Evan Symonds is founder, owner and “head honcho” of Evan’s Garden. She makes “totally natural products that work” for body and home by hand, with the help of her family. Evan’s viewpoint is that it would be irresponsible to make products that aren’t natural and safe. She has learned from life experiences and vast study of natural health approaches, that only natural substances heal and comfort us in a completely positive way. When it comes to choosing ingredients and formulating, there’s no compromising. She selects the most natural ingredients she can find, as close as possible to their whole, raw and untampered state. Whenever possible, these are organically grown, biodynamically grown (viewed as “beyond organic” because of the time-honored, natural cultivation techniques) or responsibly wild-harvested. Her products deliver the power of organic, whole-plant nutrition. On so many levels, you can feell the love and reverence for nature that went into their making. We’ll be talking about just some of the toxic chemicals you might find in ordinary beauty products, but more about how Evan makes extraordinary alternatives. www.evansgarden.com

 

 

TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Totally Natural Beauty & Household Products… that Work!

Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Evan Symonds

Date of Broadcast: May 09, 2013

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, where we can be healthy, happy, productive, and anything else we want, in a world where toxic chemicals are always trying to make us sick.

It’s Thursday, May 9, 2013. I’m here in Clearwater, Florida. And today, we’re going to be talking about natural beauty and household products with a woman who makes them herself by hand.

But first, I want to read you a quote from Epictetus. He was a philosopher from ancient times. And he said, “Conduct yourself in all matters, grand and public or small and domestic, in accordance with the laws of nature. Harmonizing your will with nature should be your utmost ideal. Where do you practice this ideal? In the particulars of your own life with its uniquely personal tasks and duties.”

“When you carry out your tasks, such as taking a bath, do so to the best of your ability and harmony with nature. When you eat, do so to the best of your ability and harmony with nature, and so on.”

And the reason why I wanted to read this today is because what we’re talking about here is how you can remove toxic chemicals from your life, and replace them with something else that’s more healthy. But the criteria is not always what’s not toxic. There’s a whole world of different ways of looking at what’s not toxic, everything from choosing a product that’s made from petroleum that is not toxic, to having your life be completely in harmony with nature, which is a completely beyond our consumer viewpoint.

And I chose this quote today too because our quest, Evan Symonds of Evan’s Garden, has this philosophy of wanting to make her products as close to nature as humanly possible. And that’s something that I really respect and admire.

Evan Symons is the founder, owner and head honcho of Evan’s Garden. She makes “totally natural products that work for body and home by hand with the help of her family.” Evan’s viewpoint is that it would be irresponsible to make products that aren’t natural and safe. She has learned from life experiences and vast study of natural health approaches that only natural substances heal and comfort us in a completely positive way.

When it comes to choosing ingredients and formulating, there’s no compromising. Evan selects the most natural ingredients she could find as close as possible to their whole, raw and untampered state. Whenever possible, these are organically-grown, bio-dynamically grown, which is viewed as beyond organic because of the time-honored natural cultivation techniques, or responsibly wild-harvested.

Her products deliver the power of organic, whole plant nutrition.

On so many levels, you can feel the love and reverence for nature that went into their making.

And today, we’ll be talking about how just some of the toxic chemicals you might find in ordinary beauty products, but more about how Evan makes her extraordinary alternatives.

Evan, thank you so much for joining us today.

EVAN SYMONDS: This is wonderful. Thank you, Debra.

DEBRA: You’re welcome. And also to mention now and throughout the show that if you want to go to her website, and learn more about her products, it’s EvansGarden.com.

Evan, please tell us how you got interested in natural things. I know that you don’t want to be around toxic chemicals, but what was the thing that happened in your life that made you choose to do what you do?

EVAN SYMONDS: Well, there was one thing that happened about 14 years ago or so, but before that during college, I started gravitating more and more towards cooking for myself and finding natural things, and this is in the late 60’s, so health food stores were just beginning to make their appearance. Remember, there were lots of [inaudible 00:04:46], vaccines.

