On the outside moisturizers do a lot to make the skin more supple and radiant. But your skin isn't just a barrier against the environment. It's a living breathing organ that ingests and processes the substances it comes into contact with. Therefore, the chemicals in moisturizers can produce results that aren't quite as, shall we say, glowing?

It's time to be more selective about cosmetic products. Cosmetics manufacturers do not need FDA approval so up to 12.2 million adults are exposed to human carcinogens on a daily basis through their personal care products.

Wax on, wax off, wax on—isn’t that the way it goes with lip gloss? You paint a perfect pout only to lose it to the rim of your glass, or a lover’s cheek. The cycle of reapplying is endless, and so is the perpetual dryness that no gloss, however juicy, can seem to remedy.

The reason is, lip gloss isn't actually meant to moisturize or protect your lips. At best it contains some occlusive ingredient that sits on top of the skin, unabsorbed, acting as a barrier to trap moisture and prevent it from leaving the lips. Petroleum (propylene, butylene glycol) or petroleum jelly (Vaseline) is used commonly in lipbalms, chapsticks, and lipglosses because it is such an effective occlusive. So effective in fact it keeps the skin from breathing, which ultimately leaves lips more chapped than they were to begin with. This phenomenon can lead to lip balm addiction. Safer, natural moisturizing alternatives to petroleum are beeswax, shea butter, and vitamin E.

Unlike beauty products or food items, shoes don’t come with an ingredients label. It’s impossible to tell just by looking what kind of glue was used, the factory conditions they were made under, and how much, if any, of the materials were recycled or are recyclable. The sad truth is that the creation of most shoes made in the U.S.—more than 95 percent—began somewhere in a slaughterhouse and ended in a toxic chrome leather tannery. But good news! After years of turning out hemp flip flops, the sustainable and socially conscious shoe industry is making its mark on the fashion scene.

Some people think finding the right shampoo is like falling in love—you meet a lot of contenders, but the right one makes you tingle. The truth is, choosing a shampoo is a complicated process with several baseline considerations to take into account, including whether or not your shampoo was animal tested, what it does to the environment once it’s down the drain, and how it affects your personal health.

So you're ready for a chemical-free deodorant that won't also make you a star at the petting zoo? First let's start with the difference between antiperspirants and deodorants. Antiperspirants use aluminum or some derivative of aluminum (aluminum chloride, aluminum chlorohydrate, ammonium aluminum sulfate, potassium alum, or potassium aluminum sulfate), to block skin pores and prevent perspiration, as the name implies. Deodorants kill the odor-causing bacteria that grow in our sweat and create body odor.

"Organic cotton" may sound like an easy way for clothing stores to charge an extra twenty bucks for an otherwise ordinary T-shirt, but the truth is organic matters as much in what you wear as it does in what you eat.

Some experts say a quarter of the insecticides in the United States and a tenth of all the world’s pesticides are devoted to dousing cotton. Of these pesticides, seven of the top 15 are either known or suspected to be carcinogens. First, think about what those chemicals could be doing to your skin, and what toxins you may be inhaling every time you put on a new tee shirt.