Art | Resources
Choosing Foam Other Than Latex
Question from Tonia
Hi Debra,
If latex wasn’t an option. What would be less bad: 100% soy based foam, or the CertiPur-US polyurethane foam?
And what do you think about this headboard:
www.overstock.com/#/9098385/customer-reviews.html?selectedOption=13075177
Debra’s Answer
First of all there is no such thing as 100% soy-based latex. If you’ve found one, please let me know. I’d like to see it. Typically soy-based foam is only about 30% soy and the remainder is just standard polyurethane.
Here is my analysis of CertiPur-US: CertiPur-US Polyurethane Foam
Personally, I wouldn’t use either one of them. If they were the only options…I don’t know which I would choose. Eating soy messes up my hormones, so I don’t think I would want to sleep on it. I would choose one of the natural beds I’ve listed at the Beds & Bedding page on Debra’s List
The headboard…in the Details it says it’s made of “wood” and then in the Specs it says “MDF, veneer, wood”.
MDF is fiberboard with resins that might contain formaldehyde, veneer requires adhesives that usually contain solvents, and you need to know what type of wood is used. Finish is unknown and may outgas solvents. Without actually physically inspecting this piece, I wouldn’t buy it. Try an unfinished furniture store for a similar style that would be made from solid wood and apply your own nontoxic finish.
This unfinished solid pine bed frame is from Bare Woods Furniture. There are many others.
Toxic Fumes from New Oil Burner — Help!
Question from Sandy F.
Hi Debra,
Hi, I’m writing on behalf of Linda H., a chemically injured friend. She recently had a new boiler and oil burner/motor installed in the basement of her apartment building in MA. She is on the second floor, and is getting a lot of fumes when the new system runs.
The boiler is a Peerless Premiere and is cast iron, and the burner/motor is made by Burnan (Burnam?). Does anyone have an idea of what the source of the fume problems might be, and what a “fix” or “fixes” might be?
FYI, she has already tried turning the thermostat up to 80 degrees, and leaving the apartment with the windows open for a day, and another day with the heat off while she was elsewhere. When she returned, still the problem.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Debra’s Answer
Readers, any suggestions?
Vinyl Closet Clothes Covers
Question from Em
Hi Debra,
Are clear vinyl clothes covers used in closets to protect clothes from dust safe to use? These are the covers that go over the rod and cover the shoulder part of clothes. The product labels says “complies with California Prop 65” but when I check the website it states has listed AC Prop 65 chemicals. I find this confusing. I purchased this product from Bed Bath and Beyond – Closetware – Closet Rod Cover.
I am allergic to dust and I would like to cover my clothes in my closet to prevent dust settling on them. Even a few days of dust accumulation which is not notifiable to the eye will create allergic problems for me.
Thank you.
Debra’s Answer
The Product Information clearly states that the product is made from “PVC,” which is considered the most toxic plastic by the environmental group Greenpeace.
This is akin to a vinyl shower curtain, which emits fumes that pollute the air.
In a small enclosed area such as a closet, these fumes could concentrate to very high levels.
I don’t recommend using this product.
Can I Block Toxic Fumes From a Sofa?
Question from Suzanne
Hi Debra,
I am in need of a new sofa. I know as of January 1, 2015 you can buy sofas without chemical flame retardants, but there are other toxic chemicals in most new furniture . I can’t afford the prices for completely toxic free sofas. If you cover sofa with a quilt or blanket, will it block the other chemicals that might be offgassing?
Debra’s Answer
Yes there are other toxic chemicals in many of the new sofas that say they are “flame retardant free.”
Unfortunately, throwing a quilt or blanket over the sofa will NOT block VOCs that may be offgassing from the sofa. The tiny molecules of these gasses with go right through the fabric.
What you need is a very thick polyethylene plastic, or even better, two sheets of polyethylene with a layer of foil in between. Like a “space blanket”
Not very attractive, but this would block any fumes.
Or you could get an air purifier.
Plastic Cooking Utensils
Question from Sue Mironer
Hi Debra,
This was posted to my Facebook page today. I’m concerned about the black plastic utensils that I ordered with my Extrema cookware. Are they safe? Are others I bought like it at other stores safe?
www.countryliving.com/shopping/g2932/the-10-most-toxic-items-at-dollar-stores
Debra’s Answer
Just went to the Xtrema website to double check what their utensils are made of and found they are not including them in their sets any more.
I remembered that they were made of nylon and found on their site that it’s OK to use nylon utensils. They are not plastic like the Dollar Store utensils.
I also saw they are now selling my favorite brand of wooden utensils, which is what I use with my Xtrema cookware.
Exceptionally Natural Pet Products
My guest today is Debbie Guardian, Founder and President of Opie & Dixie, LLC, a small business that makes exceptionally pure pet care products. We’ll be talking about pet care, and also about principles of choosing pure ingredients, which apply to all products. In 2008, after a bout with breast cancer and an education on toxins, Debbie was reminded that what we put ON our bodies seeps right INTO our bodies. Unable to find the same toxin-free ingredients for her pets that she insisted upon using for herself, Debbie decided to develop her own line of safe, 100% natural products for both cats and dogs. While all her products are safe enough to be used by humans, they were developed for animals. Her ingredients are natural, organic and sourced in North America; her balms have been USDA Certified Organic. She steers clear of sulphates, parabens, propylene glycol and other chemicals, including synthetic fragrances. She believes in a complete “eco” brand, right down to their eco-friendly packaging. They use biodegradable labels that are made using plant-based, non-toxic ink and are printed on environmentally-friendly paper. Their containers are made of recyclable, BPA-free plastic and eco-friendly tins. They even print all our collateral on 100% recycled, 50% post-consumer waste paper which is processed chlorine-free, using soy-based ink. www.opieanddixie.com
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Exceptionally Natural Pet Products
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Debbie Guardian
Date of Broadcast: December 10, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, this is Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world and live toxic-free. It is Thursday, December 10th 2015. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida.
I’m just going to talk to you for a bit here because we’ve had some technical problems. We’re having a lot of technical problems. I don’t know, it just seems to be the time for technical problems. But anyway, I’m doing the show on the telephone today instead of with my mic and my headphones and all of those things. We’re trying to get our guest back on the line (and
I’m hoping that she didn’t go someplace and it’s not available), so I don’t have to talk all by myself for an hour.
