Hey Taylor Swift, Tell Us What’s In Wonderstruck?
My eight-year-old daughter went to a birthday party recently and came home with a bag full of goodies inspired by the “spa day” theme. Now, most moms might see a little stash of perfume roll-ons and thank their lucky stars their daughters grew out of the Webkins phase. To me, finding tween beauty products in my baby’s overnight bag is like discovering she’d brought home bottles of poison. That’s why I’m asking her hero, Taylor Swift, to tell us exactly what’s in her bestselling Wonderstruck perfume so that parents everywhere can be sure it’s safe. Want to join me?
Fragrance Disclosure by @SCJGreenChoices: Does It Go Far Enough?
Want to know what’s in your air freshener fragrance? Now you can–up to a point. Last week, SC Johnson announced that they would disclose fragrance ingredients for the 200 candles, scented oils and air fresheners in product lines such as Glade. But there’s a catch.
DIY Natural Bug Repellant Perfume
Tis the season for bugs. And although I happen to love the scent of citronella, others—I’m not naming names, but we could be married—hate it. So I whipped up a new recipe for DIY natural bug repellant perfume that employs three of my favorite scents, with no citronella in sight. Want to try? I’ll show you how!
Mommy Greenest Eco Rules
Remember that house, back in high school? It wasn’t your house, but you felt comfortable enough to put your feet up on the furniture. It wasn’t your mom, but you talked to her sometimes about what was going on in your life. Sometimes an afternoon turned into dinner turned into movie night with the family. You knew where they kept the cereal, and got your own bowl. That’s my house. It could be because my kids are well-liked and well-adjusted—or it could be that we’re a three-block walk from the mall. But most afternoons, the doorbell rings and a gaggle of teenagers troops in. By evening, there are boys playing…
Make Your Own Perfume for Spring
Want to avoid phthalates? Make your own perfume. Those pesky toxic chemicals have been linked to obesity, among other health problems. And because fragrance manufacturers don’t have to tell us what’s in their formulation there can be as many as 3,000 different chemicals in one bottle of perfume, many of which are phthalates. One way to make sure you know exactly what’s in your signature scent is to make your own perfume, as I started doing last year. But after a few Mommy Greenest readers commented with worries about my vanilla-base perfume staining clothes and skin, I figured out a new recipe, a rose-scented number that’s perfect for spring. And it’s clear! Want…
Mommy Greenest Approved: Pour le Monde Natural Fragrance
Yes, I like to make my own natural fragrance. Currently, I’m rotating between Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter scents that I DIY as the seasons change. But as much as I layer in the essential oils, my natural fragrances tend to reflect one dominant note. They smell good, but there’s not a lot of subtlety. For that, you need a master perfumer. Wendi Berger came to the same conclusion, when she couldn’t find synthetic-free natural fragrances that provided the kind of layered scents she had previously found in conventional perfumes. So she engaged a master perfumer and set out to create a line of all natural eau de parfums that also serve…
Got A Rash? Check Your Fragrance
I love magazines. Ever since I was a little girl, I’d plop down on the floor with a pile in front of me, paging through articles and dog-earing their pages. These days, my two daughters join me on the carpet. But before I let them crack the covers, I follow a familiar ritual: Weeding through the pages, pulling out the fragrance samples and taking them to the outside trash. The magazines still smell faintly of the synthetic fragrance inserts that litter their pages, but at least the majority of scent is gone.
Air Fresheners Don’t Make Scents!
From plug-ins to sprays, synthetic air fresheners are bad news. Chock-full of toxic ingredients, they typically contain phthalates linked to obesity and other problems, as well as potent allergens that lead to fragrance allergies—a condition that affects 34 million people in the U.S. That’s why when I heard about this new campaign from Women’s Voices for the Earth, I knew I had to share. The campaign targets Glade air fresheners and employs some of the cutest babies I’ve ever seen as messengers. If SC Johnson can use cute babies to sell products, why can’t we use them to let people know about the air-polluting fragrances that are in their products?