And they were very fun. And it just turned on the light. So after college, I started pursuing this. This is a path [inaudible 00:04:59], studying, finding out about things, why were whole grains better for you than processed.

So from the 70’s forward, my interest became stronger and stronger because any time I found something that was untampered with and whole, and grown in rich minerals, just a wonderful health food, or even something cosmetically that I could whip up, it felt so much better. And it started creating a gulf between what I was buying, for instance, for my skin at cosmetic counters at malls, the expensive stuff.

And then we started just mixing up stuff with royal jelly and whatnot, and fooling around. And the more I did this, I noticed the better overall that I felt, not just for my face or for the spurt of energy that I might have eating something, but generally speaking, I really noticed the difference.

And then I lived in Oregon for a while where a lot of our neighbors would bring over stuff that grew in their yards, or they had a little farm. Everybody’s very generous way out in the country. And I started growing things too, Debra.

Then I realized, wow, what a difference between a whole food that you just eat, or that you mash up and put on your body, as opposed to something that’s been viewed in the spotlight/chemical that’s been isolated from the whole plant.

So that grew and grew with my orientation. And then for a while, I worked handling questions where natural doctor’s products were made. And I had to answer people’s questions about their health, [inaudible 00:07:13] and this and that.

I learned so much. But what happened was that I was watching while I was actually working in shipping there, and it was a TV and video one of Dr. John Christopher. And it was a lecture that he gave in the 1970’s, talking about the mouth and herb that will handle essentially anything in the mouth.

You know that John Christopher was very much attacked for the wonderful, in-depth, and workable natural discoveries and herbal technologies that he [inaudible 00:07:53]. He’s a master herbalist.

So I was listening to this, and then I shortly thereafter found out from my dentist that a bridge that I had had put in maybe 15 years before or more and had been put in with [inaudible 00:08:11] wasn’t properly done, that I needed dental surgery. It was to the tune of up to $3500 to $4000.

I did not exactly have that set aside. And even if I did, I’m not into knives and surgery. I knew what Dr. Christopher said.

So I started looking for a product that contained the herb that Christopher was telling and saying would handle anything.

And I looked in the health food stores, all the local health food stores. I was here in Clearwater at that time. And I looked online. And I found absolutely nothing.

So I said, “Okay. I’ll make it.”

And then I set myself to find a good study. I love to read and study. I love it. By that time, I had a big library already of books on herbology and aromatherapy and so on.

So I looked up everything I could find out about what would help the gums become strong and hold the teeth in better, and what would help circulation, and what would help the bone. And I put together a product called [inaudible 00:09:24] gum powder, and [inaudible 00:09:27] dental surgery.

DEBRA: And it’s a fabulous product. I have used it. We need to take a short commercial break here, but we’ll find out more from Evan after the break. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and I’m here today with Evan Symonds from Evan’s Garden, and we were talking about how she made a tooth powder and didn’t have to have surgery on her teeth.

Evan, I have used it in the past, and then I stopped using it because my holistic dentist recommended that I do his program, which consists of using hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. And I found that yours actually works better, and I’m going to get more of your tooth powder because I like it better than what my holistic dentist said. You really know what you’re doing with having the functional and healing products, as well as cleansing products. It’s not just toothpaste.

As long as we’re looking at this one product of tooth care, tell us the difference between your product and a standard toothpaste you would buy in a drugstore or supermarket. And also, the difference between your product and so-called natural toothpaste you might buy in the natural food store.

EVAN SYMONDS: First of all, I have a separate product called Natural Toothpaste, and that’s actually my bestselling product, using gum powder, [inaudible 00:11:22].

I have a few points that completely differentiate what I do from the commercial products, but also distinctly differentiate what I make from other natural products, I think. In terms of commercial products, I don’t include anything that is unnatural or chance-y, or unnecessary, but only for looks or texture. In other words, every single thing that’s in there in my product is in there because it will synergize, it will work with everything else, I’m always checking that as I formulate, to create the effect that I’m after.