But anyway, what we’re going to be talking about today is pet products. I particularly chose this guest because she has amazingly pure products and amazingly pure ingredients. And the way she describes them, I would like to see every product in the universe be exactly like her products in terms of their purity and their amount of information she discloses.
I’m looking, I just picked a product at random. The first ingredient is purified glacier water. Now, usually, it might say ‘water’ and we don’t know if the water is tap water or if it’s some kind of purified water or how it’s purified or what’s going on with the water. And when water is the number one ingredient in a product, you want to know is that water pure or is it toxic.
I would venture to say that most manufacturing manufacturers with water out of the tap. And occasionally, I will see that it says ‘filtered’. And here, we have purified glacier water. That makes me want to use this product right away – except it’s for pets. If I had a pet, I would use this product because of the purity of the ingredients.
Okay! So I have my guest on the line. Debbie, are you there?
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: I sure am. Good morning, Debra.
DEBRA: Good morning, good morning.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Actually, good afternoon for you.
DEBRA: It’s afternoon for me. I’m so glad that we managed to hook ourselves up here.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Absolutely, you and me both.
DEBRA: Okay, so I’m going to introduce you now. Listeners, my guest today is Debbie Guardian. She’s the founder and president of a company called Opie & Dixie. It’s a small business in San Francisco. I don’t know if you’ve heard me talking, Debbie about how pure your ingredients are. She makes these pure pet products. So let’s start with you telling us about how you got interested in this. What prompted you to start this business?
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Well, way back, when we adopted Opie (who is our first dog), I actually began mixing supplements for her food. My very first product was a supplement that contained lecithin, kelp and primarily, flax seed which is a balanced Omega-3, -6 and -9 ingredient versus just fish oil. That’s how I began.
And in 2008, I stumbled across breast cancer as so many of us do and I really began to learn about ingredients that we put on our bodies and how those ingredients seep into our bodies. I became extremely obsessed with that. I had a lot of time to be obsessed.
DEBRA: And I understand that because I’m extremely obsessed too.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Well, I thought about myself and I thought about my animals because my animals are everything to me. They’ve always eaten organic diets, all-natural diets, very healthy foods. Their beds are made of recycled plastic, organic fabric. So I’m a little nutsy about that. I decided that their shampoos, conditioners and all sorts of skincare products should be pure and natural and healthy as well.
So I began looking at the ingredients on these bottle and they had parabens and sulfates and all sorts of toxins in them. I could not find anything on the market that had precisely what I wanted to find in my products.
So I began researching ingredients and found manufacturers to play around with the formulas that I wanted. There was a lot of back and forth with “a little more shea butter please, a little less this, a little more that.” Finally, we nailed some formulas that worked, that I felt were safe and the way I want it.
DEBRA: We still have a few minutes. I want to spend a fair amount of time talking with you about the various ingredients in your products today because you obviously have chosen them so carefully and I want our listeners to become more familiar with what some of these ingredients are and for us to talk about how difficult or easy to get these ingredients and things like that. I know that when I started becoming interested in this 1978, I approached this by saying, “Well, these toxic chemicals are making my body sick. What are the toxic chemicals that are in these products?”
And so to me, I don’t look at a product and say, “There’s a product on the shelf.” I look at the product and say, “What are the ingredients on the product?” And so, it’s a list of ingredients to me. I really found that, especially back in 1978, that it was really hard to get the ingredients on a lot of products.
So nowadays, especially, you’re just such a shining example – you really are. I’m looking at your products all day long and the ingredients list.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Thank you, thank you.
DEBRA: I read your ingredients list and I thought, “This woman knows what she’s talking about.”
And also, that you are so transparent about all the ingredients. One of the biggest problems that we face today is that people want to be able to evaluate the products for toxicity, but the most toxic products don’t list any of their ingredients on the label.
DEBRA: Very true!
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: So I think there needs to be a big shift in the marketplace from secrecy and toxicity to openness, transparency and organic-ness. You are right there just as a model of what everyone needs to be doing. I can’t say that enough.
DEBRA: I try to be, thank you. I try to be. My girls as I call them, my dogs, are 14 now. And let me tell you, they are very healthy – knock on wood. I attribute this really to their diet, but also to their body care.
Canine cancer is the number one cause of death following euthanasia due to overpopulation. And most dog shampoos have always contained sulfates and parabens. They’re just a very, very common ingredients because of the bubbliness. And parabens has been linked to cancer. It’s been linked to developmental problems, reproductive problems, organ system toxicity, neurotoxicity. They’re nasty. I just did not want those in my products.
Even synthetic ingredients, I preferred to go with essential oils except for my cat products because cats are very sensitive to those essential oils and they can be toxic to cats. But even synthetic fragrances are mostly petroleum-based and not so much for pets with allergies. Often, they can cause sneezing, water eyes, skin irritations. A lot of people don’t realize that it is that simple, a synthetic fragrance in a shampoo.
So I try to really research these ingredients. They’re all sourced in North America. I really stand by these. I wouldn’t use anything else for my girls.
DEBRA: Well, when we come back from break, I’m going to ask you about some individual ingredients so that people can learn more about what really goes into an ingredient and chosing an ingredient.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Debbie Guardian. She’s the founder and president of Opie & Dixie (and those are the names of her two beloved dogs). Her website is OpieandDixie.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Debbie Guardian. She is the founder of Opie & Dixie. I was sitting here in front of my computer and then I started looking things up during the break and then [inaudible 00:13:58]. Anyway, she’s the founder and president of Opie & Dixie. The URL is OpieandDixie.com.
So let’s talk about the one that I just picked at random, Organic Oatmeal and Almond Shampoo. This has some very interesting ingredients in it. So first, let’s just start with the purified glacier water. What is your thought process behind that they should have purified glacier water?
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: When water is purified, it has been mechanically filtered or processed to remove impurities. We tend to want to drink purified water. I like both spring water and purified water in my products because, again, I can trust that there are no toxins in there.
There are two states that are known for great water – one of them is New York, one of them is San Francisco. I’m sure if I were to use bottled water, it wouldn’t be toxic. However, and I mentioned earlier, Debra, I’m obsessed. I’m just obsessed with purity and safety through and through. If it’s safe enough to consume, it’s safe enough to put on your body.
