EP 27 - PRODUCT SAFETY & LOWERING YOUR TOXIC LOAD
This week on Get Your Shit Together…
🧡 How do the products you use affect your overall health?
🧡 The bone we have to pick with “clean beauty”
🧡 When and how to audit your routine and home without overwhelm
🧡 Our favorite products in every category: beauty, skincare, kitchen, home
Resources & Good Shit
Episodes
What We’re Consuming: Food
Adina is loving matbucha, a delicious spicy and smoky tomato dip – coming soon to a GYST Mini Course Cookbook near you.
Diane entered a friendly chili cook off with white chicken chili. Are you team beans or no beans?
What We’re Consuming: Media
We’re almost done with Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu)!
Other Good Shit
Feeling batty? Grab Diane’s 3D bat decals to spook out your house.
We both loveeee the super emollient, peptide packed Supreme Cream from Beautycounter for our fall/winter moisturizer. A little goes a really long way!
For a spesh occasion Adina loves the Beautycounter Color Intense Lipsticks! SO pigmented, smooth, and moisturizing.
Diane is loving the Tower 28 cream blush (shades Golden Hour and Power Hour) and looking forward to trying the new refillable cream blush from Beautycounter.
Beautycounter got rid of a lot of their color cosmetics + concealer…womp womp. For those Diane loves Ilia Beauty, and is eying this eyeshadow palette from Athr Beauty.
Back breakouts or keratosis pilaris? Diane loves Kosas Good Body Skin wash, recommended by our friend Genny B! It gently, chemically exfoliates with AHAs and enzymes!
Adina’s go-to warm weather body wash is the Charcoal Cleansing Bar from Beautycounter. It lasts forever! She also had success with Branch Basics for her body wash when she had eczema flares.
Speaking of Branch Basics… the concentrate is our mutual favorite for safer household cleaning products, hand soap, laundry detergent and more! We love that they now have refillable glass bottles! Use this link for $10 off your Branch Basics order.
We’ve tried SO many nAtUrAl deodorants, but it’s hard to beat Primally Pure Charcoal Deodorant (Diane’s ride or die - use code DITEA or this link for 10% off your order) or the refillable, refreshing Clean Deos from Beautycounter.
Sometimes you just want a beautiful, sassy conventional mani ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Diane’s everyday safer faves: Zoya and Dazzle Dry! They both have a wide color selection and long wear time.
Adina says the Always Pan from Our Place is worth the hype for safer non-stick pans!
Tune into the episode for more of our brand and product favorites!
Connect with Adina:
Instagram: @adinarubin_
Website: www.adinarubincoaching.com
Strength Training for Happy Hormones: Click here to enroll in STHH!
Connect with Diane
Instagram: @dianeteall
Website: www.diteawellness.com
Root Cause Reset: www.rcrprogram.com
Transcript
Transcript was auto-generated! There may be some errors, but you get the…GYST 😜
Adina: 0:33
What's up shitheads.
Diane: 0:39
There it is very on brand.
Adina: 0:41
Is that what we call the people who listened to this show right out the gate.
Diane: 0:49
Sasha has,
Adina: 0:50
Sup,
Diane: 0:51
as someone's offended, may I direct them towards the name of our show and it's all in good fun.
Adina: 0:57
we love you guys. Um,
Diane: 0:59
stirs that doesn't hit the same
Adina: 1:02
No, it doesn't. Here's the thing, friends we've been waiting to start recording for like a half hour and
Diane: 1:11
impatiently waiting. We should say.
Adina: 1:13
impatiently waiting the lawn mower, the leaf blower. They're out to get me, just enjoy the background noise. I just can't cut it all out. We'll do our best, but away we go, Diane, what's up.
Diane: 1:31
well, you might hear a pitter patter, a pitter patter of the rain on our windows here. I mean, if it's not lawnmower equipment, it's Doug snoring dog. You got, you can't sleep on your back, bro. He's so cute. I know that they can't see, but I don't want to wake the sleeping pug baby. So there's always something going on over here. I do have some good news this morning went to the dentist for the first time in four years. I know, but I brush my teeth. I'm told to aggressively because ouchie, while all my gums, I philosophy. Do that first, otherwise it's like taking a shower and then taking a poop. Like you got to do the flossing first and then brush your teeth. But 32 years cavity free. I'm so excited about that. I've never had a cavity on wood. Maybe, maybe it's all the milk, all the minerals, nutrient dense food and the flossing. Of course, that has something to do with it, I imagine. But they had this wall in my new dentist office. It's this holistic dentist. Their next development
Adina: 2:34
named
Diane: 2:36
is that parks and rec.
Adina: 2:37
No, it's the office when I'm Dwight.
Diane: 2:41
though in parks and rec. That's a
Adina: 2:42
Yeah. Jams, jams. A dentist. Yeah. Jeremy jam, um, in the office, Dwight is going behind Michael's back to have that meeting with Jan. And so he comes back and tells him that he was at the dentist and Michael says, what's your dentist's name? And he says, current dust. And he says, that sounds a lot like dentist and Dwight says, maybe that's why he became a dentist.
Diane: 3:11
My, my boss, let me have that, that time off this morning. And it wasn't crunches the dentist, but they had this picture wall and it's all these smiling, little cutie kids and these Polaroids, it's the no cavity club. And so I was all excited and the receptionist is like, did you get your picture taken? And then another hygienist times. And I was like, there's an age cutoff. It's just for kids. And I'm thinking, whoa, okay. Like eight years, cavity free. Not that impressive. Like you just got your teeth out. Not that long ago. I've been around for 32 years and we don't have cavity. So I might just slip my little picture on the wall next time.
