I was really excited when I heard Ann Garrity’s story because she’s a living, breathing person who can attest to the life changes created by switching her makeup and skincare from toxic brands to healthier choices. Currently, as you probably know, there are heated debates on the use of many chemicals in cosmetics. And certain scientific groups are trying to make the rest of us out to be uninformed and hysterical. They are the experts. What could we possibly know about chemicals and their effects on our bodies? Listen to Ann’s (pictured below on the right) story and decide.
It’s said that we often create what we need. That was certainly the case for Ann Garrity, owner of Organic Diva, a retail site for non-toxic beauty products.
With no known health problems, other than fibroids, Ann noticed her body was acting weird. At first, she couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong. She just knew she felt sick much of the time.
But it wasn’t until she began to lose her memory that she realized something could be seriously wrong. She visited five doctors who ran various tests, but couldn’t determine the problem.
Finally, Ann found a doctor on the East Coast who told her what the problem was. “I think you may have estrogen overload,” the doctor told her. “I want you to stop using all of your body products and makeup items.”
For a self confessed makeup and skincare junky like Ann, this was not good news. But with her mom and grandmother both being cancer survivors, Ann wasn’t taking any chances with imbalanced hormones.
“So many ingredients in cosmetics mimic estrogen,” Ann says. “I had to cut them off.” Ann replaced all of the beauty products in her stash with natural and organic product lines she found at the health food store. Or so she thought.
“I got home and read the labels,” Ann says. “And I’m trying to figure out these long words. What the hell is that?”
Ann realized what many women learn as they move towards natural cosmetics – not every brand is honest about their ingredients. And as Ann makes clear, “organic” isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.
For the next six years Ann was a woman obsessed. She studied every website, book and scientific report she could get her hands on. She learned which ingredients are healthy and which aren’t. She found quality products that she loved to use that were also good for her body. Her estrogen level balanced out and she stopped having memory problems.
But the restoration of her own health wasn’t enough for Ann. She wanted to help women who were setting themselves up for health problems just from the products they were using.
Or even more importantly, she wanted to help women who were already sick find truly non-toxic products that would not exasperate their issues.
She formed Organic Diva – a combination retail beauty store and educational site. Organic Diva sells healthy brands in piece meal. A brand may have a moisturizer that meets Ann’s strict standards, but their cleanser may fail the test. The solution? Organic Diva will only sell the product that lives up to the non-toxic standards.
One way Ann tries to keep the brands honest is by requiring they sign The Compact for Safe Cosmetics found on the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics website. She also insists that every product on her site scores a 3 or less on the Skin Deep Cosmetics Safety Database.
And she educates. “I help women to think about what they are putting on their body so they can make wise choices.” Ann encourages women (and men) to assess how many beauty products they are using each day. And then total up all of the chemicals that are being mingled together – on their bodies. A total of 26 products a day – including shampoo, conditioner, makeup items, grooming products, etc. – can easily equal 700 or more chemicals going onto and into the body.
“What really bothers me is that no one is looking at the overall exposure of these chemicals,” Ann says. “Oh, it’s such a small amount is what the companies are saying, but what happens when those small amounts are multiplied?”
Just as a medical doctor was the one who realized what was going on with Ann’s body, physicians are the ones sending Ann many of her customers. “This is important to me because these women can’t afford to use ‘fake’ natural products,” Ann says. “Their health depends on truth.”
I think that’s the case for all of us. What do you all think?
I very much agree that we do not know about all the hidden chemicals with which we have daily contact. Surely if we were to list researchers account and would be surprised.
It is also true that many companies take advantage of the word "natural" to advertise their products, because people associate that word with "healthy" insurance "… and not always the case.