame retardants. For decades, these chemicals have been added to upholstery, apparel and other household textiles. I don't even want to think about the exposure. Seriously.
I'm reminded of the last couch we owned, this vile striped chenille thing that sagged in the middle and by the end was pretty much just a giant dog bed. I would joke, in the weeks that we waited for our new leather sectional, that I secretly wanted to burn the thing, but was afraid of the noxious fumes that would probably come out of it. Not so far off the mark, was I??
Back to Safe Markets. I like how the site presents information -- not too overwhelming or frightening, but informative enough to hopefully inspire some action. Very consumer-friendly. I'll definitely be visiting it regularly, and hope you do, too!
-- Jazzy
These commercials for cotton have been on the airwaves for decades. I had to dust off a few cobwebs to remember that tagline "the fabric of our lives" but it was there, well embedded into my childhood consciousness. Guess it was effective marketing, huh?
Summer is blockbuster movie season. Even I went to the movies, to see The Heat (sooooo funny). But while most movie-goers were watching things blow up at their local cineplex, handfuls of viewers got to see a small movie about chemical toxins in everyday products that was quietly going coast to coast for a summer tour.
I'm adding a new book to SMACK!'s Book Corner, The Imperfect Environmentalist by Sara Gilbert (Ballentine, 2013). You 90s folks will recognize her as Darlene Connor from the sit-com Roseanne, and now she's a host on CBS' The Talk.
The book just dropped this week, and with it Gilbert is extending her reach beyond television, into that nefarious land of 'influence' and 'inspiration.' Think Gwyneth Paltrow minus a few layers of snobbery.