EO Products

Abercrombie and STENCH

If you happen to be doing some back to school shopping with your teenage 
daughter and have the unfortunate experience of waiting around at Abercrombie and Stench, there is hope. I thought that they had to stop spraying "Fierce" through the vents because of many complaints and accidentally found the bottle in the photo that is responsible for the relentless assault on all of our senses. The fact is that "Fierce" contains fiercely toxic diethyl phthalate –a chemical linked to cancer, reproductive harm and neuro-developmental health effects. Stay tuned to info on the national march against A + F by Teens for Safe Cosmetics happening September 28, 2010.

 

Making Sense of Scents

SCENT IS A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. A scent can immediately evoke the details and mood of an old experience, as vividly as if no time at all had passed. It is easy for us to take our sense of smell for granted, because we exercise it involuntarily: as we breathe we smell. The olfactory membrane (a dime size patch in each of the upper air passages of the nose) is the only place in the human body where the nervous system comes into direct contact with the environment. Before we know that we are in contact with a smell, we have already received and reacted to it. Odor elicits strong reactions from us, unmediated by oughts and shoulds. It is no accident that odors are called essences or spirits. They straddle a line between the physical and metaphysical worlds.

The perfume business is linked to the perfumed gloves made in France in the 1700’s. All fragrances were extracted from plants – spicy, herbal and base notes prevailed. The floral notes were coaxed out of petals in the early 1900’s by the use of lard and eventually solvents. By 1915, the use of synthetic extenders made formulating perfume less expensive and more consistent. By the 1920’s the shift had been made – extolling the virtues of synthetics. The synergy of synthetics and advertising brought perfume to the lifestyle of modern women and the fragrance industry blossomed into the billion dollar global industry we know today.

Coming Clean

Here I am, 51, and in good health.  I feel lucky and blessed by what my life has held for me.  And though I have always been a seeker, I also feel a deep sense of what it is like to turn the corner to life’s second half and contribute in a way that has heart and meaning.

I have been swimming in a saltwater pool for the past 3 days - no clothes, no make up, no shower.  AlI I have with me are my daughter Lucy, my three nieces, two little bottles of body oil and sun block, and a conversation about beauty and responsibility in my head.

Living Green – Get these Ingredients out of your life.

As the co-founder of a natural personal care products company, my job for the last 15 years has been to figure out a way to make products that are clean, simple, safe and luxurious so that they meet all the expectations of experience and performance that we’ve become accustomed to.

The idea was to make a lotion like a beautiful vinaigrette– as few high quality ingredients as possible ( noting the difference of course,  between a vinaigrette from a fast food restaurant and one lovingly made by Anne Somerville at Green’s Restaurant.) So we set out in 1995 with our product charter of  NO’s: NO artificial color (only colors from botanicals, NO synthetic fragrance (only essential oils), NO sodium laurel/laureth sulfates or cocamide DEA  (only greener surfactant alternatives), NO Propylene Glycol, NO Diazolidinyl Urea, NO Talc. If we couldn’t find a safer alternative, we wouldn’t make the product.