Dear GreenSmoothieGirl: What Products Are Actually Safe and Non-Toxic?

I got a DM the other day from Alexis, asking me what products I use, that are actually nontoxic. Alexis told me she was frustrated by two companies whose products she used because they advertise themselves as very clean brands, and then she started looking at the actual ingredients, and was shocked. 
 
(Good for you, Alexis, for learning about ingredients! Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and the others—they depend on our ignorance, for their profits.) 
 
Let’s talk about makeup, perfume, cleaning supplies, skin care, baby products, sunscreen, laundry detergent, deodorant, and more. I’m not going to write a book here—I’m just going to give you some Cliff’s Notes, more along the lines of “teaching a (wo)man to fish, rather than giving you the fish.” Ready? 

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Many (maybe most) companies rely entirely on “greenwashing” marketing. They can call any product at all “natural,” for instance, or “all-natural,” because that term is unregulated. The Bidenistas will likely get rid of GMO labeling and will undermine the organics industry, before they’re done. Which makes it that much more important that YOU get smarter about label reading, and knowing what you’re buying, eating, and using.  
 
What this means for you and me is that we have yet another reason to support small businesses. I’m not talking about ANY GreenSmoothieGirl products today, but as the owner of a small business that produces certified organic products, I can tell you that we are night-and-day different than these huge, soulless public corporations who sit around boardrooms trying to figure out how to squeeze more profit for shareholders out of their products, marketed to people who don’t know better. 
 
The big corporations have teams of sophisticated copywriters and product developers, and buyers who have deep relationships into the lowest-cost supply lines. For instance, there’s only one flavoring house that even uses non-GMO cornstarch for flavorings anymore. (Which we use, of course.) 
 
Again, we don’t sell beauty supplies or cleaning supplies or anything I’m even going to discuss here. I’m just wanting you to know that small businesses have to go through the entire organic certification process, which is not easy. Even when we change the co-packer of one of our products (for instance, if they go out of business), we have to start our organic certification process and expense all over again. 
 
We small businesses cannot afford to be sued over our products being toxic. The billion-dollar companies can afford to pay out huge settlements and they can carry on, totally profitable, even so, due to brand recognition and placement in the retail giants where most people make all their purchases. 
 
(For instance, the biggest product fraud settlements in history were paid out by Pfizer and Glaxo Smith Kline. They weren’t just profitable, in the years they paid out billion-dollar judgments; they were even profitable on the PRODUCTS for which they paid the settlements. I’m sure the irony is not lost on you that those two companies sponsor all of our corporate media, and they’ve been pitched to us since 2020 as developing the products that will save us from a virus. And you must submit to buying those products or having them bought for you, or lose your job or be unable to travel.) 
 
So, if you’re hoping for a list of brands you can trust, I don’t have such a thing for you, though I’ll share a few I really like, at the end. I’m more interested in sharing some thoughts to help hone your critical-thinking skills as you make decisions, as someone who has researched health and wellness for decades, plus I’ve worked in supply chains for that long, as well.  
 
This next bit is where the rotten tomatoes come flying at me, and I’m sorry if you don’t like this one, but also don’t look to the network marketing companies for clean products. 
 
If they can obtain a product for $10, they have to sell it for $80 to $100, for it to be profitable in their business model. Why? Because they have big corporate overhead just like other companies, plus they have to pay 6, 8, or 10 distributors, on every purchase.  
 
I worked in this industry for many years. I consulted to MLM (network marketing) companies. I was a top distributor for two different MLM companies. I attended the conventions; I sat in conferences with their lawyers and product formulators and consultants; I even owned a direct-sales company for a couple of years. I raised my children in Utah Valley, the international Grand Central of MLM. Right now I’m looking out my Utah window at two billion-dollar MLM headquarters’ campuses. 
 
I’m not saying they’re as bad as the huge public companies; I’m saying they have a cost structure that relies on passionate distributors repeating the marketing story they’re taught (that always involves the word “proprietary”—otherwise customers would go to the competition, because the price is so steep). This is simply how network marketing works, to get people paying exorbitant prices for products that generally don’t live up to the hype.  
 
So, it’s getting harder and harder to even find small businesses to buy from, as they go the way of the dodo, or resort to selling on Amazon— 
 
--and of course just being a small business doesn’t guarantee high-integrity products. But, let’s take Beauty Counter, as an example.  
 
Because I have had a large audience for many years, I’ve been pitched on that MLM company selling makeup and personal care items, many times. Their whole “unique selling proposition” is that they’re a clean alternative to L’Oreal and Maybelline. 
 
I requested their list of ingredients in their products, and it’s a “Who’s Who” of the worst ingredients. Petroleum products, chemicals known to cause harm to liver and kidneys, talc, metals—you name it, that company likely uses those ingredients.  
 
They count on your making purchases from people you know—we do all crave a connection to the product or company, some assurance that they make good products we feel safe consuming, spraying in our home, or putting on our skin. When we buy from someone we know, we feel better about our purchase. 
 