Adina: 3:45
You should come back just with a photo of yourself, smiling on the
Diane: 3:50
We forgot. This just don't mind me. I'm not here for an appointment because the next available appointment is February, February. That's the next time that someone get their little chompers in there. So those are my good news, my good things. What about you?
Adina: 4:06
Well, I feel like I should give the people a little update on Minnie's sleep situation because I'm sure there are some moms listening who are also tearing their hair out, trying to get a four-year-old to stay in their bed. So. I very much try to implement as much respectful parenting as I can. But it's really hard when you're exhausted and your kid is just coming out of their bed to remain respectful and to have an interaction that's going to encourage the health and safety of the whole family. I E everyone getting sleep because that is our top priority here. So anyways, a couple of things that we have been trying that have actually been making a little bit of a difference is instead of just putting me to sleep and then just kind of waiting to see what happens. We started telling her that we're going to come check on her in certain short amount of time increments, and as much as it's annoying and it lengthens our bedtime routine a little bit. I think it really provides for her that safety of knowing that we are coming back in there and it's not like, oh, I just have to be in my bed by myself now till the morning
Diane: 5:13
is she getting scared or she's just bored and like,
Adina: 5:15
I think she's bored. And sometimes lonely, I think the school transition and her being out of the house for longer was probably a really big deal considering, you know, we kept her home last year and just everything. So I'm sure she's going through a lot. And the transition to being potty trained overnight, like th there's a lot of big changes that happened for her in a short span of time. So I'm trying to really be respectful of that and to understand that this is so challenging for her, but anyways, like the language of, okay, I'll be back to check on you in 10 minutes. Don't come out of your bed. Just try and rest. Think of this. Think of happy, whatever, you know, if she was stressed out, but, um, that language around coming back and checking on you. Just wait here till I come back in 10 minutes and giving her really like manageable increments of time has really helped. And sometimes we'll come back in those 10 minutes and she'll be out cold already. And so that's been nice. Um, and then the other thing I did was set up a little morning station for her. So Minnie loves to listen to music. She always has. We have,
Diane: 6:17
I think I want a morning station.
Adina: 6:19
it's really cute. I set up this whole little cozy corner with like pillows and a blanket on the landing of our stairs. And I put Alexa up there and I plug it into her headphones. And I told her if the sun is up and mommy and daddy are still sleeping, come here, your water's here are your pillows are here, Alexa is here, put on the music you want and just lounge. And I got to post a picture it's so cute. She just like sucks her thumb and laser and listens to her jams. It's just really cute. But anyways, we are still struggling in moments, but those are some things that have made a big difference for us.
Diane: 6:52
station. That's the cutest thing ever. And just a little morning routine. We all would benefit from something like that. Neal. Very early and on Saturday or Sundays, he'll wake up sometimes at 6:00 AM, but it's just entirely too early. So if Diane's still sleep,
Adina: 7:11
Here you go, Neil. Here's where you
Diane: 7:12
had, his morning station is playing on his computer or like playing a game and listening to something with headphones on. So it's kind of similar,
Adina: 7:20
Kind of similar. We all need that morning station. All right, Diane, tell us what are you consuming on the food side of things?
Diane: 7:27
on the food side of things. We went to a chili cook-off this
Adina: 7:31
cute.
Diane: 7:32
my friend tops, you it's like you eat chili. And I said, why wouldn't I eat chili? And she's like beans. And I know this might be a polarizing question, but I'm curious to anyone listening. Do you put beans in your chili or not? Because I think that you can have a perfectly good chili without beans. I don't mind the great Northern beans or cannellini beans, but I'd rather just have different meats instead of.
Adina: 7:56
an, I'm a no bean chili kind of gal.
Diane: 7:58
Good. Okay. We're on the same page. Yeah,
Adina: 8:01
a, this is a Jewish dive for those Jewish listeners. I am a no bean cholent as well. I think beans in cholent is disgusting. So for those okay. For those who are not familiar, remember that we can't cook on shabbos so what became tradition was cholent or some more Sephardic cultures call it chamim or things like that. And basically. stew I guess that you put up in a Crock-Pot before Shabazz starts on Friday, and then you eat it for lunch on Saturday. So it's basically some sort of soft meat. So usually like a short rib, we call it a flanken cut, which I don't know if you would recognize that in a, at a non-kosher Busher, but it's basically a short rib and
Diane: 8:50
big old shark.
Adina: 8:51
yeah. Short ribs and some people will do pastrami or people do all kinds of things, but in my
Diane: 8:56
Tendy
Adina: 8:57
yeah, something nice and tender in my house. It was always short ribs, barley, but I use brown rice because I don't do so well with glutinous, grains and potatoes, these big soft potatoes that just like stew in there forever. And then people. Season it up or sauce it up. However they want, some people put like ketchup, barbecue sauce, hot sauce, that kind of thing in it. Some people just go water and spices. Um, you can make it more of like a Moroccan flair, which is kind of what my mom started doing with more of like raz el hanut as a spice in there and cinnamon things like that.
Diane: 9:33
And with some cinnamon, I have a Moroccan cookbook from a book sale library, book sale, and I really want to make the, I know it can be pigeon pie, but you can also use their poultry in it. So good and cook things in a tagine
Adina: 9:48
yeah. So that is chullent and yeah, I am no beans all the way on that.
