Friday, August 31, 2007

Do you really want to know?

In my research over the last several weeks about skin care products I have come upon some fascinating information - ranging from mildly interesting to completely shocking. I was never one to consider what exactly I was putting on my body....as long as it was under $10. Oil of Olay was getting a little crazy for me. Before starting Arbonne, it never really mattered to me or occurred to me to think about what the products contained.

Well today I am going to share with you a dirty little secret called "rendering plants". I had never heard of such places and when I first learned of them I was a little suspicious and decided to do my own research on the matter. Rendering plants, do in fact, exist. What is so disgusting about them?

A rendering plant is a place where animals, not in our food chain, are taken to be ground up and "cooked". These animals include roadkill, euthanized pets (including their collars, tags etc), farm animals, spoiled grocery meat (including the packaging) etc. As you know when you cook a chicken, the sticky fatty stuff comes to the top. This is called tallow. So when they boil these animals, they take the tallow and sell it. The first people to buy tallow? Cosmetic and skin care companies.

Tallow is used in cosmetics because it is cheap. It is also a binding agent and makes products smooth and creamy. You average bar of soap is primarily made of tallow. Look at the ingredients in your medicine chest. Alot of times it comes up as "sodium tallowate". Lipstick is often a major culprit - almost entirely tallow in many cases.

Another thing to be aware of is that anything you put on your skin takes an average of 26 seconds to reach your blood stream. What you put on your body can be found in your blood and organs. This never had occurred to me, had never been something I had cared about. But now I have small kids and these things are starting to matter. The FDA does not control what we put in our skin care and cosmetics. That means it is up to us to determine what is healthy for our lives.

If you want to do your own research, and please do, go ahead and google "rendering plants". Or you can take a look here.

I had someone ask about products without tallow, and of course, Arbonne is one of those companies. If you want to know more, please let me know.

12 comments:

Dr.John said...

Thanks a lot! No I am afraid to wash my face.

Mrs. Schmitty said...

Okay...ewwwww. In your research did you find any skin care and cosmetic lines that DON'T do this?

Drywall Mom said...

When I went to school to get my eastheticians liscence, I learned all about that. Even the products for clinique, or elizabeth arden are not even the best that you can get.

I use G.M. Collins, it's expensive but I don't have to worry about where the product is comeing from. Go to your local upscale spa and ask what they recommend, they will hopefully use a good product.

Caro said...

Ewwww. I don't dare to go read about it.

Ignorance is bliss, right?

The Domesticator said...

Yuck, yuck yuck!!!
I almost wish I didn't know that. Hmmm....better go check out my Mary Kay stuff....although I love it so much!

Anonymous said...

YUCK! I knew afterbirth was used in make up. But not road kill! Sick!

I got your email and wanna let you know I haven't used the samples yet. I just got home from the hospital the other day and my routine is all screwed up. When I get back on track I plan to use the samples and will let you know how I liked them. Thanks again!

OhTheJoys said...

This is the first time I have ever felt good about my lack of beauty secrets!

Mz.Elle said...

They put the same crap in our pets FOOD! Yep,our kitties and doggies are eating other pets and all the other crap you mentioned.

Jen Hill said...

Wow! This is an amazing blog Ginger and I love your recipe blog as well. Looks like we have some things in common, thanks for sharing good information. Keep up the good work, I am a "Desperate Housewife" as well!
Jen

Anonymous said...

As you can imagine, I've read all about this stuff. What's funny to me is that you'd be so concerned about what is going on your body and not what is going in it. To each their own, I suppose, but if you think this is gross, take a look at something like gelatin or rennet or any number of other things that you'd probably find in a lot of the foods you feed yourself.

Drywall Mom said...

If you don't want to spend as much on products from what I said, you might like to try to Orgins store. Everything is natural and it is really good stuff. I am actually starting to buy most of my things from there.

NH Yocal said...

Yikes! I have been meaning to check stuff like this out. Now I am going to be a little more particular about what I put on my face! I have a friend who works at a cosmetic company, boy do I need to talk to him.