How Do You Know If A Product Is Natural?

I was really mad when I found the following information out. Like you might be, I was wondering how people who manufacture lotions and creams can get away with putting cancer causing agents in it. How can they get away with it? Especially with a kid's product?

The answer is very simple.

There is no legally agreed definition of what is and what is not natural when it comes to skin care products, beauty treatments, soaps, lotions and the like.

There is therefore nothing to stop a product manufacturer highlighting the use of a fragrance without suggesting that it is completely artificial.

For instance, you will see products on the drug store shelf that contain ‘fragrance' that has a picture of flowers or a summer meadow on the container, clearly implying the fragrance is entirely natural.

However, even though nothing could be further from the truth, product manufacturers know that consumers buy cosmetic and skincare products based on the smell. Hence, they make sure that they smell nice even though the fragrance is completely artificial.

You must therefore be extremely careful when buying commercial products and you need to know what to look out for.

Another argument that is sometimes put forward for including chemicals of these types in cosmetic and skin care products is that in tiny doses, they are harmless. This may be the case but it takes no account of the cumulative effect of using a product that contains these chemicals over a long period of time.

Furthermore, you should remember that make up or moisturizer that is applied before retiring for the night is going to stay on your skin for many hours giving your skin every opportunity to absorb as much of the potentially harmful chemicals as possible.

You might also have heard it suggested that people have been using skin care and cosmetic products that contained the same substances for many generations and that it never did them any harm, but do the facts support this? If you consider the statistics for the prevalence of cancer and other similar problems back in those days, the answer is, probably not.

Similarly, you have already seen that some of these chemicals cause headaches, dizziness, chest pains and depression and there can't be many people who don't know someone who suffers from some of these problems from time to time.

Of course, people suffer from these problems for many reasons but chemicals could potentially be one of the reasons.

Anyway, the bottom line is very clear. If you are going to use commercially produced skin care products, make absolutely certain that you know exactly what the ingredients are before buying, and if there is any doubt, put it back on the shelf. Do it for the safety of your kids!

Parenting Tips
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Helping Your Hirstute Teenager

I have a daughter with a bit too much facial hair. It is hereditary on my husband's side of the family.
All I really remembered from mown experiences with this is that there was electoloysis around to help treat this problem. I remember too that it was expensive, painful and the hair could easily grow back if the procedure as not done right.
Then I discovered laser epilation. It is pain free and it gives my poor embarrassed daughter some relief from the embarrassing hair growth.
Laser epilation is performed by IPL epilators. IPL is short for 'Intense Pulsed Light.' This fast method of hair removal came into existence in the 1970s. However the actual technology for laser epilators has been around since the 1950s.
The odd thing about laser epilators is that they technically cannot even be properly defined as 'real laser.' Instead they are what are known as xenon flash lamps.
This type of laser hair removal is accomplished through photo thermolysis which selectively only heats up objects that are darker, specifically darker hairs against whiter skin. This is why dark hair on dark skin or blondish hair on darker skin does not always successfully get removed.
Coarse dark hair on light skin is easiest to fix using a laser. Finer hair and hair on darker skin is more difficult to remove and may require more sessions with the laser. The face sometimes needs several different treatments as the hair is more difficult to remove .It did take two tries before it was successful on my daughter.
Most adults need between three and eight treatments before the hair will be permanently removed which can make the treatment more expensive over time. Usually the first treatment gets rid of the majority of the hairs and subsequent treatments are 'touch ups' that perfect the job. The treatments are also usually spaced two to three weeks apart to avoid damaging the skin in any way.
Lasers with a large spotlight are used to remove as much hair as possible in one are and in just one treatment. The point is to have the radiation of the laser emit enough power to do damage to the hair follicles but not to the skin.
Compared to electrolysis, which is a slow process where individual hairs are plucked out one by one with an electrical tweezer laser hair removal is said to be sixty times faster and the results are also said to be more permanent. I highly recommend this no muss or fuss way to get rid of hair.

Parenting Tips
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