Diane: 9:53
I can only need beans maybe, but I'd rather just have other chunks of vegetables in there. So we went to a cook-off. I thought everyone was a winner because there were some delicious options there. We did a white chicken chili, which I definitely loves. That's what we're consuming over here. What about you
Adina: 10:08
So it's funny. We mentioned Moroccan spices today. My what am I consuming is actually. Something, I believe to be Moroccan inspired as well. And that is matbucha, it's a like spicy, slow cooked tomato dip. And I think we should add it to the gyst mini course cookbook because it's so good. Yeah. I've posted a picture of my plate with it on it before, and people are like, what is that?
Diane: 10:33
tomato dip. So is it, um, not very thin as it kind of like a thick, thick dip?
Adina: 10:39
I'm gonna, after we hop off, I'll show you it on, on the
Diane: 10:42
Send me some pictures.
Adina: 10:44
But yeah, basically what I do is I put, so it's, I think it originated in like north Africa, Morocco type areas. It's very popular in Israel because there are a lot of Jewish immigrants from those countries. And so it's served alongside a bread course. It's. referred to as like salatim, these like small salads that you serve. So it would be like hummus or hummus. If that's the pronunciation you're familiar with my like other little spicy salads that you can dip some bread into. And so I love to make this for shabbos and we serve it with our bread when we start the meal. And basically I take two boxes of crushed tomatoes and just put them over heat for about an hour and let them really cook down. And then I char peppers. So I like to do jalapenos and poblanos. Cause I like it smoky and spicy.
Diane: 11:39
do you do it over your, um, guests?
Adina: 11:42
I actually just do it under the broiler inside the oven is that tends to be easier for me. So I just put a tray of peppers in the oven and char them up, put them in a stash or bag. So they steam up and you can peel the skin off, chop them up, put them in there and then I just do it down for like an hour until it gets really thick and sweet. And then this is a very interesting technique at the end of the cooking time, you take all of oil and you bloom paprika in there, like a ton of smoky paprika. And so you have this paprika oil and you just pour it over the top and stir it in and it is so good.
Diane: 12:17
that sounds delicious. And I imagine you have some like homemade crackers that you
Adina: 12:21
Yeah. Or my homemade gluten-free my gluten-free sourdough. It's delicious with that.
Diane: 12:26
Yum. Yum. Well, let's definitely put that in the gyst mini course cookbook or if you were following along, rewind it back. Rewind.
Adina: 12:34
Rewind.
Diane: 12:35
Yeah. Rewind. This is a VHS. Get the
Adina: 12:38
that's what you do. What would you say? Go back,
Diane: 12:41
Yeah. Run it
Adina: 12:42
back 15 seconds.
Diane: 12:44
Yeah. Yeah.
Adina: 12:45
rewind when you're talking about a podcast, what do you think?
Diane: 12:49
no dirt there. All right now, what are we consuming on a media front? Please tell me if somebody other than Gilmore girls. Cause I might scream.
Adina: 12:57
I actually, so we started nine perfect strangers, and I forgot that we did also start the morning show last week and I didn't mention it cause I think it was not worth mentioning season one of the morning show. It was great. Loved it really enjoyed it. Season two, like I enjoyed the first episode, but I didn't need to go back and watch the second one. I feel like there were a lot of shows last year that I felt like could have been contained in one season and they got renewed and I was just like, did we need, did we need another one?
Diane: 13:29
the morning show. I don't think I even watched season one, but noted.
Adina: 13:33
Yeah.
Diane: 13:33
Oh, Jennifer Aniston. Is this an apple TV situation? Okay. Yeah, I don't have that. I hear I'm missing out on Ted LA lasso.
Adina: 13:42
you though? I like it. I same thing like season one really enjoyed it. I don't know. I like the characters. I'm not like running back to it. I know that is a controversial take. It is the way I phrased Ted lasso is that it's like Disney channel for adults.
Diane: 13:58
I was at to wholesome. I know that's something I ask often, but I guess I don't like
Adina: 14:03
it's not just wholesome. It's like some of the jokes are like a little, um, contri, I guess, like, it just feels like Disney channel. I don't know if that call resonates with anyone else, but I enjoy it. The characters are fun. I really like Keely. She's like a really cute character. love Keelee, um, love, roy kent like, there's some fun characters, but it's not, I don't need to keep watching it. Like when it's on, I'm like, okay, this is enjoyable. Anyways, we started nine. Perfect strangers. Here are the things I have to say.
Diane: 14:31
I'm so
Adina: 14:32
Number one. Love Bobby Cannavale and specifically I love Bobby Kaanapali and Melissa McCarthy together. Did you watch spy that movie?
Diane: 14:44
I don't think so. I'm noticing that she's in a lot of things that are popping up though.
Adina: 14:48
She's also in a bunch of things with Bobby kind of volley. So Bobby kind of Ali and Melissa McCarthy are an amazing combo pack. If you haven't watched spy. It's one of those movies that I watched on a plane. Cause I love watching bad movies on a plane. Dani always makes fun of me, but it actually was great. Like it was one of those movies that was better than it had to be. And yeah, just love, love Bobby kind of Ali like love him.
Diane: 15:14
I need to know what you think of Nicole Kidman as this like creepy Chama. And I don't know what she would call herself, but
Adina: 15:22
Yeah, I don't know. And also that Russian accent is just not doing it for me.
Diane: 15:26
not doing it. I think I wondered what you think about that after you mentioned that her American accent sometimes is a little off, her Russian accent was almost comical. It was giving me like Tom Hanks in terminal
Adina: 15:39
Yeah. It was not doing it for me, but a couple of things. I really like, like you had mentioned the cinematography is awesome. The slow zoom ins really remind me of like Sam Esmail. I don't know if you're familiar with his work, like, um, Mr. Robot and
Diane: 15:54
no, but that's Rami. Malik love him.
