Fragrance Wars

The other day I realized that I had accidentally purchased disposable razors with scented handles.

Scented. Fucking. Handles.

As a society, we have apparently decided that it's not enough that every product we put on our body has a smell, now the tools we use to do so must smell as well. I am fanatical about avoiding artificial perfumes, but I never even thought to check goddamn RAZOR BLADE HANDLES.

Don't mind me, just heading to the shower.

There are plenty of very good reasons to avoid synthetic fragrances, but let's back up a minute and make the assumption that you, like many people, don't mind and maybe even enjoy perfumed products.

You step into your shower, where you use your Berry-scented shampoo, Lily Essences conditioner, Pink Grapefruit body wash, Mint Julep facial scrub, Cashmere Rain shaving cream (wtf?), and your stupid ass Venus razors with the "tropical scent" handles.

Grrrrrrrrrr.....

You step out into your bathroom and take a big whiff of your Clean Linen plug-in. You slather some "Pasión de Tango" deodorant, moisturize with your Rose facial oil, and spray a little "Fresh Fragrance" hair product into your hair for some texture. Gotta moisturize those newly-smooth legs, so you grab some Pumpkin Latte and Marshmellow body lotion (it's fall, after all!) Perhaps you're expecting your period, so you make use of a "Clean Fresh Scent" pantyliner, then wash your hands with some Crisp Morning Air handsoap and follow up with Berry Blossom hand lotion. Oh, and let's not forget a puff of Chanel No. 5!

You walk into the other room to get dressed - your laundry detergent claims to smell like a Butterfly Kiss, but you're not sure how that's even possible. Next it's time to slap on some lipstick that smells curiously of Gummy Bears, some Watermelon blush, some Chocolatey-smelling bronzer and Vanilla-scented mineral eyeshadow. When you come out into the living room, looking fab and ready to start your day, you realize that it's smelling a bit musty in there- but hey, it's nothing that a little Midnight Storm Febreeze won't take care of. Just for good measure, you light up a Summer Wish (equally perplexing) candle.

At this point, you smell like a Yankee Candle shop operating upstairs from a funeral home. You are the olfactory equivalent of taking everything in your fridge, putting it in a food processor, and calling it soup. Migraineurs scream and run at the first whiff of you. Airplane seatmates sniffle and dab at watering eyes. Dogs are confused by you.

But honestly? Unless you're actively trying to avoid scented products, this is probably the sort of stuff you'll end up with in your home. Fragrance is ubiquitous- it's in EVERYTHING. It is literally even in products marked "Unscented", I shit you not. (Men, you are not exempt- your soaps, shaving creams, colognes, deodorants, detergents, and god-help-you "body sprays" are just as bad. Though I don't think we've started scenting your goddamn razors yet.)

Of course, you can't smell these smells. Your nose is used to them, so except for that first powerful whiff when you open up the bottle or light up the candle, you don't even notice them. One of the most shocking things I learned when I gave up scented products was just how much EVERYTHING smells- once your olfactory receptors have recovered from their constant fatigue, you'll be amazed what you can smell.

So you don't smell particularly good to yourself, since you don't notice. Other people either also don't notice (being used to synethtic fragrance themselves) or notice and find you, frankly, unbearable (and that's if they're lucky and don't end up with a splitting headache, nausea, or congestion.) And all the while, the dang stuff is fucking with your hormones and slowly giving you cancer (among a jillion other things.)

So why? Why do it? Marketers want you to buy perfumed stuff because our olfactory memories are so intensely strong and linked to emotion- if you associate a particular smell with someone or somewhere you love, you'll want to smell more of it, and you'll pay money for the privilege. (It also nicely covers up the odors of the other nasty chemicals used in a lot of products- which is why "unscented" often...isn't.) Stores will pump scents into the air to affect your buying behavior and mood state - it sounds like some creepy Big Brother shit, but it's true. Restaurants will slap an air freshener into the bathroom outlet to hide the fact that it smells like pee all the time. They don't care if they're pumping you full of neurotoxins, just as long as you keep giving them money. Please, stop encouraging them!

There is a 0% chance that your handsoap smells like this.

