I thought, for a change, it would be nice to hear from an author about the subject of her book. In this case, it’s from Julie Gabriel, author of The Green Beauty Guide and one of my current favorite book projects. Julie’s contribution to the green movement and to women is probably the most comprehensive resource guides available. We can thank her for literally saving our skin!

Q. If you could summarize in a few words, what is your commitment as a green lifestyle expert?

Julie. I believe it’s time to educate women what we can improve with what we do to our faces and hair, and why is it relevant not just for the health of our planet, but more importantly for our health. If you want to save the planet, start with your own body, your own family, your own home.

Q. The organic movement has been accused of being elitist, because there’s a perception that it doesn’t take into account tight budgets and busy lifestyles. Do you have any advice for how an average American woman could put some of the green beauty ideas into practice?

Julie. You know, most natural health books try to convert you into a tree-hugging philosophy. They insist that you deny yourself of all these small life’s pleasures such as a fragrant bath or a pretty makeup. I love shopping for beauty products. The good news is that there are millions of ‘green’ alternatives to ordinary skincare, shampoos, and mascaras. Some are better that their chemical counterparts and some aren’t quite there yet. But by encouraging women to consider, discuss and ultimately purchase the greener beauty product I believe I am helping to make a positive impact on our environment. A warm bath still uses awfully lot of water and power, thus adding to global warming, but I would argue that a homemade herbal bath infusion is a better choice than smelly frothy regular bath foam from the drugstore. So go ahead, buy more, but buy more of a good thing. Buy luxurious organic bath oil – it will last longer than a cheap foaming bath gel, and it will please your senses and benefit your health.

Q. Are there any ways to cut costs when buying organic beauty products?

Julie. The ultimate way to save money and still be a green beauty is to make your own products. This isn’t complicated at all. Some of the most effective natural products are right there, in your kitchen. Plain yogurt makes a great exfoliating cleanser. Tablespoon of olive oil mixed with a teaspoon of sugar makes a wonderful face and body scrub, and you can massage it in your hands for an instant manicure. Egg whites make a very nutritious facial lift. If you need a bit of a special treatment, like a whitening cream or an anti-ging serum, you can buy an inexpensive organic baby lotion and add some ready-made active ingredients like co-enzyme Q10, liquoric extract, or various antioxidants, and you will make an amazingly effective product for a fraction of a price. Shopping online is a wonderful way to cut costs on organic beauty because it’s cheaper, you can buy in bulk, and it’s good for the planet, too, since you don’t have to burn gasoline to get to the store.

Q. Why did you, a holistic nutritionist, write a book about beauty?

Julie. As a nutritionist, I always stress that beauty products are not any different from food. You put food into your mouth and it goes inside your body, and you put the lotion on your skin, it gets absorbed, and it ends inside your body just as well. We all know about the damaging effects of the Western diet that we eat—a diet of highly-processed foods, poor in raw vegetables and fruits and whole grains, rich in refined carbohydrates, hydrogenated fat and processed sugar. This diet, we know, leads to chronic diseases. It leads to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and puts you in high risk for some types of cancer. Nobody argues about that fact. To me, synthetic skincare is the beauty version of the Western diet. It’s highly processed, loaded with synthetic chemicals and fragrances, and it contains very little natural substances. We also know that when you get off the Western diet, your risk from all devastating conditions diminishes dramatically. When you get off the beauty version of the Western Diet, your risk of premature aging and various skin conditions diminishes, too. That’s the elephant in the room.

Q. In your book you talk a lot about negative effects synthetic ingredients have on human health. At first it’s really hard to believe such things remain unnoticed and governments seem to have very little power to change things. Why do you think is it happening?

Julie. The problem is that most cosmetic manufacturers test their product for short-term safety. Most studies focus on product’s performance, and not on the long-term safety of ingredients. If no allergic reactions occur during the testing period, the product is deemed safe for use. Besides, most controversial synthetic ingredients are indirectly linked to many degenerative diseases. Body lotions containing proven carcinogens have not directly shown to directly cause cancer in a simple, straightforward way. In fact, toxic substances in beauty products may never show to directly cause disease. This happens for several reasons. First, toxic contaminants in a single bottle of shampoo are present in relatively small amounts. Only a lifelong study can prove their effects over decades of daily use. Second, toxins in cosmetic products work slowly, behind the scenes, compromising our health at an invisible cellular level. Third, we are exposed to hundreds of carcinogens every day. That’s why when the damage is done, it’s hard to pinpoint one risk factor. Could it be the nitrites in your favorite ham or hot dogs? Could it be the parabens in sunscreen lotions? Could it be a second-hand smoke? Or a pill? To effectively prove the damaging effects of toxic skincare on our health, we would have to find a perfectly healthy woman who lives in a pristine organic countryside, and I truly doubt she would agree to slather paraben-loaded lotions and 1,4-dioxane contaminated body washes just to prove that these ingredients do have negative effect on woman’s health.

Q. How did conventional beauty companies respond to your research?

Julie. It’s hard to generalize. Some have reached out to engage with me. I’ve chatted with a few well-known cosmetic makers who took objection to some of the things I said about their ingredients. Chemical industry is obviously not very fond of me. They’re the people who make the parabens, propylene glycol, triethanolamine, lead-containing dyes, and I have received an email offering me to ditch the book for certain compensation. So far it hasn’t been an overly hostile relationship, and, you know, as a journalist I feel obliged to engage with anyone I write about and give them a chance to respond and tell me where I got it wrong. So it hasn’t been litigious. Then, there have been offers to buy my blog, thegreenbeautyguide.com, but again, nothing too hostile. I am open to constructive criticism because I believe it can lead to some interesting changes in the people’s perception of green.

Q. What makes a beauty product truly green?

Julie. It’s a product that contains no harmful synthetic ingredients such as paraben preservatives, ethoxylated compounds (anything that has an -eth in the name, for example, ceteareth, laureth, and so on), artificial fragrances, dyes, or petrochemicals of all sorts. If it’s a fair-trade product, then I would expect it to actually benefit the lives of producers in third world countries. But most importantly, the truly green beauty product would have an honest ingredients list. I must be absolutely sure that the manufacturer didn’t cut corners and added some synthetic bulk in order to save a dollar or two, especially when it comes to baby skincare. Unfortunately, today, as consumer advocates scrutinize more products and dig up some very unpleasant truths about once-innocent body washes and lip glosses, it becomes increasingly hard to find a brand that you can trust. That’s why I hope that green beauty manufacturers finally agree on some golden standard of organic purity that all of them would be happy about.

Do you think that “green” ideas became a matter of fashion, and they will go out of style in a couple of years?

Julie. I think that we will gradually make green a part of our lifestyle. As we learn more about the toxic load accumulating in us, we will be more willing to explore less toxic alternatives to our favourite foods, drinks, shampoos, diapers, gasoline, you name it. Going green requires a bit of effort. But my argument is that it’s well worth it, that choosing a healthier skincare, shampoos, makeup, devoting more resources to it will reward you in feeling better about yourself and feeling generally healthier. Green is a cultural shift and more and more people are realizing that we have to change the way we live our lives.

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