Adina: 15:56
yeah. Mr. Robot. And, a homecoming?
Diane: 16:00
I don't know about Regina hall. She was, um, I think she's the one that gets a little aggressive on that show sometimes. Like when she starts tripping,
Adina: 16:09
yeah,
Diane: 16:10
she was in girl's trip, which is hilarious. Highly recommend. If you enjoyed hangover, I mean, this is like hangover, but for women and bless bad jokes,
Adina: 16:21
Yeah, but Sam as smell also homecoming, which was Julia Roberts. I don't know if you watch that highly recommend homecoming. It's like spooky, creepy, Which actually homecoming also Bobby kind Bali. So some interesting threads here. Diane, what are you consuming?
Diane: 16:43
Well, almost done with nine perfect strangers, but I was almost like tabling it to wait for you to get off your Gilmore girls, not to that one, but over here, I think this is also on your list or Dani's list is the guilty on Netflix with Jake Gyllenhaal. Interesting. And if you recall Colin Farrell and phone booth, it's kind of like that in that year, you're following him as a 9 1 1 operator. It was okay.
Adina: 17:11
I will say the trailer was great. You watch that trailer and you're like, I want to watch this
Diane: 17:18
it seems like it's going to give you a lot of action, right? It's something to have on maybe as a move. Like if you have a movie chore, you're doing laundry. That's okay. It's in the top 10 right now. We already talked about squid game, which is also, I think, in your queue that I
Adina: 17:31
Dani movie cheated on me with squid game, by the
Diane: 17:33
Oh, he started with that.
Adina: 17:34
Yeah, he was like, you're not going to like it. It's too stressful.
Diane: 17:38
I don't know if you will, but I am curious what people think would be in the American squid games. So you might, I'm sure people are familiar with the premise by now, but I think heads up seven up musical chairs as maybe the final game. Yeah. It gets really intense. Daniel. I'm curious. Donnie's takes, but we've also got through it. We also got through midnight mass, so that's a little spooky. If you watched haunting of hill house, you might be into it. And there was this creepy things going on on this little island and their priest is also like creepy. And there's a reason for that. It's a limited series, not too scary.
Adina: 18:17
are you one of those people that likes to crank up the spooky, like Halloween season?
Diane: 18:21
I wasn't really historically, and sometimes the things get too uncomfy for me. I get like my pits get too sweaty from anticipating what's going to happen on a show or movie. Leave the room I come back, but we have been putting up around our house, lots of like Halloween decor, Neil made a Halloween wreath, which was so precious and I put up some bats. So we're kind of getting into it this year for whatever reason.
Adina: 18:46
All right. That's cute.
Diane: 18:47
Yeah,
Adina: 18:49
All right. Shall we, shall we get into the meat?
Diane: 18:54
Yes, let's do it.
Adina: 18:56
All right. So on today's episode of gyst, we were talking all about product safety, lowering your toxic load. I think we tend to forget how many products we come into contact with throughout our day, whether that's skincare, household, cleaning products, things that are just kind of in the air, whether that's in your home or in environments that you go into. The thing is like, some people are more sensitive to these products than others, but whether or not you are sensitive to them, they are impacting your health. And so today we're going to talk through our approach to product safety, lowering your toxic load, how important this is, who is this important for? And some practical tips for making some of those swaps, what order we recommend doing that in, and just kind of talking you through what this can look like for you and your.
Diane: 19:57
Yeah. And as we do with all things, I think you'll find that we want to bring more nuance to this and take some of the overwhelm away for you, because perhaps you are not new to this holistic space where you're just dabbling and you're realizing, oh my gosh, there's so many ingredients, whether that be in a food label, ingredients label, or now in products, like where does it end? Right. So you might be faced with overwhelm or maybe you historically have been in that all or nothing space. So you think I need to empty out my bathroom. Getting rid of all your different products, but you don't necessarily need to do that. Or maybe here's some things to think about. There are also some things that we'll chat about that might, uh, deviate from some other conversations in the holistic space, because as you've heard us talk about diet culture, we're not about being all black and white or good versus bad, clean and dirty. So just some things to think about and ways to lower your overall stress load. If that's what it's all.
Adina: 20:55
Yeah, I think when I first got started in this space, historically I found myself very trapped in that black and white sinking. I think if I was around. Conventional products, even in someone else's home, it would freak me out. Once I really started to learn this information. And granted, when I was really struggling with hand eczema, I would have to be quite picky even in other people's homes.
Diane: 21:18
right. Well, your stress bucket runneth over, which I think we have talked about in earlier episodes.
Adina: 21:24
yeah.
Diane: 21:25
load is, is physical stressors, mental, emotional, environmental, all of that adds up. And if you're in the midst of a symptom flare, whether that's eczema or your allergies are really giving you how, like, those are times where maybe in that healing phase, it's beneficial to reign things in a little further, but it's not a place to stay. Would you agree? Right
Adina: 21:44
yeah,
Diane: 21:45
all phases?
Adina: 21:47
totally. And again, if your alarms, if your symptoms tend to be skin allergy, those types of things, then those topicals and those environmental things can be really big triggers for you. Whereas if someone's. Symptoms are more gut hormonal. You might not necessarily notice that immediate need to swap out topicals and swap out aerosolized products, things that get sprayed into the air. Um, but again, if you're struggling with things like skin allergies,
Diane: 22:19
Although, if you're struggling with allergies, especially for my clients who have really bad hay fever, ragweed, like I think that just kind of pass for us where we live. Um, that end up seasoned crud. They had a lot of flares then, um, but with significant environmental allergies, food, sensitivities, and allergies that tells us that that gut needs some loving, I need some healing support and functional support. Um, but for immediate symptom relief, things that will cause you to get all stuffy, to feel irritated for your skin to break out. And it's really short-term, there is a benefit to removing those things. The long-term opportunity is to work on that gut.