I decide what I want, and there’s a study behind it. And of course, for what would be in the list of things that I would include. I refer as well to my perception or intuition or what have you. And if I ever do, I double check if it would be okay. I have a lot of books on medical aromatherapy, how much of what essential oil is safe at what age, for what use and so on.

I’ve got a lot of references. I check everything for safety. Basically, [inaudible 00:12:53] certain result, and then I make whatever will be the absolutely—that I can figure. There’s nothing absolutely about it, but what will be as far as I can tell with all my heart and soul will be the most effective product.

If it takes, like in my anti-aging skin care, a ridiculous amount of colloidal, true colloidal gold, which is expensive, or other things—I’m not looking at the expensive because I figured that people for ages have been wanting to get results from what they buy, and then there’s the hike, there’s the marketing hike.

There is a realization that strikes people even if it’s vague like, “Shouldn’t this be better for me?” These people have held onto what they really want when they use my products. And I’m not meaning to brag or anything. It’s just the truth. They’ll get results. They do get results.

And that’s what I’m intending, so I don’t care so much when I make it, if I use a great deal of, or hardly any, or whatever. I’m only trusting for what seems to me to be the optimum amount of any ingredients that will work with all the other ingredients. I don’t [inaudible 00:14:22] anything that would help if it’s unnecessary, then of course, I don’t, or not good.

And I’m just making the very best that I can.

Well personally, you look at the labels of commercial products, and they include just things that can make us sick, things that save money.

DEBRA: I’d like to mention, especially since we’re talking about toothpaste, that they put fluoride in toothpastes. And they’re required by law to put a warning label telling people not to swallow it, and especially for children not to swallow, that they actually should call the Poison Control Center.

And why they would put poison like fluoride into toothpaste, and then have to tell people not to swallow it just seems ridiculous to me.

EVAN SYMONDS: It’s not a good intention. It couldn’t be. We know that. Fluoride is the waste product of the [inaudible 00:15:33].

DEBRA: So this hazardous waste is being put in our toothpaste, and we’re expected to think that it’s fine, and this warning label just is there to tell us that we should watch out for it, that these manufacturers and the government still think that we should use this toxic product and put this poison in our mouths every morning and every night.

And we don’t have to do that.

EVAN SYMONDS: No, we absolutely don’t. People are beginning to wake up. The lights are turning on. When I started my business 13, 14 years ago, I would tell, “What do you?” “I hand make products from organic and whole plant ingredients.”

They would be like, “Oh, I see.”

People were not so interested. It wasn’t a go button. It wasn’t something that was approved generally. It’s quite amazing that it wasn’t, and it’s been brewing interest and awareness.

One thing I can say about this, Debra, is that we need to be responsible. If we want health and happiness, and to be carefree and not ill, then it’s our job to become educated and to be discerning, and to make choices.

So fluoride is ridiculous. Fluoride makes money, and it makes people ill. Hitler put fluoride in the water because it mentally depresses people and it reduces ambition. Is that wild?

DEBRA: I’ve read that, yes.

EVAN SYMONDS: Isn’t that something? So it’s just really creepy. And Clearwater, we need to get rid of the fluoride in our water.

DEBRA: I agree. We had it out and then put it back in. We’ll talk more about Evan’s amazing natural products that work when we come back from the break. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

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Okay Evan, let’s hear more about your products. Tell us about your skin care products.

EVAN SYMONDS: What I say about them [inaudible 00:18:48] pretty much anything because there are a couple of standards and guidelines and the ideas about nature that I follow, and definitely in the skin care, and really in anything.

I work with what will be nourishing and what will help nourishment actually arrive to the cells. Let’s just talk about skin care right now. If the cell walls are hardened, and when a body is toxic, the cell wall itself, the outer membrane, it becomes hardened, and then toxins will get out, and nutrition doesn’t get in.