DEBRA: Well, we should be looking at not putting anything on our bodies or our pets’ bodies that we wouldn’t eat or drink.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Agreed!
DEBRA: So glacier water, is this glacier water because the San Francisco water comes from a glacier?
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: This ingredients was actually offered by our shampoo manufacturer who is in British Columbia.
DEBRA: Oh!
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah. And believe it or not, all our balms are manufactured right here in the US and the shampoos in British Columbia. I stumbled across this wonderful company that makes products for humans as well and I began reading about their methods and their holistic goals. I thought, “Wow! Glacier water, I’ve never thought of that.”
So he offered this up and I thought to myself, “Sure! Why not? Let’s absolutely go with it.” And I wasn’t even familiar with what it meant. I didn’t realize that it was processed to remove toxins. That’s why it’s in those ingredients.
Canada, as a matter of fact (who knew?) has much, much stricter regulations than the United States. And the reason we haven’t purchased their organic certification is because of how expensive is and we’re, of course, a smaller company. It’s very, very expensive and goes through an extremely extensive process. So we’re certified organic by a smaller organization called EcoGreen which works just fine, but it’s much less expensive than the USDA certified organic testing that we do here in the United States.
DEBRA: Yeah, USDA organic is very expensive. I still want to ask you about the glacier part. Does this mean that the water comes from a glacier?
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: And frankly, I could not tell you precisely where he sources it. He is very confidential about certain ingredient. However, I trust them explicity. Sorry about that, sorry about any noise. One of my dogs just got back from her dog walk and has stomped into the home. So if you hear any noises, that’s who it is.
DEBRA: I actually can’t hear any noises because I’m on the phone, so I don’t have the sound quality. But I don’t mind any dog barking any background.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Good. Well, hopefully, you won’t get any of that. But I leave a lot of the sourcing to my manufacturers.
Glacier water, the speeds vary very greatly. They’re a denser body of water and it’s constantly moving. He explained this to me. And I won’t lie to you. Through much of it, I thought, “Okay, it’s very complicated.” He explained that glacier ice is actually the largest reservoir of fresh water on earth and that the temporal climate really help in purification of this water. It’s totally confusing to me. I can’t lie to you. It’s a confusing thing, which is why I don’t physically source the ingredients myself.
DEBRA: Yeah, I can understand that. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot about it. I was just so fascinated by your ingredients.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Nah, fire away. If I don’t know, I will not lie.
DEBRA: Okay, good. So, let me ask you the next one that I’d like you to talk about – although let’s see what time is it. Oh, in less than a minute, we’re coming up on the break. But what I want to ask you about and have you talk about after the break is one of your ingredients is certified biodynamic avocado oil. And usually, people might go so far as organic, but biodynamic is like an extra step. We’ve talked about biodynamic on the show before, but I’d like you to tell us what it is when we come back and why you chose that.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Sure thing.
DEBRA: Yeah, yeah. Also, other things that’s in this particular product are some organic herbal ingredients of various sorts and wild crafted ingredients. So when we come back, we’ll talk about these different terms that are not usually seen on labels.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Debbie Guardian. She’s the founder and president of Opie & Dixie in San Francisco. Their domain is OpieandDixie.com. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Debbie Guardian. She’s founder and president of Opie & Dixie. She’s at OpieandDixie.com. We’re talking about exceptionally pure ingredients that go beyond what’s normally in products.
So Debbie, why don’t you tell us about biodynamic and wild crafted and maybe compare organic and biodynamic and wild crafted?
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Sure! So biodynamic is actually a method of farming. Holistically, biodynamic agriculture is farming in which soil, crops, animals, even the farmer act as a very self-contained, united entity. So much of it is a feel, a feel for how these people – how can I word this? They don’t want to harm the soil, they are focused on the soil and the care of the soil and they enhance and replenish it with holistic herbs and minerals. There’s a growing organic farming movement particularly in other parts of the world. And it’s not just the farming. It’s then a feel for the farmers, a spiritual development, bonding with the earth. It’s a very, very innovative approach to farming.
DEBRA: Yeah. If I can interrupt you for a second, one of the things I’ve noticed over the years (which is an important point to me) is that you can have something that’s free from toxic chemicals, but it might be that’s all it is, free from toxic chemicals. And in order for us to heal, it’s important that not only are we free from toxic chemicals, but we also have the positive factors of nutrition and sunlight and all these things that are in the natural world that we’re part of.
So, biodynamic farming and other practices in the world go beyond just avoiding toxic chemicals to many of these other factors.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Exactly! And this is why we’ve also used some wild-crafted ingredients. I don’t know if you’re – well, you probably are. But your listeners…
DEBRA: I know, but you tell us about it.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: You know it all. I know you know it all. Wild-crafted actually refers to a plant or herb that is gathered in the wild in its very natural habitat. It is not cultivated. It’s grown without herbicides or pesticides or fertilizers. It’s harvested in a very ecologically sustainable manner because it is natural. It’s growing on its own in its natural world.
I thought that was actually an interesting concept that, again, our Canadian manufacturer brought up. He’s been a fountain of information.
DEBRA: Wow!
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Yeah, yeah. Really terrific! He’s my secret weapon or my secret sauce or whatever they say. The wild-crafted is truly as natural as you can get.
DEBRA: It is, it is as natural as you can get. It really is about the plant being in its own environment and all the factors that are at play. So you have organic which would be no pesticides and no herbicides. And then, you’d have biodynamic which has other factors added. But those are still both grown in a field with a farmer. Wild-crafted, these plants are growing in their own natural habitat with the little birds or squirrels or whatever roaming around.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Exactly! Because you’re out there in the wild.
DEBRA: It’s just out there in the wild. And then people come and very careful pull those plants out of their wild habitat in a way that allows them to continue to grow. So they don’t take all of it. It’s just a sustainable thing.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Exactly!
DEBRA: I think each of those ways of growing those plants would have different qualities to them. Even if it was exactly the same plant grown in those three ways would have different qualities.
I was talking to a woman who I think is going to be a guest in January. Well, [inaudible 00:32:02] in Maine. She is certified organic wild-crafted. I said, “How can you be certified organic and wild-crafted?” And the way that occurs is that in Maine, they have all these wild blueberrings going all around the place. And what she does is she just carefully removes the forest from around the bush. So, she’s not planting anything. She’s just making it easier for the plants to grow. She gives it more space and light and air. So, she’s cultivating her wild-crafted plants. I just thought that was so wonderful.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: So interesting. I’m going to tune in to that show for sure.