Adina: 23:01
Yeah. I was saying more that like, obviously we know that gut needs attention, but if your symptoms are largely gut focused, digestive issues, things like that, that you might not feel that immediate need to work on personal care products in the same way that someone who experiences rashes, itchiness, breakouts, sneezing, coughing, like those types of itchy eyes, allergy symptoms might feel that immediate relief from some of the changes we're going to talk about today.
Diane: 23:31
yeah, this conversation, this topic is especially relevant for women listening to the show, because generally speaking, we use more products, personal care, makeup, skincare, haircare in contrast, a lot of men like straight men in our life. They're like this bar soap does it all. So maybe they are not using as many of these products. So you might not be thinking about them. And there are some that we put really close to our mouth, like lip products that we need to be aware of. Maybe we're using a lot of different sprays, things like that. So I'll work with women who are seeking to improve their menstrual cycle. And some point in their program, we talk about ways to limit endocrine disruptors or hormone disruptors, because a lot of conventional products out there contain things that could be disrupting your hormones called Xeno estrogens. If you've heard of things like estrogen dominant. Your hormone. If you have a known hormonal imbalance, this is something to think about as you are auditing your team, perhaps not the first place to start, but it really depends on what your symptom and situation.
Adina: 24:38
Yeah. So I think that's important. Like let's back it up for a second and just break down why we're doing this right. We talked about your overall stress load. So you are a bucket and you have a capacity for a certain amount of stressors, whether those are mental, emotional, whether those are coming from food intolerances or irritating foods, highly processed foods, whether those are coming from your skincare, things like that. We also know that some of these products can just be irritating on their own, whether or not you are overrun with those stressors. And some of these products contain things that actually disrupt your hormones. Like when I first started learning about this, it blew my mind. What
Diane: 25:28
Like, surely these things are innocuous and it doesn't matter at all. Right.
Adina: 25:32
it's crazy. How many harmful chemicals have been introduced into the consumer market? Like since world war II, we just had this abundance of chemicals and didn't know what to do with them. So we just started putting them in food and personal care products. And a lot of them are FDA approved and it just kind of stuck there. And what happens is some of these products actually have these components to them that come into your body and act like estrogen in the body. So they bind to your estrogen receptor sites. And can really mess at the balance of your hormones and some of them show up and just increase estrogen in the body. So the thing that's important to talk about here, I know we're going to get into this a little bit later on, but certain like essential oils can have these properties too. I think. Yeah. Like we think so often that it's all things that are man-made that do this. And as long as you're using quote-unquote natural products, you're totally fine, but
Diane: 26:37
is not always the move
Adina: 26:39
right. Natural is kind of a nebulous term, first of all. And second of all, just because something comes from nature, if we're using it in a way it's not designed to be used, or if we're using way more of it than we were ever designed to use in nature, it can shift things in the body. It also depends on what the state is of your gut, your microbiome, your hormones, like what is happening in that body. We need to start kind of paying attention to this. So I know this blew my mind. The first time I heard about it. I know it blows clients' minds. Whenever we talk about this kind of stuff. So hopefully this information can be eye opening to you and can help you navigate some of these decisions.
Diane: 27:19
yes. Before we move on, I know I've made the joke of like straight men using like one bar of soap for anything and everything in the shower. But this conversation isn't just for women, we are in an epidemic of low sperm count and fertility issues that are present in men and fertility and nourishing fertility. Isn't just, a woman's job. Um, this is something that couples should consider together. And so men need to be cognizant of this and what they're putting on their bodies as well.
Adina: 27:50
Yeah. And I know in my house, this is true. And in a lot of homes around the country, in the world, this is true. If it's not true for you, that's fine too. But in my home, like I, the woman of this house, I'm the gatekeeper of this house. And so I love, you know, one of the reasons I love working with moms is because I feel like moms often can change the health of their entire home with decisions that they make. And so if we are considering the plummeting numbers of fertile sperm in our nation right now, It can be so powerful. If you can make a decision to shift things in your home that can better the health of your whole family. So I know we had talked about maybe pulling this figure out, but we didn't get a chance to do that. I've seen predictions that like 90% of men are going to be completely infertile by like 2030. I don't know
Diane: 28:48
what,
Adina: 28:49
yeah, you have.
Diane: 28:50
well, if the check that one.
Adina: 28:50
I know we gotta, we gotta look up some, some figures here, but whatever it is, our sperm count is as a nation is plummeting and a lot of the estrogens are in our environment and a lot of the hormone disruptors in our environment, whether that's food, whether that's personal care products is certainly a contributing factor. So.
Diane: 29:11
I've worked with some, uh, one-on-one male clients in the past too, and have had several conversations about testosterone over converting into estrogen. And we're under collectively under a lot of stress too. So that needs to be considered and their overall stress load. I like what you said about moms kind of being the gatekeeper. That was the case in my family. And I know there, it's not to say that there can't be more of like an egalitarian household, but oftentimes there are moms who are making the menu for their kiddos and they're deciding which products come in because maybe their partner just doesn't care or they have like other responsibilities. But yeah, just some things to think about as we head into this now, next we want to talk a little bit about some of the buzz words you may have heard. If you have looked around even loosely in this space or considered cleaning up, gosh, I still hate that term cleaning up your routine. So first up you probably heard about clean beauty, clean skincare, clean cleaning products. So let's talk about that. Our stance here, clean makeup is to beauty as clean foods are to diet culture sometimes. And I know this is a hot buzzword. I do like that this movement is helping people think about ingredients, but we want to be careful about falling again into. Good trap versus bad trap, because if you're not using clean beauty, are you using dirty beauty? Are you dirty? And I just really hate that language, the clean, bad, the cheat, the on plant, like all of that.