DEBRA: I didn’t know that. Could you say that again? I want to make sure everybody hears this.

EVAN SYMONDS: When the body is toxic, the cells will hold onto the toxins that they’ve accepted into them. Maybe it’s out of some sort of basic confusion or something like, “Well, I’ve got to have something.”

I don’t know. But the outer part of the cell wall becomes more and more impermeable, which means it can’t be penetrated. If you’re [inaudible 00:20:18] the most lovely meal of whole food, fresh, ripened organic, it’s how I try to use everything, in nutrients, and you’ve done everything to open the capillaries, which is another thing that I do gently. Nobody has capillary problems. Their [inaudible 00:20:40] but just very gently open the capillaries so that the blood is reaching the cells.

But if you don’t also do something to nourish and soften the cell wall, then those nutrients aren’t penetrating [inaudible 00:20:58]. If you have an imbalance of potassium and sodium, then there is less likelihood of things penetrating the cell or the wrong things penetrating the cell.

It’s an interesting thing. So what I included when I first made my first cream, which was La Crème de la Crème, I studied this a lot. And I found the plant, and that would be in the form of mostly essential oils because essential oils contain all the nutrients. It contains the entire everything of the plant. It’s the substance of their hormones, the essential oils are.

And so I found out what essential oils and what nutrients will mollify, soften and then make more permeable the skin cells.

And then, of course, it’s a piece of cake. Then the cell will go, “Oh, my gosh. There’s [inaudible 00:22:00] out there. Yay, come on in. I don’t need you anymore, toxins.”

And so it will then excrete the toxins. And then not only this, obviously, [inaudible 00:22:12] a bit softer, of course, but it’s going to be feeding, it’s going to be nourished, and then it can make better copies of itself, and so on, of the skin.

DEBRA: This is such a different approach. This is such a different approach from [inaudible 00:22:30] does. I’ve studied enough about nature to know that what you’re saying makes total sense that I can see you working with nature’s processes by using natural ingredients.

And of course, our bodies are part of nature, and so that’s exactly what we should be doing, and that’s the way to get the results.

I think that a lot of what industrialization is producing is not only harmful, but they’re trying to solve a problem without really solving it, that they create the problem, then try to do something else. And then they try to do something, and then people just get sicker, and sicker, and sicker.

But you actually came up with a healing solution.

EVAN SYMONDS: That’s right. Our bodies, as human beings, I realized that like anything, like ants, look ants and they’re swarming around the bees, and they go, “Man, they have it down. Look at the communication, and look at how everybody has their own job, and they coordinate. This is phenomenal.”

Well, we as people have these wits and distractions, and we get seduced by things that have nothing to do with our survival.

We can get off the track. We can do anything we want, and that is the plus. We can create. I’m not saying that we should just go around living like lower life forms, but what I’m saying is that people, through the industrial age and so on, I really believe, have forgotten and lost their senses of how they should live, and what value nature has.

And part of it is that, this is another big piece of my [inaudible 00:24:26] to say it, do I?

DEBRA: Yes, you actually have a minute and 15 seconds.

EVAN SYMONDS: So really quickly, the more toxic a body gets, the more it creates toxic garbage. The cleaner our body gets, it actually [inaudible 00:24:46] and can feel the difference, and what it needs that would be beneficial.

DEBRA: I [inaudible 00:24:52] that in switching from toxic junk food to eating really good, organic food, whereas before, I was craving sugar and wheat and refined food and all those things. But when I made a decision that I was going to eat organic food and more raw vegetables and fruits, and good quality protein and things, now, I want those things. It’s hard for me to believe that I crave eating salad instead of chocolate cake.
[inaudible 00:25:23]

EVAN SYMONDS: [inaudible 00:25:25] I’m sorry. Go ahead. [inaudible 00:25:28]. Go ahead. Finish.

DEBRA: That’s what I wanted to say that it was amazing to me that I would actually crave eating salad instead of chocolate cake.