DEBRA: So, let’s see. Let’s take another one. I’m looking at this. And the first thing I’ll say is it’s not 100% organic. Let’s address that over the next couple of minutes before we go to the break. I think that people like you, if were at all possible, would be 100% organic and wild-crafted and all those things. But it’s because you can’t get those ingredients, yes?
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Exactly! Some ingredients are very, very difficult to find in an organic form. One of the ingredients, as a matter of fact, that is organic is our shea butter.
And interestingly enough, it can sometimes be a little grittier than the non-organic version. I mean, it’s very, very high fat butter. It’s full of vitamins. It’s got A and E. It’s wonderful for dry patches and skin. It heals. I use some of our shea butter products, our balms actually as a lip balm. It’s the best lip balm I’ve ever found. It makes lips soft. I’ve been thinking of manufacturer it as ‘buy one for your dog ,buy one for yourself’.
DEBRA: One for you!
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: I know! Exactly! I mean, shea butter is an amazing miracle ingredient. However, what we noticed is using the non-organic form was a little bit smoother and softer. So the product itself is a little grittier, but they’re just for dogs. They don’t mind.
DEBRA: Well, sometimes, you need to make those choices. We’ll talk about that when we come back. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Debbie Guardian (another Debra) and she’s the founder and president of Opie & Dixie in San Francisco. They’re at OpieandDixie.com. Opie and Dixie are her dogs. We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. My guest today is Debbie Guardian, founder and president of Opie and Dixie. Those are the names of her two dogs who have been very quiet during the show. Her website is OpieandDixie.com.
So let’s talk about choosing ingredients when you can’t – I know that one thing that obsessed people like you and I and a lot of listeners want to do is if they decided to go organic, they want 100% organic. They don’t want it to be partially toxic. And so I think that people are having to make choices because they can’t find something as pure as they would like it to be. Can you just talk about that in your experience, your approach about that and your thoughts about that?
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Well, sure. Very, very simply, some ingredients just cannot be found in an organic form and others are prohibitively expensive. It boils down pretty much to that. Number one, can you find them? And number two, can you afford them? And very often, you simply cannot afford them. And the certification process becomes even more expensive, which again, for a very small company, you’ve got to battle between what you believe in and want to do and what you realistically can do.
DEBRA: And I think everybody is in that position.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Yes, absolutely. I mean, in the US, our certification is ran by some private agency. In some countries, it’s overseen by the government and purely by the government. So it can really be a little pricey.
But again, as I’ve mentioned, there are some ingredients (which I can’t even think of at the moment) that are simply not available.
DEBRA: Well, I can think of one, salt. Salt can’t be organic.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: There you go!
DEBRA: If you’re looking for organic, it has to be an agricultural product. So you could have something like salt which – well, I was about to say something, but this is going to open up a whole other thing, but I’ll say it anyway. I mean, if it says ‘salt’ on the label (and I’m not being critical of you here), if it just says ‘salt’ on the label, you don’t know what type of salt it is unless it’s specified what type of salt it is. And so I was giong to say that it’s not going to be toxic if it’s salt because it’s not an agricultural product, but there could be all kinds of pollutants in salt.
I was just on another show a few days ago (or last week, I think it was, or the week before). As I was doing the show, in the break, I was reading my emails. It arrived in my inbox during the show that salt, sea salt, has bits of plastic in it. They actually were measuring these samples of sea salt and finding all these plastic.
I was reminded that when I fly into the San Francisco Airport as you’ve probably done many times – I used to live in San Francisco. I was born and raised in Oakland and Marine County. San Francisco is a place that I know. When you fly into the airport in San Francisco, you see the salt beds where they’re bringing in water from the San Francisco Bay and dehydrating it right around the San Francisco Airport right next to the freeway with all the planes flying over the salt beds and you’ve got the San Francisco Bay pollutants and that’s sea salt.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: That, I’m going to go to my cabinet and throw that baby out. I had no idea!
DEBRA: There are salts (which I’ve talked about many times, but I’ll say it again) like real salt and Himalayan crystal salt which come from underground seas where the water was there millenia ago and it’s now buried underground. So there are no pollutants in that salt. But any sea salt that you’re getting that’s taken from surface water is very polluted.
And so, in my opinion, I think that, first of all, the point I was trying to make cannot be organic ever because it’s not an agricultural product. But I think that there’s salt and there’s salt. That’s why I put so much attention on ingredients now that
I’m obsessed with getting everything labeled properly.
DEBRA: Right! And the interesting thing that I’ve learned in this process is that in many cases – and you know this – ingredients are called ‘organic’ or ‘100% natural’, but they are really not. Who is regulating what goes into certain bottles.
I used to buy a personal healthcare product that had the word ‘organic’ in the name, in the brand. And it was pulled and had to be rebottled (you may know who they are) because it was just discovered that while they were using that term in their very name, there were no organic ingredient whatsoever in their product.
DEBRA: Right! That’s right, that’s right.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: And you think about what you’re doing. You are really trying to do the right thing, yet there are companies who really get away with not doing the right thing. And this is more so for humans than animals. But again, as
I’ve said 50 millions times, my animals are as important to me as I am to myself, as any human being. What I provide for them is never going to be any less than what I provide for myself.
I mean, you and I think very, very alike when it comes to ingredients. You do the very, very best that you can. You focus on integrity rather than money-making, which is what we stand very firmly by, and take it from there.
DEBRA: Yes. I guess the whole point of what I was asking earlier is that we have the idea (even I think you and I have the idea) that we want it to be perfect and we want it to be completely 100% no toxic anything, but you can’t stand anywhere on the planet and have it be 100% non-toxic.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Exactly!
DEBRA: Our planet is contaminated. Every bit of soil, water and air is contaminated with toxic chemicals. But what we can do is that we can choose products like yours that have the best least toxic ingredients available and be free of the chemicals, the chemical ingredients that are known to be toxic such as you were talking about parabens earlier causing cancer. We could certainly be free of those toxic chemicals even if not 100%.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Exactly! We do the very, very best we can. If we cannot find organic, 100% natural is what we veer towards and in most cases, I will trust 100%. But I really want that 100% in there.