Adina: 30:46
Yeah, you've heard us talk about this before in the context of food. But even when I worked in the substance abuse space, this was something that came up a lot, lots of clients who are describing their own experience using drugs versus not using drugs will say I am clean, or when I wasn't clean. And one of my supervisors in one of the inpatient facilities I was working in was so conscious of reframing this language, because it really makes that big shift when we stop using language of clean and the implication of the opposite is dirty or something wrong with it. Yeah, we'd prefer a lower toxic load for everyone, but it's so easy to get stuck in that black and white thinking and to add unnecessary stress to your decision-making, if you're in a place where they don't have the options that you would prefer. And I think removing. language from this conversation can help us to be more accepting of ourselves when we make those other decisions. And maybe it's not something that's out of your control. Maybe it's just like, you love the way that your hair looks with a certain hairspray and you haven't found a good replacement for it. And you just don't want to think shitty of yourself every time you use it, you know?
Diane: 32:04
And punishing shame yourself. I see that way too often. And that's why I start. I, when I first got into safer products, I guess, for lack of better words, I thought at first. Oh, I need to find this ideal product. I need to go through EWG or think dirty and make sure that everything I'm using, but then it started to feel kind of overwhelming. And like you talked about earlier, maybe there are times where you, you know, I think we talked about this in a similar food episode. I know I'm in a healing phase right now. And if I use this product on my hands, my hands are gonna be on fire. Of course, maybe you want to be cognizant of some stuff there, but for the rest, are we going to spiral? If we have a product that is not ideal and why are
Adina: 32:48
Or if you, if you go to the nail salon and you forget to bring your own hand lotion, like enjoy the manicure, sit there, let someone else clean your fingernails.
Diane: 32:57
yeah, it doesn't have to be this morality issue every time. And I'll observe online people talking about like the ingredients and splitting hairs sometimes on these things. Like that's a lot of stress.
Adina: 33:10
Yeah. And again, if you are completely new to this information and every single product you use throughout your day has a lot of harmful chemicals, endocrine disrupting chemicals, skin, irritants, environmental irritants. It might be a really great idea to start making. Moves towards swapping some of those out. But if you are a person who has swapped out your entire routine and you're still so hyper stressed out and you can't get better and you can't get your period back, like you are the person we're talking to. When we say let's try to remove some of that language, clean, dirty, I'm horrible. If I use this product that has harmful ingredients in it, um, yeah.
Diane: 33:56
yeah. Similarly to, with the clean terminology. We also have to talk about natural and how things can be very greenwashed. I know that a lot of companies they're, I mean, they're onto this, they know that this is a movement, things that more people are asking for it. And in many ways, that's great. I've seen brands like cover girl that are changing their formulas to have less irritating ingredients. And then, and that's awesome. But then there are others that will just slap natural on a label or organic and think that that's it. I did it all. But then you flip it around and look at the ingredients list and maybe there's fragrance or some other things that are irritating on there as well. So it's, it's not enough to just say natural. What are they really putting inside their product? Just be cognizant of some of that greenwashing
Adina: 34:44
Yeah, I kind of love this and I kind of hate it. Like when I see this is not a product thing, this is a food thing, but now that there's like organic races and stuff, they using that, it, it makes me laugh. Also, it's kind of great that like we, as consumers are communicating, this is a value of ours. Like let's get this market to shift to reflect that. And so it is hard to navigate when something is greenwashing and the label is just has a leaf on it and it says organic and
Diane: 35:18
and it comes in like a cardboard or like a brown
Adina: 35:22
yeah, like a recyclable package. And when it actually is a shift towards better, so it's challenging to navigate in ways. It's great to see because it's allowed and clear message that we are getting our needs communicated to the larger consumer market. But yeah, it makes it tricky to be a consumer. Right. It makes it hard to navigate that and figure out which of these products is actually going to serve my best health. Where can I kind of. Where can I make some swaps? Where do I not necessarily have to make those swaps so
Diane: 36:00
Yeah, I think that, um, an example of greenwashing might be a lush. I remember in college, I loved lush. And you know, when there's a lush in a mall also, haven't been to one of those in a very long time. You can smell it before you see it. And their whole thing is that they're all natural, but. They use a lot of talc or a lot of fragrance in their products, lots of glitter things that are not very environmentally friendly. So that is an, and they also send you on your way with little paper bags for your, your purchase instead of plastic bag, which okay, great. But greenwashing and that the ingredients that they're using are still pretty irritating. I don't recommend using lots of fragrance, bath bombs and sitting in that for a long time, unless you want some yeasty Beasties, maybe you're also taking antibiotics and things too. I've had some, I had clients who were like, wow, this is so irritating for my coochie. And as you
Adina: 36:54
And here's why.