EVAN SYMONDS: It’s amazing. What happens is that as we eat sugar, and white flour and [inaudible 00:25:46], we feed our parasites. And they don’t have anything distracting them, and they want to survive, so they mandate what we put in our mouths. We aren’t thinking, “Should I, or shouldn’t I,” it’s an urge. They cause it.

So the more you get away from it, you clean them out, the better you want the good stuff.

DEBRA: Yes, and we’ll take a break right there. We’ll back with Evan Symonds from Evan’s Garden, and me, Debra Lynn Dadd on Toxic Free Talk Radio.

= COMMERCIAL BREAK =

DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and I’m here today with Evan Symonds, owner and founder and head honcho of Evan’s Garden. She makes totally natural products that work for body and home by hand out of extraordinarily natural ingredients. Her website is EvansGarden.com.

Evan, tell us more about the other types of products because I know that you have some household products as well. I’ve used your laundry product. What was it called again?

EVAN SYMONDS: Astonishing.

DEBRA: Astonishing. And I think you have several Astonishing products. So tell us about that because it really was astonishing this laundry product, and I still use it.

EVAN SYMONDS: Well, I have Astonishing, and I can tell you about that. There is one thing I wanted to say that I feel is very important. As we reject poison in our life, part of the reason for my doing this, in fact, about the biggest reason, is that being poisoned depresses one spiritually and mentally, even if it’s not obvious.

DEBRA: I agree.

EVAN SYMONDS: And so I find that [contending], having the body’s attention on having to deal with poisons and get rid of them were—shuffle them off into little fat sections, or move them away from the main communication lines of the body and so on, away from the nerve and the blood and whatever, so that you can live, that of course takes a decent amount of attention away from [inaudible 00:28:15].

And also, if you think of it just mentally, that life is good, life should be happy, it’s a challenge and a game, and it’s exhilarating and enervating, something that should be expansive, and we should have the energy for it, and it should be something that throws us.

And yet, when you are dealing with poison or a poisoned body, your mental outlook actually is depressed. And that is why I wanted to help people to recover their mental vitality and their gusto in living. And I feel that using products that support your body and work with your body’s own nature and connect you with nature because they just do, then this, of course, frees you up mentally and spiritually.

And I have found that to be the case very much so.

DEBRA: I have found that to be the case for myself as well, and that has a lot of why I’m motivated to do this at this particular point in my life as well. I started with wanting to restore my physical health, but then I found how it was affecting me mentally and spiritually to be able to have enough awareness, or to be able to think clearly, and do the things that I wanted to do in my life.

Removing the toxic chemicals addresses all of those body-mind-spirit things. It’s a very holistic thing to do. It’s not just about physical health. It addresses our whole-being-ness as a human being.

And so I can appreciate what you’re doing very much because I have that same motivation.

EVAN SYMONDS: That’s awesome. So I tried to make enough kinds of products so there wouldn’t be a hole for somebody.

So I made shampoo and it’s wonderful for the scalp. A few people have had bad scalps that actually peel off. And their scalps renew with my Crowning Glory shampoo, which is, how cool is that?

And then my dental products are actually becoming more and more well-known. The word just spreads like crazy on them from all the people who have paid on expensive procedures. You don’t have to use whiteners which, by the way, are horrible because they’re going to kill your intestinal flora. You don’t stick those bleach garbage things in your mouth to make your teeth white. It’s not good.

[inaudible 00:31:05] my toothpaste. So I make dental. I make deodorants that actually work. And yes, they’re [inaudible 00:31:13], and I make makeup which is difficult for me frankly because it’s visual. I don’t have one of those that measures down to [inaudible 00:31:26].

I make makeup and I try to make practically everything that somebody would need, so that they don’t have to resort to [inaudible 00:31:37] anything yucky.

And my Astonishing is very cool because the essential oil blend that I created for Astonishing, the original one, I have Astonishing citrus spice, and I have the original which is very invigorating. The blend is solvent. I found that out by cleaning the cabinet, which is an antique where I keep my essential oils in.