DEBRA: Yes, yes.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: I know if I can’t find organic, I want the next best ingredient that I can possibly find.
DEBRA: And I’m the same way. I’m the same way. Where I draw my line is synthetic. I don’t want things artificially man-made out of petrochemicals.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Right!
DEBRA: So we want to cross the line into something that’s renewable. I’ll accept that even if it isn’t organic. If I can’t get the organic thing, then I’ll go with the natural ingredient or material. But I stop with petroleum-based products except occasionally if I have to because there’s no other choice. I’ll use a non-toxic petroleum product, but not on my skin. I might be in paint, but not on my skin and I’m not going to eat it.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Right, right. I mean, sometimes, you just can’t find what you’re looking for. It just does not exist. So like you, the best we can do is the best we can do. I do steer clear of synthetic fragrances because there are so many people with sensitivities. I have no sensitivities and have never felt them, but I also think of those around me.
DEBRA: Yeah!
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: So even though these are pet products, they are human grade. I use them myself. I’ve tested them on myself before going to market with them. And there’s nothing I would use on them that I wouldn’t use on myself.
DEBRA: That’s so good to hear. We’ve only got about a minute left, so is there anything that you want to say that you haven’t said.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: No, not really. But if anybody is interested actually in reading a little bit about our ingredients, I do have a page on my website dedicated only to ingredients. I talk a little bit about why we use organic, what biodynamic means, what we don’t use and why we don’t use it. I really get into each ingredient and what its benefit are.
Even for our packaging, we use eco-friendly packaging and eco-friendly glues. We just try to stick by our word in all areas.
DEBRA: And I see that. I see this very long page with all your ingredients. This is great! I love it when I go to a website and I see that.
Well, we’re coming to the end. Thank you so much, Debbie, for being with me. Again, her website is OpieandDixie.com.
She’s got all these great products for your pets. I’m sure we’ll be talking again. Thank you.
DEBBIE GUARDIAN: Sure! Hugs there, Debra. Thank you for inviting me.
DEBRA: You’re welcome. You’ve been listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. Be well!
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The Simplest Products for Real Beauty
My guests today are Tom Wennerstrand and Ben Okamoto, who are developing a new approach to beauty products. Tom is the creator of the REAL Beauty approach and product line. Tom was Inspired and taught by his career of ten years as hair and makeup artist working at Paris, Milan and New York fashion week, and building “Noir Concept”, a unique lifestyle salon concept for Helsinki. His career combined with his personal quest for deeper understanding of well-being and beauty lead to the development of “REAL Beauty”. Tom teamed up with Ben Okamoto to bring the concept of REAL Beauty to life. Ben obtained his his BA majoring in Economics and Political Science and International Relations at the young age of 19. After a year of working as the Commercial Manager Australia’s biggest telecommunication company, Ben became disillusioned with corporate life and moved to Berlin where he fell in love with the REAL Beauty concept.They have been working together since, and now have a Kickstarter campaign to launch their products. www.realbeauty.life
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
The Simplest Products for Real Beauty
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Tom Wennerstrand
Date of Broadcast: December 09, 2015
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and this is Toxic Free Talk Radio, where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world, and live toxic free.
It’s December 9, 2015. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida, where it’s getting colder. It’s actually getting to be winter, which is the most beautiful time of year here in Florida. Every place has lovely summers, and then very cold winters. And here, our summer is so hot, it’s almost unbearable, and the winter is a beautiful of year.
And so everybody is happy here now because it’s getting to be winter.
Today, we’re going to talk about something entirely different. My guests are developing – well, what they want to do is they want to change the world of beauty, change completely how we think about it, and the kinds of products that we’re using.
They have some very interesting ideas.
Now, they actually don’t have their products in the market yet, but they have a Kickstarter campaign. So if you’re listening to this, and you’re interested in what they’re saying, and want to participate in their Kickstarter program, you can just go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, and look for today’s show, and you will see the link to their Kickstarter program, which I could say to you, but you would not remember.
These two young men are from Germany. They live in Germany, but they’re currently in Australia. So we’re talking to them via Skype from the other side of the world, at least from the other side of the world for me. They might be just exactly where you are.
My guests are Tom Wennerstrand and Ben Okamoto.
Hi, Tom and Ben.
TOM WENNERSTRAND: Hello from sunny Australia. We’re currently enjoying some 35 to 40 degrees weather, Celsius that is.
So opposite to what you’re feeling, but maybe I’m going to be looking forward to going back to winter Europe after one month of this sun here.
DEBRA: So Tom, why don’t you – I know that – Tom started – he developed this idea, and then Ben has been working with him.
So Tom, why don’t you start, and tell us what motivated you to come up with this huge, different way of looking at the world of beauty, and how did all that happen?
TOM WENNERSTRAND: Well, that’s an interesting question. It definitely wasn’t that straightforward as to think of what that was to begin with. My work, for the past 10 years, I worked as a hair and makeup artist in various different countries, and for the fashion industry.
It has allowed me to see a lot of dedicated people working on this creative field.
I think to be able to come to this conclusion and to be able to offer the solutions was a long-winded process that first had to enable to see through the first and the most upper-end layer of beauty that we are all offered to get the deeper connection to how it resonates on a cellular level, to make it more synchronized, and more harmonized with how we want to feel, and what our own [inaudible 00:04:53] of healthy, beauty and happiness, and how this could be more in tune with what the products are actually made of. So this health, beauty and happiness would resonate better on all levels.
DEBRA: Tom, was there an a-ha moment for you? You’re working in the beauty industry. I think this is quite a change, and I see this over and over in the guests I have on the show where they’re working in a certain industry, and then they go, “No, this is too toxic, and I need to do something.”
So was there – you’re working in the beauty industry for all these years, and now you’re wanting to just have something be – it’s the polar opposite to what you’ve been doing.
So what was that – what happened that made you – that was the change point?
TOM WENNERSTRAND: It’s well said about how this could be viewed as an opposite. But at the same time, it felt like there’s a surface that I was working on leisurely, and there was also this budding interest to just scratch that surface a little bit deeper and see what’s going on underneath.