Diane: 36:55
and he was wanting lots of bath bombs. So yeah, green greenwashing can be hard to navigate. That could be a whole course in itself. I'm sure. Another thing to think about is I'll hear this a lot in the natural beauty, the clean beauty spaces, avoid chemicals, avoid chemicals in your skincare and your makeup. Y'all come on. R N everything everything's made of chemicals, everything, but I think what they mean here is let's avoid some harmful chemicals, carcinogens possible, endocrine disruptors, but I guess that's a lot longer to say
Adina: 37:30
Yeah. And also like we were talking about with a natural thing, just because something is manmade doesn't necessarily mean that it's horrible for you. And I think this was something that beauty counter kind of opened my eyes to in that some of these brands that are all natural. And that's how they advertise themselves. They're organic. They're all naturally never use something. Manmade. Everything comes from the earth. Cool, cool, cool. But also, do you have something in there stabilizing your product so that they're not getting moldy because mold is going to be way worse for you then some not harmful manmade stabilizers. So
Diane: 38:13
right. You're putting your fingers in that compact. I definitely have had some natural beauty that, I mean, they, they usually say on the packaging, this expires within like three to four months, six months, and I open something and I was like, that looks suspect that doesn't look like I want to put it I'm a face or that's something to think about too. I love acids and skincare for some chemical exfoliation, but those are if they're derived from fruit. Cool, great. But that doesn't mean that you can just use it Willy nilly. I remember I used a pumpkin glycollic mask from a natural brand. I found at the health food store burn my fucking face off with that thing. That was not for me. It was very strong, but oh, it was all natural. It a pumpkin glycollic man. Yeah, it wasn't. It was intense. So. Natural doesn't always mean better. We mentioned essential oils. I've definitely had clients who are, um, whether they have a sensitivity to, uh, like peppermint or cinnamon or something, and they find that's in their toothpaste. Why is my mouth on fire? You know, like you have to also be aware of essential oils, not being these innocuous things. They can be they're highly concentrated oils or plant derived oils. So something to think about
Adina: 39:29
Yeah, essential oils can be really irritating, especially in a lot of those products that you find in the health food store. They're going to be really poor quality, essential oils. And sometimes they're using that in place a fragrance, which is great. We want to see less of that artificial fragrance because fragrance, if you're not familiar is a garbage term. For whatever kind of cocktail a company wants to put into their product, you do not need to disclose on your product. What is contained in the mystery fragrance. Even if it says natural fragrance, they don't need to write according to the FDA, they don't need to write what ingredients make that up. So some companies don't even know what's contained in their fragrance cocktail. Some companies source that from a different company. And if you call the company and say, what is in your natural fragrance, they may have no idea,
Diane: 40:22
Yeah.
Adina: 40:23
which can be really frustrating if you deal with skin issues. And you want to know if something is really flaring your rash.
Diane: 40:31
I see this a lot in candles. Of course. You're not like consuming candles, but they'll probably say it's a soy blend, but then it's artificial fragrance oils that they're putting into it.
Adina: 40:44
yeah. And even if you're not consuming it, like I go, when you burn a candle, it goes into your environment. Yeah. Yeah.
Diane: 40:52
So we're going to do swim swaps for that shortly.
Adina: 40:55
Yeah,
Diane: 40:55
So when should you adjust your products? We've talked a little bit about this. If you're in a symptom flare, maybe your hands are on fire. As Adina has unfortunately experienced in the past, you're like, oh shit, I have to change something up or right now with my hands. Uh, but maybe you're just thinking about how to live a healthier lifestyle. You want to over time shift things around. We're always going to encourage you to focus on the foundations, the basics, first of food, sleep, managing your stress and moving your body because there's so much that can be achieved by working there first, we would not recommend that. Prior to doing that, go out and overhaul your products. That's very expensive. You have to eat, you have to sleep anyway, you're going to have to build resilience to stress. So that's where we'd encourage you to focus most of your resources, unless you have like an acute issue. the wheels are going to fall off your bus if you don't change something. But for most folks, a phased approach is really beneficial. I love, um, positioning this to my clients has a phased approach because it's just less overwhelming and maybe it's just not sustainable for you to go and overhaul your, your makeup routine or your hair care. Someone was buying salon care products. That shit is not cheap. So, um, I know a lot of our clients have spent time in the all or nothing phase. They might be inclined to try to do that. Let's slow it down a little bit. And we use that up, use up the investment that you made, unless there's something that's really irritating to your skin, to your. And then just commit to finding a replacement after that's out. But with the phased approach, maybe you're starting with that, the food foundations first, and then you are starting with something that is on your face for longer periods of time. So your skincare, your makeup lip products that are really close to your mouth, things like that before overhauling your makeup, your skincare, your whole.
Adina: 42:53
Yeah, I think it's important to talk about stress for a second, because a lot of these products can be a stressor, right? So we're talking about the bucket of stress and certainly removing some of these products from your repertoire can help to lower your stress load. But like you said, losing out on that investment that you made in these other products can be stressful as well. Deciding which products to use, especially if you have temperamental skin that can be stressful. If you have a routine that's been kind of working for you, switching it up can certainly be stressful. The skincare stuff can fall into this bucket of stress of like as a thing that we want you to work on as a foundation. However, if your life is incredibly stressful, if you are like a single mom working three jobs, then swapping out your moisturizer is not going to make the big difference. That's going to move the needle for your health. You know, like it's always important to consider what are we spending our valuable resources on.
Diane: 43:59
also when it comes to skincare. I remember this from my days at the med spa I don't recommend switching out five steps of your skincare routine, because if you have a reaction to a new product, it is much more difficult to pinpoint who the culprit was. If you changed everything at once. So we would encourage patients at that time to spot treat. Maybe if they're trying to new serum, uh, or to start with their cleanser first, maybe they try out a new moisturizer after that, give it some time, a little space in between. We do the same thing. Sometimes it's supplements is like layer them in. If you can, just to see how your skin, how your body reacts to those things.
Adina: 44:37
Yeah, totally.