When I got on the phone with a top Beauty Counter distributor, I pointed out to her that the company’s marketing points to a couple of ingredients that are highly toxic, that they don’t use—and the fact that you can request the ingredients of their products (“transparency”), and I appreciate both of those things— 
 
--but, I said, if you know much at all about ingredients, you’ll find virtually all the “bad guys” in their list of ingredients used in their products. 
 
She said, well, the consumer wants performance from the products. So, for sudsy shampoo, you need sodium lauryl sulfate. For a silky feel in the lotion or moisturizer, you need propylene glycol. For mascara, you want it to “hold up” and not look in the mirror and see black flakes all over your face, and it’s tar that does that. 
 
She’s not wrong. The consumer is at the root of the problem. The consumer is definitely not willing to forgo product performance.  
 
But I’ll give you a couple of examples of the things these companies do. One company doesn’t want to procure certified organic products, so they made up their own certification, and they teach their distributors to tell people that “certified pure therapeutic grade” is actually better than organic.  
 
It isn’t, though. A product can be “CPTG,” which isn’t really a thing, it’s something they made up—but it can be made from ingredients sprayed with Roundup. 
 
Or, one company will tell you their foundation (makeup) is just “minerals, nothing but minerals.” And while, yes, minerals are found in nature, some of the mineral compounds are synthetic and highly toxic, known to cause cancer.  
 
Have I found a wonderful makeup line? Nope, I use powder foundation rather than liquid. (At least then, there’s less going into your skin and therefore your bloodstream.) And I use the same cheap mascaras everyone else does.  
 
I’ve found that the less-toxic ones still have questionable ingredients, they cost literally 10 times as much, and they dry up or run out very quickly. And, unless I have to be on camera or go out, I just don’t wear makeup much, and even when I do, I use less rather than more.  
 
So I apologize that you’ll probably find my comments on makeup to be kind of unsatisfactory, but you’ll probably like my comments on all the other categories better. 
 
For cleaning supplies, I really just don’t use them, or very few of them. People give me a blank look when I say that, but what did people use before Dow Chemical started indoctrinating us with their billboards saying “A BETTER LIFE THROUGH CHEMICALS”? I use vinegar in water, like my grandmother did, for just about everything—floors and toilets, for instance.  
 
My furniture looks beautiful, and I just use a damp cloth, no furniture polishes or oils.
 
I’ll use Soft Scrub on my sinks and bathtubs, but I will not spray descaler in a shower where I have to breathe those carcinogens. I won’t use car-cleaner products.  
 
(Getting my husband detached from the need to have a “product” for the leather, and a “product” for the dash/plastic in the car, that wasn’t easy. I remember once he cleaned my car as a surprise, and I really wanted to be happy about it, but I got in the car and—residual chemicals all over everything, and I had to breathe it. He didn’t seem to believe me that I’ve just used a damp cloth, my entire life.)  
 
I won’t use stainless steel polish, and my fridge looks great, I just wipe it off.  
 
Fact is, a lot of the products we buy, we really don’t need. Live a less-toxic life AND save money--double benefit! 
 
I don’t need or want my house to smell like synthetic perfumes. In fact, if the cleaning folks hire someone new who thinks she can slip a minor amount of furniture polish or floor cleaner agent into the water bucket, I tell them, “I can smell that. Remember, we’re highly allergic to the chemicals in cleaning products.”  
 
(I’m not lying. Even though neither of us has been diagnosed with MCS, or Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, we’re all actually allergic to those chemicals. Our bodies weren’t designed to assimilate, digest, and eliminate this quantity and types of toxicity. By the way, if you don’t think Google has scrubbed the internet of alternative health content, just google that term—what comes up first is gaslighting anybody who thinks that’s a real diagnosis.) 
 
When I hire someone to clean my house, I usually have to really struggle to get them to understand that the stuff they use really isn’t necessary.  
 
In 2020, I hired a woman who runs a cleaning crew, and it was quite difficult to get her to realize I really am not impressed by their marketing of how they’ll “sanitize and disinfect” my countertops and doorknobs and light switches so we don’t get a virus. 
 
(We get a virus from having a weakened immune system. We are full of viruses, from the day we are born, trillions of them. If they set the “cycle threshold” low enough on the swab testing or saliva testing, every single one of us would “test positive” for COVID, every day of our lives, which has absolutely nothing to do with whether you’re sick or not. How you stay well, or recover quickly, if you get sick, is entirely related to keeping a healthy “inner terrain,” so you’re simply less susceptible. See my podcast episode on “Why Do I Get Sick (for Dummies): Germ Theory Vs Terrain Theory,” for more on this. The Cliff’s Notes on how to keep a healthy internal “terrain”: drink plenty of water; get enough sleep; eat a whole-foods mostly plant-based diet; avoid using toxic products; “let go” and forgive; and do a rigorous detoxification protocol twice a year.)  
 