One of the really enlightening moments for me was to see so many models who are top models of the world being – they’re real themselves. They’re real – natural themselves, young girls who are working with their skin and their hair as their working medium, and how in tuned they seem to be with the less is more thinking, which many times is in stark contrast of their employers’ views. But that seemed to resonate with me is that if you could – just see the natural presence of someone who has taken it to their heart to not only look good, but want to feel good while looking good, and how that person tells that I get over this skin stressors that my work exposes me to. I get over them with coconut oil, or exchange tips with their fellow friends on the Fashion Week, sitting next to each other, and telling them how did you fix your hair because this work is taxing for the hair because the hair is being blow-dried and curled so much throughout the time.
And these tips were revolving around very natural solutions that have always existed.
This is a simple less is more approach that seemed to be very commonplace and intuitively discovered by these girls who most are under the 20s.
That resonated with me and wanted me to look further into this matter.
DEBRA: Well, it’s so interesting that you’ve got this viewpoint from listening to women who are selling the other viewpoint.
The solution didn’t come from the industrial beauty world. It came from listening to people who were – whose hair and skin had been damaged by using those products as their solution.
TOM WENNERSTRAND: Yes. I always – as I said, general world view wanted to think that there is – I always try to see and want to think that instead of trying to see an evil agenda there, I’d like to see that there is lots of confused people who are just trying to do their best.
The moment that you see that something is terribly wrong, you will just realize – that moment of enlightenment is just that you are less confused than most of your peers, and most of the companies in the marketplace. And that’s what can create that kind of urge to take action and start further into the cause because it will be in quite stark contrast to how content you might have been able to feel until then.
And it was a journey for me to discover, better, simpler skin care solutions when the skin is already acting up, when there’s already something happening. And that also I recognize myself that when it seemed like to heal skin, I’d prescribed medical ointment seem to exacerbate situation, and then when I found something natural that would settle it.
DEBRA: Go ahead. Finish your sentence.
TOM WENNERSTRAND: No, this is [inaudible 00:10:40] I started to – [inaudible 00:10:44].
DEBRA: Good. We need to go to break. When we come back, we’ll talk more with Tom and Ben. We will let Ben speak. He didn’t get to say anything. But we’ll get to Ben in the next segment.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guests today are Tom Wennerstrand and Ben Okamoto, and they are developing a new approach to beauty with their company, Real Beauty. And they have a Kickstarter campaign. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and get the link for that.
We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: Thank you all listeners for holding on there while we solved our little technical problem here.
So my guests today are Tom Wennerstrand and Ben Okamoto, and we’re talking about their creation, Real Beauty.
Ben, I think it was you, on your Kickstarter page, you have a lovely video. And I think it was you that said that real beauty is within. And there was more that you said. Do you want to tell us, make that statement?
BEN OKAMOTO: Well, actually that was Tom, but I can talk about that. The whole concept is that – it is based around the fact that every person is born with real beauty within them. So anything is suitable to enhance that beauty – if not enhanced – the only thing suitable for that is natural products.
TOM WENNERSTRAND: We’ve got minimal interference.
DEBRA: I like that concept. So many of the commercial products are designed to – you put on all this makeup, and you look maybe glamorous, but you don’t look like yourself. And I remember at some point in my life where – when I was a teenager many years ago, all I wanted to do was wear makeup. I was like, “I want to look like those models in the fashion magazines.”
And so I couldn’t wait until I was 16, and I could wear makeup.
But it didn’t look like me. And I remember at some time in my adulthood, looking at my face in the mirror, and saying, “Wait a minute. I don’t want to look like this. I want to look like this. I want to look like myself.”
And now, I actually don’t even wear makeup at all unless I am going to be on television, or on a webinar or something, and I need to show up for the cameras, or have my picture taken. But the rest of the time, I don’t wear makeup at all.
And when I do, I want to look natural. I just want to wear a little mascara to enhance my eyelashes. I don’t want putting on a whole – I don’t know if women still say this but back in the 50s, people used to say, “I’m going to go put on my face.”
My grandmother used to say that. I have to put on my face.
BEN OKAMOTO: I’ve definitely heard a few drag queens say that in my life actually.
TOM WENNERSTRAND: And real women too, to an extent. I think what’s behind it – because I like to see this as a – not so much of a polarized thing as of you having to choose between the two, but more of finding that real beauty in the natural you, and embrace that. And that is a discovery journey that I feel like we’re all furthest detached when we are teenagers, and then we grow back to.
It can be enhanced greatly if our nutrition and toxic exposure levels are checked in a way that our skin can be at its best and can heal, and our can look great on its own, and has this kind of chance to show what it has.
I also feel that there is a time and place for eyeliner and lipstick, and when that happens, you’re actually communicating and we are the most complex communicating animal on this planet.
And in that sense, I feel like this is a kind of play that we have brought into. But it’s all about proportion, and it’s – beauty is proportion, but also maintaining. It is to maintain the beautiful proportion of where the natural preset prevails underneath that all.
And that’s why I say that I wanted to come up with the solution that I can also – also go back to the beauty, be a conventional beauty industry world which [inaudible 00:19:44] to makeup artist colleague for example, who chooses to communicate more through makeup that she’s wearing and her clients.
And whereas in this case, I would say that we can just take one step back, and see that we’re actually not talking about two different things, but we are offering intervention where the payoff is the best.
So nobody can really see what deodorants or shampoo or body lotion you are using, but in this sense, that is not so much communication. So as we’re not communicating with those things, we might as well provide our bodies and ourselves, things that they thrive with on this subconscious level.
DEBRA: There is a difference between putting on the artificial face, and supporting one’s own natural beauty. And I just think that for someone to do something that makes her skin beautiful and their hair beautiful – one of the things that I recently did, and we’re coming up on the break in about 10 seconds, but one of the things that I worked on last year actually was to get all the hair care products out of my hair.
And I did a hair detox.
And so I now have my natural, virgin hair. And it’s [inaudible 00:21:12].
So when we come back, we’ll talk more about your products.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guests are Tom Wennerstrand and Ben Okamoto from Real Beauty. And they have a Kickstarter campaign. We’re going to hear about their products when we come back from the break.
But if you want to go see their Kickstarter campaign page that talks about all their products, you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, look for this show and click right on the link.
We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guests today are Tom and Ben from Real Beauty, and we’re going to talk now about their concept, not just their products, but their concept, because the whole concept is different.