The first time I used Astonishing after making it, it took the varnish off of the cabinet. So you don’t use it on varnished things, but it’s cleaned up things. It’s a powder blend of [inaudible 00:32:15] and baking soda, and so, and this very wonderful, and there are lots of these essential oils in there, when you smelled it.

DEBRA: Actually, it smells wonderful. It has a eucalyptus smell, but more complex than that. And it smells very clean and it gets the clothes very clean and soft. Aside from soap nuts, which I also love, this is right up on the top of my list of favorite laundry products.

EVAN SYMONDS: Well, it isn’t just laundry. For instance, there is a kindergarten school around here where they could never get the stains off of the floor, and Astonishing took it up just like that.

So it’s actually for all your cleaning. You just put some in the water, you can do your dishes with it. You don’t have suds, but then you can feel your dishes really well. And you can use it for everything.

And in the laundry, I have to tell you this really fast, a story when my ex-husband put the clothes in the first time with Astonishing, nothing was really particularly super dirty. We haven’t been making mud pies with our clothes or anything.

He opened up the lid and ran over, “Evan, look at the water.”

And the water was brown.

They really get in there, but it doesn’t harm the fibers. It doesn’t have anything caustic that would harm the fiber. And clothes last [inaudible 00:33:45] wonderful for cleaning. You don’t need a fabric softener.

Another circumstance that happened to me was I had mildewed sheets, Florida, right. And it [inaudible 00:33:56] cleaned all the mildew stains out of sheets this one time through.

DEBRA: Astonishing.

EVAN SYMONDS: It’s astonishing. That’s simply astonishing. And then I have a spray. Some doctor’s office has used the spray, and they clean the counters with whatever. I have a scouring powder. It mutates the different forms and uses.

And then the Citrus Spice—I prefer the original, but the Citrus Spice is really cool too, and just as microbial because essential oils are antimicrobial to some degree, all of them.

DEBRA: Yes, I actually read that and I wrote about that in one of my books, Home Safe Home, I think. There was a study done in Paris about the antimicrobial effects of essential oils. It was pretty amazing. They’ve known this for hundreds of years, and yet, we use these toxic things instead of the natural essential oils that are given to us by nature [inaudible 00:35:02].

So is there anything that you would like to say that you haven’t said?

EVAN SYMONDS: There is one thing. Don’t use those things with triclosan on your hands. Don’t buy those antibacterial.

They’re horrible for you. A doctor told me that that is just another use of leftover Agent Orange. I’ve never verified that.

But it isn’t good for you, and you can look it up on the internet. I make a foaming hand soap, and then there’s even Astonishing. Wash your hands to see [inaudible 00:35:36] with plain, old soap. I had that too. And so were a lot of people.

Even soap kills the bacteria. But I have a Meadow Foam hand soap with lavender in there or lemon that’s awesome.

DEBRA: Well, thank you so much for being with us today. I’m sure that we could talk for hours and hours. You know so much, and I really appreciate your being here with us.

Again, Evan’s website is EvansGarden.com. And we’ll talk soon, Evan. Thanks so much.

EVAN SYMONDS: Thank you, Debra. This is so much fun.

DEBRA: I had fun too. So you’ve been listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. My website is ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com. But I have many more things on my website besides this radio show. You can go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and just look across the top and see that I have a Q&A blog where you can ask questions. I have a directory that has hundreds of websites like Evan’s and all different kinds of products that are non-toxic and much more natural.

You can even call me for a consultation and I can help you choose products. I can help you remodel your home.

If you enjoyed this show, please tell your friends. Just have them go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com and they can listen to the show live. You can too, of course, as you are right now. But also, all the shows are archived, so you can listen to them anytime you want, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And I’ll just be continuing. I’ll be here tomorrow, and we’ll have the phones open. You can ask anything you want. See you tomorrow.