"Natural Parabens"

As you can see from the amount of time between posts, this has become more of an occasional blog than a daily one. I wanted to share a story from a shopping trip to Sephora that underscored the importance of consuming intelligently. I was looking for an eye cream, among other things, and a very nice young woman with whom I'd been working led me back to the L'Occitaine section. Another associate happened to be there, and when I said that I loved L'Occitaine products but had stopped using them because of the parabens in their lotions, the other associate waved away my concerns and said: "They now use only natural parabens." I was slackjawed. There is, of course, no such thing as a natural paraben. In fact, parabens have always been synthetic creations. Originally meant to mimic estrogen and now used mainly as a preservative, parabens cannot be natural. I wonder how many women have heard this "all natural parabens" line. Stay educated. Cosmetics are not under strict guidelines when it comes to labeling. The term "natural" isn't regulated at all. Look closely at the fine print. Even L'Occitaine's "natural line" is filled with nasty chemicals, including disodium EDTA.

I do want to mention this, though, to offer some perspective. Despite everything I've written about chemicals in cosmetics, I will occasionally use a product that contains EDTA, for example, if I am using it in small doses and since I am done bearing children and breastfeeding. I bought the L'Occitaine eye cream. ;-)