My Journey Transitioning to Low Toxin Living & My Favorite Clean Brands

I often get asked why I am so passionate about toxic free living, and the answer is always the same, “because it changed my life”. When I was battling a horrible hormonal imbalance nearly two years ago, which was leading to severe anxiety and panic attacks, I became desperate for answers. And what I came to find out was that stress and environmental toxins were the two biggest factors contributing to my hormonal imbalance. Of course stress came as no surprise. But environmental toxins? Honestly, I was like, “say what?” I began to learn about how I was exposing myself to countless environmental toxins on a daily basis, in the form of body lotion, shampoo, conditioner, cosmetics, house-hold cleaning products, etc. If you have no clue what I am talking about, let me briefly explain.

Environmental toxins are cancer-causing chemicals and endocrine disruptors, both human-made and naturally occurring, that can harm our health by disrupting our biological systems. To break that down even more, endocrine disruptors are quite literally chemicals that can mimic or partly mimic naturally occurring hormones in our bodies, such as estrogens, androgens, and thyroid hormones, producing overstimulation. So essentially what was happening in my body was that these endocrine disruptors were causing an overstimulation of estrogen in my body, which meant that my body was under producing estrogen.  If you’re wondering how that could happen from something that I’m simply rubbing on my skin or washing my hair with, it is because our skin is literally the largest organ in our body. One of its many purposes is to protect our vital organs from harmful toxins. But the reality is that 60% of what we put on our skin still gets absorbed into our bodies, which means that what we put on our bodies truly affects our overall health.

In fact, according to a report put out by the United States House of Representatives, “Of the chemicals found in personal care products: 884 are toxic, 146 cause tumors, 218 cause reproductive complications, 778 cause acute toxicity, 314 cause biological mutations, and 376 cause skin and eye irritations.”

The saddest part about this is that this isn’t common knowledge. There are’t warning labels on every product we buy telling us about the side-effects or repercussions of spreading these toxins all over our bodies. And of course, it’s impossible to know fully what we are being exposed to on a daily basis. However, I realized that one thing I can do, to help my overall health, is to limit my own personal toxic load by limiting the toxins that I allow into my home. And that’s when I decided to do a clean sweep, eliminating any products with harmful ingredients such as: parabans, phlalates, sulfates, fragrances, aluminum, etc. Check out this article for a detailed list of what is known as the dirty dozen of household ingredients. Or this app, Think Dirty, which you can use to scan the barcode of any household product and it will give you a detailed list of all of the ingredients, as well as the product’s level of toxicity.

I can say now, in full honesty, that within several months of going toxic free, my hormone balance began to level off, my menstrual cycle went back to normal, and my anxiety symptoms began to diminish. I have been symptom free now for around 1 year. Don’t get me wrong here. I am not saying that going toxic free was the only contributing factor here. Other life changes that I made were: lowing my stress level by cutting back on my hours at work, establishing a consistent practice of prayer and meditation, and overall just learning the art of slowing down. But one thing that I am sure of is that going toxic free has contributed immensely to my overall health, well-being, and peace of mind.

For any of you out there who are reading this and considering going toxic free, I get that it can sound overwhelming and expensive…so I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to get as dramatic as I did and fill an entire trash bag full of all of your toxic products (I think my husband about killed me). But what I would recommend is to slowly, over time, transition out of your toxic products to find more clean, healthy alternatives. And let me tell you, there are SO many options out there. I have spent that past year trying out endless brands to find the best ones in each category. So here are my top picks. I hope this is helpful in making your switch to toxic free living as seamless as it can be.

Primally Pure (Skincare) – This brand is everything! Honestly this is the #1 brand that made my transition to clean living so seamless. They primarily carry skincare products such as, cleansing oils, anti-aging serums, moisturizers, body butters, etc. In fact, I love this brand so much that I wrote an article all about my top 5 favorite products, you can read it here. And make sure to use my discount code SOH10 to get 10% off of your entire order at check out.

Odele (Shampoo and Conditioner) – It is so hard to find a clean shampoo and conditioner line without synthetic fragrance! Odele to the rescue. I have tried SO many different shampoos and conditioners over the years and this one wins over them all. I love that this shampoo creates a good lather and leaves my hair feeling so clean. And the conditioner leaves my hair feeling so soft and tangle free.

Puracy (Natural Body Wash) – Puracy products are all 100% organic and cruelty free, which I love! And their body wash smells like heaven and leaves my skin feeling SO clean, even after a really crazy workout.

100% Pure (Cosmetics) – This is one of my favorite all natural cosmetics brand. My favorite is their eye liner and mascara.

Illea (Cosmetics) – This is hands down my favorite clean brand for foundation, as well as several other cosmetics. 

Branch Basics (Household Cleaner) – The reason I love this brand so much is because of it’s streamlined, simplified approach. Branch Basics is essentially just one concentrate that works for all of your household cleaning needs. All you do is buy their concentrate and then add differing amounts of water based on if you’re needing laundry detergent, all purpose cleaner, foaming wash, etc. And it works SO well!

I hope that is helpful! If you have any questions about toxic free living in general, or about my personal journey with toxic free living, don’t hesitate to reach out!

xo,

Mandy