Perfume: I used to have a drawerful, and loved using perfume. But years ago, I read a study showing that there are 14 undisclosed toxic ingredients in the average perfume. (Manufacturers can avoid disclosing ingredients if the amount is small enough, believe it or not.)  
 
If it goes onto your skin, it goes into your bloodstream, plus you’re inhaling it. So, perfume is at the top of my list for products to avoid completely, right up there with laundry soap, air fresheners, and shower descalers.  
 
I don’t use commercial fragrances any more, and I’ve gotten my husband to give up cologne. (I tell him I like HIS smell, so he doesn’t “need” it.) But for an evening out, I’ll use an AnnMarie essential-oil blend. I like the woodsy ones like cedarwood, frankincense, and pine—but I also love plain geranium or rose oil, as perfume.  
 
I really dislike the smell of lavender, but most people love lavender oil, and it’s in most blends used for perfume substitutes (probably because it’s inexpensive). Use organic essential oils! There aren’t many brands that are actually organic, but they do exist. 
 
Baby products: a lot of products have evolved, since I had little ones, but you’re looking to avoid ingredients you can’t pronounce, and petroleum products. Avoid baby powder at all costs. And generally you’re going to find the non-toxic products at a natural-products store, rather than Walmart and Target.  
 
Sunscreen: I really just avoid using it, and wear a hat and keep a close eye on my sun exposure, so I don’t burn, rather than use sunscreen, partly because I hate how it feels.  
But if you’re boating for the whole day, you absolutely need some, so look for the “physical” sunblock rather than chemical types. In other words, that very white stuff that creates a physical barrier on your skin. You can buy the tinted kind, if you aren’t going for that “ghost” look. Titanium dioxide is the main ingredient, and it’s not great, but it’s a lot better than those sprayed chemical sunscreens. 
 
Air fresheners: I’ve never used them, your great-grandmother never did either, so save some money and just skip the Glade plug-in. Or diffuse some essential oils you like. 
 
Deodorant: I haven’t used deodorant in 20 years, and I vigorously rub a crystal stick (sold at any natural products store) on wet skin after I get out of the shower. It works great for me. And unless you drop it on the floor and it breaks, one crystal stick will last you a lifetime. 
 
Some people complain it doesn’t work for them, but luckily, lots of brands have evolved, so try them till you find what you like, at a natural-products store. What you’re looking to avoid is any ingredient with the word “aluminum” in it! Some people love the coconut-oil based products with essential oils added. These don’t work for me, and make me chafe when I’m out for a run. 
 
I’m not a brand maven, really, and that was a very basic review. There are thousands of product lines out there, and many of them are just smaller businesses (like your chiropractor, for instance) “private labeling” the products of the big billion-dollar companies.  
 
(In other words, some big companies, for a fee, will put someone’s customized label on their products, and ship them in small quantities to a doctor’s office, etc. Most doctors are selling supplements that have their brand on them, but you can actually buy that product from a huge corporation or thousands of other doctors’ offices.) 
 
I do have two small businesses to recommend to you, though, for laundry detergent (and more) and for skin care. Both are totally committed to their products being entirely clean and safe. I know the owners of both and have grilled them extensively, plus reviewed their ingredients: 
 
For laundry soap, I love Truly Free’s concentrates. You just refill your jug with a small packet, plus add water: They also have other products, and I like them not just for being non-toxic, but also for preparedness because the refills take up so little space. Laundry soap is more important than you may think, because the ”orange jug” companies are made to leave a chemical sheen on your clothes, to “brighten/whiten,” and you’re absorbing those through your skin, and you’re inhaling them, all day. 
 

Robyn Openshaw and AnnMarie Gianni

Skin care: AnnMarie Skin Care. I know AnnMarie and Kevin Gianni, the founders and owners, and their ingredients are incredible. They’re not super cheap products like what you can get at Walmart, but I haven’t met one of their products I don’t like. In fact, their ingredients are so good, they’re pretty much like the “superfoods” of skin care. And they have this little “trial-sized” deal, to try out some of their most popular products. 
 
So, to sum up, small companies don’t have huge overhead; they are able to work with leaner operations and costs and smaller profit margins; they don’t answer to shareholders; and they cannot afford not to follow every law to the letter, with regard to quality standards and organic certifications.  
 
Plus, if you care about preserving the free-market system, you can feel good about rewarding the hard work of privately owned companies to bring you quality products, instead of contributing to the trillions in Jeff Bezos’ bank account, and the CEO’s of companies who make $500k+ a year for prioritizing growing the bottom line every year. 
 
Has my work made a difference in your life? If so, please help fund our ongoing work and keep my amazing team employed, for a $10/mo subscription. I intend to be the last small business standing, even if I work at breakeven. Because health and wellness are my passion, but so is the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the free market system, and I stand against centralized control in all my content. I often write articles based on your questions, so DM me in FB or in the comments below, if you have requests for topics. And, please assume that some of the links I may share, compensate my small business.