Tips for Going Fragrance-Free (or at least Freer)

• Read the labels. As I mentioned above, "Unscented" is sometimes meaningless, but "Fragrance Free" or "Free and Clear" is usually okay. Still, to be safe, look at the ingredients labels- avoid anything that lists fragrance, perfume, parfum, or fragrance oils. It's important to do this even when shopping at "natural" stores or for "natural" products, as many things claiming "With Lavender Essential Oil!" will also sneak in some artificial fragrances as well. One of the grossest things about fragrance is that companies don't have to tell you what's IN them because it's considered a "trade secret"... it could contain pretty much any kind of nasty poison they want to include. 
• Don't forget things like dish soap and laundry detergent! Laundry detergent is particularly insidious, and if you start un-fatiguing your sniffer, soon you'll realize just how bad it is- when I buy second hand clothes, I have to wash them repeatedly and let them air out in the basement for months before I can stand to wear them. (New clothes usually need at least a wash or two, but aren't as bad.) Vinegar in the wash water helps, especially if you soak it (baking soda helps too, but may cause it to fade a bit.) 
• If you want smells, consider natural sources. Essential oils do give some people headaches (or sniffles) but by and large are much safer than synthetics, and more and more products rely on them instead of their chemical alternatives. They're much less "sticky," too- if you wash your hands with soap scented with EO, the scent will fade very soon after, whereas conventional soap smells can stick for HOURS. (Just remember- don't use EOs on your skin at full strength, dilute them with a milder oil! A little goes a long way.) Many beneficial skin oils and butters have lovely scents on their own- my current deodorant is made with cocoa butter and coconut oil, and while it's not very strong, my armpits definitely smell like some sort of delicious confection. Linens can be stored with sachets of dried herbs to help keep them from getting stale in the closet (or you can just wash them again right before you use them, if they've been away for a long time.) 

Hello, I am delicious, and oh so useful.

• Even if you don't choose to ban fragrances from your life entirely, at least be picky. If you want to smell like your expensive perfume or fancy body lotion, you shouldn't be using 20 other products with different smells at the same time. Soaps, hair products, detergents, shaving creams, etc really do not need to have smells- all they do is cling and compete with whatever smells (deodorant, perfume, lotions) you are actually intending to put on. (And don't even get me started on scented make-up, wtf is THAT about?) Figure out what you actually want to smell like and eliminate the rest so you don't smell like potpourri vomit.

A Disclaimer:

Yes, cutting artificial scents out of your life will probably make you more sensitive to them. Walking past Abercrombie & Fitch will feel like chemical warfare, and if you're a hugger you'll soon learn what detergent all your friends are using. But the trade-off (besides all that "not putting poisons in your body constantly" stuff) is that a healthy, less-fatigued schnozz is much better for smelling good smells- things like actual vanilla, actual pumpkin lattes, actual clean air and autumn leaves. Given how entwined smell is with taste, I wouldn't be surprised if there were benefits there too.

(By the way, those scent names up there? All totally real products. I think Gain detergent wins for originality- Sweet Sizzle, Icy Fresh Fizz, Moonlight Breeze, Dreamy Desire..... and I'm always amused by scents claiming to be "Fresh" or "Clean Air." Oh the irony.)



Gas mask photo by Vivian Aubrey, butchered by me... she would never commit such crimes against Photoshop.

SDF: My Clean(ish) Routine

Um, for some reason this is showing up in Google Reader early, even though it was scheduled to go live on Friday. So I guess we're having a something-different Wednesday! Damn you, Blogger.

When I was in high school, one of my teachers introduced the concept of "Something Different Fridays." On Friday, instead of teaching math, he'd teach us something else he thought was worthwhile, like how to play the stock market, or Piaget's theories of development. I am stealing this concept here to indulge my occasional urges to blog about something unrelated to crafting- not every Friday, but once in awhile. Sometimes they'll be silly, sometimes serious. I hope you'll find them an enjoyable diversion!

Ok! So last time on SDF we talked about how everything is poisoning you- not least of all your beauty routine. I feel funning calling it a "beauty routine," since I'm really pretty low maintenance (working at home will do that to you) but I guess that's essentially what it is.

(Incidentally my "Morning Routine" just went up on the No More Dirty Looks blog! It's a few weeks outdated but pretty similar to what you'll read below.)

I figured I'd cobble together a list of some of the bath & body products I've found that fit the non-toxic-er criteria, since I know it can be tricky to find ones that work as well as their more conventional cousins and don't cost a friggin' fortune. Obviously, this is just the stuff that's worked well for me- I promise nothing! (And btw, I'm not affiliated with any of these companies, I just buy 'em.)


We'll start in the shower:

Giovanni Shampoo and Conditioner. I vary which one I use- I've used Smooth as Silk and Root 66 (the volumizing one) and liked both, for the simple reason that it works just as well as conventional shampoo. A lot of "natural" shampoos don't leave my hair feeling clean- I know you can get used to that feeling and let your hair balance itself out, but I don't really want to. I want my hair to feel all squeaky clean and soft, dagnabbit. This stuff also smells really fruity and yummy but it doesn't have any artificial fragrances- it's just the natural smell of whatever botanical oils are in there.