If you go to their Kickstarter campaign page, it says, “To revolutionize cosmetics, you have to be more than just toxin-free.”
And that’s what they’ve done, is that they’ve created a whole new idea.
So tell us about the concept, Tom or Ben?
BEN OKAMOTO: This is Ben speaking. When Tom told me about the whole [inaudible 00:27:21] and I was relatively new to the idea. And so when he told me [inaudible 00:27:31], I was just so surprised because I think you can [inaudible 00:27:35] from the fact that – I think a lot of people just look the other way of really, natural and simple products. Literally, they’re just not sold in a bottle anywhere or available online. So that was [inaudible 00:27:54].
[inaudible 00:27:55] basically, all of these products [inaudible 00:27:58].
So the concept is [inaudible 00:28:07] people that want the knowledge, that want the [inaudible 00:28:10], and they can either get them from us or they can take the information and [inaudible 00:28:17].
DEBRA: I just want to repeat that because –
TOM WENNERSTRAND: [inaudible 00:28:21]
DEBRA: I want to just repeat what he just said because I’m having a little static on the transmission here. It’s not as clear as it was earlier.
Todd, maybe you could check that so we can have it little clearer.
What Ben just said was that it’s about having the products be so simple that you could actually make them yourself. And one of the things that they told me when I talked to them before the show was that part of the plan is to sell the ingredients themselves, so that if you wanted to make them, yourself at home, you could.
And I thought that that was amazing because the world is so full of trade secrets and things like that and yet, here their concept includes having the information on how to make it yourself, or you can buy it, and that’s an amazing concept right there.
So I’m told that the listeners can hear what you’re saying, so go ahead.
BEN OKAMOTO: It’s like having this [inaudible 00:29:44] recipe that your family has been using for generations, and just your family has it. And you can – you’re sharing the secrets with everyone.
I think that a lot of people will appreciate the fact that you can make it [inaudible 00:30:05], getting it from us. Or if you want, you can do it at home.
TOM WENNERSTRAND: I feel like we’re at the moment [inaudible 00:30:15] as a humanity [inaudible 00:30:18] being able to communicate [inaudible 00:30:21] overconfidence and [inaudible 00:30:27] we are actually becoming [inaudible 00:30:31] of becoming more aware of [inaudible 00:30:37].
DEBRA: You can hear me? I didn’t hear what you just said.
I’m assuming – you know what? I’ve never had so many technical problems on a show as we are having today. But let’s just go on and what I really want the listeners to know is that the concept here is not that you buy a different product for every use, but you only have five products. And those five products give you 35 uses.
And that’s such a radically different concept to me because not only are they things that anybody could make at home, but you figured out what all the uses are.
And so why don’t you tell us about that?
TOM WENNERSTRAND: Yes that’s the idea. I would like to add to that that our range which can be seen [inaudible 00:31:56] www.RealBeauty.Life, is actually [inaudible 00:32:00] than five products, but why we would like to highlight the five products that are [inaudible 00:32:05] is that we really feel that these [inaudible 00:32:12] secrets [inaudible 00:32:15] would like to make back [inaudible 00:32:17] common knowledge of our consciousness as [inaudible 00:32:23] knowing how to look [inaudible 00:32:25] without creating toxic waste on our skins or to our environment.
And the idea is also that this liberates us from needing to navigate the jungle of conventional products because it’s ever increasingly complicated and difficult, and [inaudible 00:32:47] more and more and smaller and smaller [inaudible 00:32:53] to be on par on what’s happening and what’s going on.
[inaudible 00:32:59] I feel nature’s answers have always been simple, and they’ve always been with multiple uses and multiple solutions. [inaudible 00:33:11] that can be passed down, and re-discovered by simply trusting your intuition.
So in this sense, this [inaudible 00:33:20] needs to be edible, so that you can safely experiment them. You can try them on your skin. You can try how they work in [inaudible 00:33:31] and intuitively, find a minimum [inaudible 00:33:34] and minimum product requiring beauty regime that [inaudible 00:33:43] and maintains [inaudible 00:33:43] the kind of level of hygiene that we are, as [inaudible 00:33:50].
BEN OKAMOTO: And that’s what we’re doing different [inaudible 00:33:53] companies. We don’t feel the need to add extra ingredients in the product just to make –
TOM WENNERSTRAND: Make the product.
BEN OKAMOTO: Make the product [inaudible 00:34:03]. The simple ingredients have worked for years, and they’ve worked so effectively. What’s the point of adding all these extra ingredients?
And what we’ve done is we’ve made the solutions available, and we packaged them in a really beautiful way. So if you want to [inaudible 00:34:27] more honest and simple solutions that have proven to work [inaudible 00:34:34], then you have the option in doing so in a quite beautiful way.
[inaudible 00:34:40] experience.
DEBRA: Great. When we come back from the break, I want you to give us some examples of your products, and what they can be used for so the people really get the idea.
You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guests are Ben and Tom from Real Beauty. And they have a Kickstarter campaign. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, find their show, and click on the link in order to get to the Kickstarter campaign page.
We’ll be right back.
DEBRA: Can anyone hear me? Good. I thought I was having problems again.
My guests today are Tom Wennerstrand and Ben Okamoto from Real Beauty.
I actually figured out what their website is. It is RealBeauty.Life. And if you go to RealBeauty.Life, you can see a lot more about their products. And there’s a link to their Kickstarter campaign.
So that’s an easy one that you can remember, RealBeauty.Life.
I apologize for not having that earlier, Tom and Ben.
So one thing I wanted to say before we talk about the products in more detail is that I’m looking at products all the time. We all grew up – I think most people alive today grew up in a consumer society where you think the first thing that you – if you want to do something, well, where’s the product for it?
And that’s just the way that we’ve been conditioned. That was by our society.
And as I decided that I didn’t want to use those toxic products, the first thing I said was, “Well, what did they do before we had industry? How did they wash their face? How did they clean their house?”
And so I started looking at formulas that I could make myself at home as well as looking at products that were less toxic out in the marketplace.
But what I’ve learned as I go through life is that there’s a way to do things. Everything has an ideal way to do it. That there’s a way to wash your face. There are ideal things to put on your face in a very simple, natural way.
Nature provides everything that we need to be alive and thrive.
Once you have that information about the correct way to do something, that is the correct way to do it, and you’ve learned it, and that’s it.
