Gone With The Chemicals

Gone with the chemicals, gone with the wind that brings them to our land. Gone with the materials that bring disease, irritation and threaten our lives. We have become the product of a society that no longer cares for its peoples’ health, yet would fight you for a few extra quid. There is no escaping the unpronounceable ingredients in our toothpaste, our cleaning products, our shower gels and shampoos. How do we escape such a world?

When the first lockdown hit last year we transitioned smoothly, started working from home and didn’t complain. We hoped it would last about half a year and managed to book a holiday, some visits from and to our families and even remodel our place. However it wasn’t enough. I felt like the world was resting on my shoulders, headaches kept recurring and what I wanted was some peace and zen and to be able to see my friends while surrounded by nature.

As soon as it turned January 1st I felt a shift in my energy, a surprising calm as I realised how well both ourselves and our businesses had coped through the first, second and third lockdown.

I have found an unexpected calm A surprising feeling of content My batteries recharging Finding pieces of new zen Realising that this rest Won't do us any harm

Last year I bought a set of oracle cards, started using essential oils and with every purchase that I made I checked all ingredients and reviewed the amount of plastic the packaging was made of. We swapped our plastic toothbrushes for bamboo toothbrushes, threw out all toxic cleaning products under our sink and swapped it for Thieves cleaner, and we started a ban on Amazon! Must say that that last goal has proven to, at times, still be quite the challenging, but we have also managed to find some incredible small businesses, I’ll share some of them below:

• Superfood Market: www.superfood-market.com
• Ombar Chocolate: www.shop.ombar.co.uk
• Holistic Sho: www.holisticshop.co.uk
• The Rugs: www.the-rugs.com
• Teapigs: www.teapigs.co.uk
• Wild & Stone: www.wildandstone.com
• Season Green: www.seasongreen.co.uk
• Fenella Creative: www.hedgerow-artists.co.uk/fenella-creative
• Olive & Indie: www.instagram.com/olive_and_indie
• Little Oil Dropper: www.instagram.com/little.oil.dropper.ni
• Miss P Preloved: www.instagram.com/fortheloveof_clothes_preloved/

I also started learning about fragrance and scented candles, as we used to have plenty of those around the house. When I started spending all day and night in that same house I started to notice my frequent headaches and wondered where they came from. It seemed that fragrance was the source, as soon as we got rid of any fragranced products and our scented candles, those headaches disappeared with them. But what is fragrance? I had no idea!

Fragrance is defined as a combination of chemicals that gives each perfume or cologne its distinct scent. Fragrance ingredients may be derived from petroleum or natural raw materials. In addition to this, chemicals that create the fragrance also contain solvents, stabilisers, UV-absorbers, preservatives and dyes. Fragrances are found in most personal care products including sunscreen, shampoo, soap, make-up, serums and perfume. Other words for fragrance are: perfume, parfum, essential oil blend or aroma. Fragrances are also linked to a staggering number of health risks, but because there is no regulated fragrance-industry, they are still being added to our beauty and healthcare-products. Not so healthy…

Avoiding all products that contain fragrance might seem like a daunting task, but every small step together makes a big difference. There are still plenty of brands that offer fragrance-free products and take care of our planet. Young Living, Tropics Skincare, Monat and Green People are a few examples of companies that offer fragrance-free care products.

And talking about goals for the new year, I need to do more yoga and read lots more books. Luckily I have found some wonderful writers that write the most beautiful stories and poems and inspire me with every word that I read. I would like to end this story with one of my favourites by Joey Doherty:

There is so much Kindness in the air.

Remember to breathe it in And live it out.