For the majority of my body I use good ole Dr. Bronners on a loofa. The maniacal rantings on the bottle freak me out, but the stuff is gentle and works well, and what more can you ask for? It comes in like ten scents (all essential oils, nothing artificial)- Peppermint is popular, and there's also Citrus, Rose, Almond, Unscented..... I usually use the Eucalyptus because steamy eucalyptus oil is a great allergy/asthma treatment, and I've always got a touch of that going on.

Most shaving creams are super nasty, and some of the natural ones either don't work very well or are greasy and sticky and make a mess- but I've found that I really like Alba Botanica's Unscented Very Emollient Cream Shave. It's sort of like a thick conditioner or thin lotion. Since I bought this thing a few years ago, I pretty much only have to shave my armpits (it hurts to much to rip out that hair) so one tube of the Alba lasts a good long time.

Most days I just wash my face with hot water, otherwise it tends to get dried out. But every few days I use Evan Healy Rose Cleansing Milk, which does a good job of making your skin feel clean without being too drying. This is one of the pricier products I use, but it goes a long way when you're not using it every day.


After the shower:

After I've dried off a bit, if I didn't use the Evan Healy, I'll use some Kiss My Face Toner. I'll also spray it on any other part of my skin that's acting up. I have no idea if it does anything, to be super honest.

I was using this stuff as a daily facial lotion (I got the one for "Aging skin" because it was the only one without fragrance) but it was very sticky and hard to rub in, so now I reserve it for days when I'm actually going to be in the sun, and otherwise use Acure Day Cream. It's super light and soaks in well even when you're still kind of damp from the shower.

For the rest of my skin, I use a combination of grapeseed oil, jojoba oil, and a little bit of argan oil (usually at night, since it's greasy.) For awhile I was using pure argan oil on my face at night because it's supposed to be great for balancing out combination skin, but I didn't notice much of a difference :-/ Now I just use the oil mix once in awhile. Amazingly, it doesn't make me break out or anything- it just soaks in and any excess rinses off in the morning shower. If you put it on a little while before you wash your face, it softens up the dirt and oils in your pores and helps you rinse it all out. The brand of oil doesn't really matter, as long as you get pure, high quality organic stuff. Fair warning: while your skin will probably look fine in the morning, any hair that came in contact with the oil will look quite greasy, so don't use it the night before if you have to go somewhere before you can wash your hair (or at least, wear a headband or something.) I'm sure it's good for dry hair, though.

The oil isn't strong enough for my super dry hands and feet, so I use shea butter before bed (either pure or this stuff) and Weleda Skin Food on my hands throughout the day. That shit is AMAZING. Pricey, but amazing. Between knitting, being a germaphobe, and having two grungy dogs who I'm slightly allergic to (ie, I have to wash my hands after I touch them) my hands get really dry, and this stuff is a lifesaver.

For my lips, I love YesToCarrots Berry Lip Butter. It's the only YesTo product that I'm still using regularly, at this point, because most of them have fragrances (saaaaaaaad.) This stuff is mostly coconut oil and it's pretty great, though I'm sure any other coconut-oil-based lip balm would be good too. Or just straight-up coconut oil.


Something else I tried recently, since I had some samples: Dr Hauschka's Signature Cleansing. Though I'll admit I don't do the stupid "roll your fingers outwards to drain your lymph nodes" thing or whatever. Maybe it works, I don't know, I'm not that patient- I just rub the shit in and rinse it off. But the products involved are nice- Lavender Bath, Cleansing Cream, Clarifying Toner. I'm realizing now that they are crazy expensive and I'll probably never buy them, but they're nice! The Lavender Bath also works really well as a bath oil- just dump a capful or two in the tub when it's filling up and it smells pretty (but mild- I usually don't like lavender but I like this) and feels nice and silky. I usually add some of my oil mixture too and swish it around. It ends up leaving a nice thin layer of oil all over you, which is nice when you don't feel like you need to slather it. (I know it sounds gross but it soaks in quickly, I promise.)


Whew, that's a lot of text. I was going to talk make-up too, but I think I'll wait til next time. I wasn't much of a make-up person until recently so I'm still sorting out what products I like, anyway ;-)

And now the fun part!

I'm going to give one reader a little sampler pack of some of the goodies I like! It's not all of them (I couldn't find mini sizes for everything) but it's a few good basics- shampoo and conditioner, body wash, lip butter, hand lotion (I love these mini tubes, I keep one in my purse) and a bottle of my trusty oil blend ;-) No artificial colors or scents, no sulfates, no bad crap.

To enter, just comment! If you've got a "clean"ish product (bath, body, makeup, etc) to recommend, please do, but you don't have to ;-) I'll pick a winner at random a week from today.