Sometimes trying to figure out how to find safe personal care products and what ingredients to avoid can be overwhelming. Depending on where you look, you might even find conflicting information that will only aggravate the headache you’ve developed in the process of your search. Below, I’ve provided a list of helpful resources that break down the details for us in a palatable way.

Health Canada’s Consumer Product Safety website on Cosmetics and Personal Care. This website is crucial if you want to know how cosmetics are classified and regulated in Canada. It also provides a “Hotlist” of ingredients banned from use.

Guide to Less Toxic Products developed by the Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia.
This site compiles an extensive list of common hazardous chemicals found in beauty products and explains why they are problematic. It also ranks and recommends a wide range of natural product brands for eye and face make-up, hair care, feminine hygiene and much more.

Originally posted on TheThunderbird.ca. Read the rest here.

Every other Thursday I profile a new incredible woman, each from a different walk of life. Different professions, causes, backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations, and anything/everything else!

So without further delay, let me introduce the awesome Erin Robinson…

Creating independent games since 2005, Erin Robinson’s work has been featured by both Boing Boing and PC Gamer UK. Erin has also spoken at multiple conferences, including GDC where she, along with Heather Kelley, presented the winning design in the annual Game Design Challenge last year. Erin’s game Nanobots was a much-lauded indie title, and she is now working on the casual adventure game Puzzle Bots. She’s most definitely a Shameless Woman.
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This Saturday, March 27 at 8:30pm (local time), people around the world will be turning off their lights for one hour in support of climate change awareness.

But that’s just the beginning. Every hour, Canadians are taking small steps to lessen their impact on the environment. From hanging your clothes to dry to taking transit to work, those small steps add up to huge changes for the better.
– Earth Hour 2010 Canada

What do you think about Earth Hour? Will you be participating? Is this an effective form of action, or it is an excuse to pay attention for one hour per year and then ignore the problems? What else do you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

What’s in your make-up kit? And how many of those beauty products do you use in a day? Give or take a few products, my usual morning regime involves body lotion, tinted moisturizer, mascara, hair mold, and sometimes bronzer or eyeliner if I’m feeling so inclined. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of other women, particularly young women, also reach my daily average.

What concerns me is that most beauty products contain parabens, a type of preservative used to extend the shelf life of cosmetics and prevent them from developing mold. But, what concerns me more are recent studies suggesting parabens may pose human health risks.

Originally posted on TheThunderbird.ca. Read the rest here.

Busting Out is a professional theatre program for GIRLS aged 12 to 16. Its goal is to provide a forum for young women, through a series of theatre-based workshops, discussion and collective creation. The participants of the program will have the opportunity to work with professional playwrights, actors and directors on their own Writing Project, as well as a public presentation of their own creation. Professional artists will lead the girls in classes, which include playwriting, acting, improvisation and spoken word. Out is an exciting and unique program opportunity for teenage girls. CREATIVE, THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND FUN!
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Picture from flickr user kuuipo1207

The living’s green and pretty in Vancouver, again named “the most liveable city in the world.” Just about every cosmetic product comes in a greenwashed or health-friendly option: there’s paraben-free lotion, deodorant without aluminum, and nail polish sans formaldehyde! I’ve spent a year trying to pick safe, personal care products that work, and I’m still confused about which ones I should avoid.

Sarah Dickson, the body care buyer at Capers Whole Foods Market in Kitsilano, puts it to me simply, “I’d like to be able to eat all my make-up if I had to.” Our bodies absorb most of what we put on our skin, and we can’t always break down that material she explains. If it’s not safe to eat, don’t put it on you is the idea.

The problem is many people don’t understand the meaning of the often hard to pronounce substances found on long ingredients lists, let alone their potentially harmful effects.

Originally posted on TheThunderbird.ca. Read the rest here.

This is just a reminder that you have less than one week to put your name forward to join Team Shameless. Here’s a reminder of what we’re looking for:

Shameless magazine, Canada’s independent, feminist voice for young women and trans youth, is expanding its editorial team. Are you devoted to grassroots publishing? Do you have a commitment to anti-oppression and inclusive feminist politics? Do you have some time to volunteer and a vision for Shameless? Then we need you.

We are looking for smart, sassy, shameless people to fill the following roles:

• A Managing Editor, who will oversee the magazine’s editorial production, assign and edit stories, work with writers and collaborate with editorial staff.
• A Web Editor, who will develop projects and content for the website, coordinate our community blog, and develop a link between the print and online components of the magazine.
• Associate Editors, to assign and edit stories and work with writers.

(more inside…)

Every other Thursday I profile a new incredible woman, each from a different walk of life. Different professions, causes, backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations, and anything/everything else!

So without further delay, let me introduce the wonderful Andrea Thompson…

A popular performer at venues and festivals across North America, Andrea Thompson is a pioneer of the Canadian Slam Poetry scene. Her work has been featured on film, radio, and television; as well as been included in magazines, literary journals and anthologies across Canada. Her Spoken Word CD One, was nominated for a Canadian Urban Music Award in 2005 and she was the host of season 2 of the 13 part television series, Heart of a Poet (Bravo TV, 2007). On top of all that, she’s this week’s Shameless Woman.
(more inside…)

As members of CKUT‘s feminist radio collective, my Venus co-hosts and I were asked to program a special set today on the show New Shit for International Women’s Day, on women musicians we love and who’ve inspired us. We ended up having a great time just playing records and chatting about women we admire, so I thought I’d post a link so you can hear the songs and stories we’ve been throwing down.

Click here to listen.

You’ll be hearing our heroes Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush, Patti Smith, Wendy O. Williams, Sleater-Kinney, Le Tigre, Hole, Secret Trial Five, Mary J. Blige, Gina X, Heart, Las Grecas, and The Flying Lizards.

And that’s just the beginning… okay, that’s the whole hour. But as far as amazing women musicians go, they’re a drop in the bucket.

Our Venusian ancestors.