I learned to wash my windows with vinegar and water. And now, for the past 30 years, I’ve been washing my windows with vinegar and water. I didn’t need to learn another method.
But what we have in the marketplace is we have all these consumer product companies – I’m not saying this too because I’m against consumer product companies. I think that consumer product companies could make toxic products so they could make really excellent products.
But part of what seems to be inherent in the whole marketplace idea is not what do we need to have good health, and what do we need to thrive, but how can we make a new product, and how can we make more money.
And I’m also not against making money, but there’s making money by selling people things that they don’t need and make them sick, or there’s making money by having honest products that support the environment and support the health of the consumers.
And I think that this is exactly what you’re doing.
TOM WENNERSTRAND: I feel like that’s the [inaudible 00:42:27] something behind it, that it’s a very – in order for it to be good for whatever purpose [inaudible 00:42:36] it needs to be good for everything around it as well.
And this is I guess where the biggest conflict with the conventional [inaudible 00:42:49] happens where the marketplace tries to come up with new products for their own right, whereas nature tends to be very efficient and [inaudible 00:42:58] solutions [inaudible 00:42:59] to solve many problems with one solution.
DEBRA: That’s right. That is a characteristic [inaudible 00:43:05].
TOM WENNERSTRAND: I’d like to liken this as a more of a [inaudible 00:43:11]. I feel like it’s in resonance on all levels. If we look at riverbanks that is polluted and bird [inaudible 00:43:18] fly there, we can immediately go back to our thinking and see what is the industrial solution that we can do to clear up the bank, and make the birds fly there better.
But did we do before that? How did nature manage the habitat? That harmony is much deeper-rooted. That means that encompasses everything from the water flow to [inaudible 00:43:53] to micronutrients to [inaudible 00:43:56], what nutrients they fix in the water, in which vegetation grows there, and removes them from there and provides habitat for these birds while it’s growing.
And this seems like [inaudible 00:44:09] although we seem obligated [inaudible 00:44:11] but it happens on our skin, it happens on every possible level. I [inaudible 00:44:15] certain way to make [inaudible 00:44:19] promote our health.
It comes all the way up from there to a level where it actually manifests as our health and beauty. And therefore, [inaudible 00:44:35] interference is what we feel is the best [inaudible 00:44:40] meeting the halfway and letting the nature do its job as undisturbed as possible – as undisturbed as we can let in order to see the results before we try to change anything.
DEBRA: Yes, I totally agree. So we only have about five minutes to left of the show. What I’d like you to do is let’s pick a product like your oil number 1 and tell us about the oil, and tell us what it’s used for, so that people can get an idea of the multi-uses of your products.
BEN OKAMOTO: For example, our oil number one is basically made from organic coconut oil. And what we do is we have a mix of essential oils that we mix [inaudible 00:45:34]. It smells and feels really great.
And basically, we don’t just say use this oil for moisturizer. We have a whole list of what you can do with coconut oil which our people have been doing with coconut oil for years and year and years.
So some of them include – apart from being a moisturizer, you can use it as a non-addictive lip balm. You can it as a makeup remover, dry scalp massage treatment, hair conditioner for the bleached, colored or dry hair, massage oil, bath oil and oil [inaudible 00:46:17].
So these are just tricks on how to use coconut oil for years.
The whole beauty of that is when people ask us how do you know it works. How do you know it works? You really put the question back on them the fact that they’re questioning a product that’s been used for decades and decades. [inaudible 00:46:44] concoction made in the last year.
DEBRA: When you were just asking that question, I was thinking, people do say, “Well, how do you know that these natural things work?” But they don’t go to the counter, the cosmetics counter at a department store and ask the girl there, “How do you know these work?”
They just think that if a major manufacturer is providing them, they must work. But when it comes to something natural, they question, “Well, this couldn’t possibly work.”
And that’s just backwards to me.
I much more trust that something natural works because it’s part of life.
TOM WENNERSTRAND: [inaudible 00:47:26] possibility in.
DEBRA: So I want to ask you quickly because we’ve only got about two minutes left. One of the things that you said was non-addictive lip balm.
Now, I didn’t know that lip balm was addictive. And can you just clarify that for me?
TOM WENNERSTRAND: Well, many, many lip balms that are habitually used have what you call the petrochemicals. And when they do so, they actually make our skin – our skin is not only [inaudible 00:48:12] that protects us. It’s a sensing organ that [inaudible 00:48:16] to surroundings.
When there are petrochemical oils that are from the earth’s crust and they [inaudible 00:48:23] in the earth’s crust when we evolved, and they’ve been there ever since.
And once they’ve [inaudible 00:48:29] our skin does not know how to deal with them. It [inaudible 00:48:32] or regular sensing organ. And therefore, your organ is not doing its job properly. And [inaudible 00:48:41] comes in and many [inaudible 00:48:44] moisturizers.
DEBRA: I just realized as you were talking that I’ve heard that – I don’t wear lip gloss. But I’ve heard that these lip moisturizers, lip balms and things, that your lips become addicted to – that’s why I didn’t recognize the term.
Once you start using them, you have to continue to use them or your lips get chapped, whereas because we’re not actually healing your lips, they are actually drying them out.
So if you don’t wear a lip balm, even if you just don’t wear it, your lips will stay nice and moist because you’re not drying them out constantly.
And so now I understand that phrase.
Well, we’ve only got about 30 seconds left. So thank you.
Thank you so much for being here today. And again, their website is RealBeauty.Life. And remember, they have a Kickstarter campaign. So if you care to help them get these products on the market, please go there and help them with this.
Thank you so much.
I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio. And if you want to know more – you’re welcome.
If you want to know more, you can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. Be well.
Lucky Sheep Wool Sleeping Bag
The first all-wool sleeping bag I’ve ever seen, made with a wool knit cover and stuffed with domestic wool batting. Can be used indoors and outside. Will keep you warm down to 20-30 degrees. “Wool is the most comfortable and luxurious outdoor weather fabric. This fiber allows the skin to breathe without condensing (trapping moisture). When sleeping beneath wool there is a calming effect…Wool also has an amazing ability to stay warm even when moist or wet, which is what makes this a choice option for outdoor use. This sleeping bag is unlike anything in the past. It is light, fluffy, retains it’s loft, and is so soft you would think it is silk.”