Diane: 44:38
I know that when I've done, one-on-one testing with clients, this isn't something that everyone needs to do. But sometimes if they're really symptomatic, we would do a food sensitivity test and that tests food and chemicals, or maybe they have a known celiac diagnosis. So we would want to be cognizant of gluten in makeup, in skincare, in toothpaste, things like that. So those are some scenarios where you might want to be a little bit more, um,
Adina: 45:06
Aggressive.
Diane: 45:07
Yeah.
Adina: 45:09
Uh, I think it's important if you've never heard this conversation to, to be aware that our skin is our largest organ and we do absorb quite a bit through our skin. It comes right into our bloodstream. So we got to consider if you're a person who never thought that your skin had a connection with your health. We are absorbing those things and they are impacting us. Like we said, I wouldn't recommend throwing out every single thing you own and trying to overhaul it all at once. But one at a time slow as we go. When you run out of something, just think, can I replace this with something that has better for me, ingredients or some of these less harmful, less endocrine-disrupting less carcinogenic. Like you would be shocked, shocked by how many things are still on the market that have extremely strong links to various cancers. I know we see the deodorant thing in a major way that so many people are still using deodorant.
Diane: 46:16
antiperspirant
Adina: 46:17
With aluminum in it with other carcinogenic chemicals in it. And you put that on such a sensitive tissue, right near your breast tissue, right near all that lymph. It's really something we want to be careful about. Like it can make a really big difference.
Diane: 46:32
yeah. Heavy metals are, are tough. And of course our skin has its own detox pathways. It can do its own thing or livers. Amazing, great to poop every day, all those things. But how can we support its natural abilities to detoxify? That's important to think about. So we're going to give you some more, some products swaps that we love a little further on. So in phasing out, let's say skincare, for example, something else I'd like to think of. In terms of maximizing resources is to think about what stays on your skin the longest. So for example, I would go for a less expensive cleanser. There are really good ones out there. You're washing your face thoroughly, and then you're rinsing it right off, but things that are going to stay on my skin longer, like a serum or things that have actives in them. Uh, that's where I would allocate more in.
Adina: 47:25
Yeah. And that's where I would consider trying to swap out sooner. Like if you have a thick, nighttime moisturizer that is designed to sit on your skin for 12 hours and you put that thing on at night, that might be a great place to swap out. Also things I like to prioritize things that cover your whole body. If you're a person who wakes up in the morning and moisturizes head to toe, that might be a great swap to make. That can make a really big difference in your health. Thinking about how much surface area of your skin you are covering daily with this thing. So something I know we don't really give much attention to if you've never thought this through before is just how many products we come into contact. Daily. Like if you wake up and you take a shower, you brush your teeth, you put on skincare, you put on makeup, you may have come into contact with like 13 products before you even go down the stairs.
Diane: 48:22
Yeah for it. I've seen numbers for women, especially who those who wear or anyone who wears makeup like up to 40 products by the time you're done with your routine. That's a lot.
Adina: 48:31
It's a lot. So think about all of the opportunities there. So the other thing I want to talk about as far as prioritizing what products to swap out first is things that become airborne. Especially if you struggle with. Sneezes, itchy eyes, asthma for sure. Skin stuff as well. If there is something that you spray into the air, you might want to consider that as one of the things you swap out, especially those that are designed to sit in the air. If something has artificial fragrance in it, you may notice that that fragrance holds on for dear life for days. Sometimes I remember when I used to wear, oh, Gluck that
Diane: 49:11
Like, okay. I used that hard in college. And why didn't I just clean my fucking apartment? Because if your house is clean, you don't need to spray all this, like, or wash your dog.
Adina: 49:21
wait, you know, do you remember those? Do you remember those for breeze commercial? Where the person would be blindfolded and they'd be sitting like in a dumpster and someone would spray for breeze around them and they'd be like, what does it smell like? And the woman would be like, wow, it smells like I'm in the Prairie in the mountains. And I'm like, they need to redo those commercials and make it honest of it smells like I'm sitting in a dumpster and someone's spraying for breathing it's
Diane: 49:48
Yeah. Take out the trash. It stinks in your house. Wash your couch cushions. Oh. Or those plug-ins
Adina: 49:56
Yeah. Oh my God. The plugins. Okay. So I've had,
Diane: 50:00
in cars, like clean your damn car.
Adina: 50:03
yeah, when I get into an Uber and they have an air freshener, I'm like, you should have to give me my money back. This is terrible. Um, yeah. So also mention if you struggle with stress overload, like if you've been told you have adrenal issues or that's a diagnosis you came up with on your own. You may experience this more intensely. I know when I was in the depths of my stress overload, adrenal issue is like, if I walked through the perfume aisle at a department store, immediate headache, like lightheaded blood sugar issues, I need to get out of here right now because I feel unwell. And I know clients have had that experience. If you're a person who someone, their car smells bad, or you know, that air freshener or someone has a plugin in their house and it gives you an immediate migraine or makes you feel disoriented. And like, you can't focus on anything else. That is certainly yes. Get those things out of there if you can. But let's look to that adrenal support and really supporting that whole stress load system.
Diane: 51:03
Yeah. And your detox pathways, that's something that we can help you. When we work together, but yeah, for sure.
Adina: 51:10
I've been there. I've been there hard, but yeah. So like we said, things have become airborne. So hairsprays perfumes spray, sunscreens household cleaners. Like if you use a lot of those spray cleaners in your home, and these are symptoms that you deal with, that can be a really great opportunity to make some shifts.
Diane: 51:28
yeah, totally. So shall we talk about some of our favorite products by
Adina: 51:33
think we shall.
Diane: 51:34
Well, let's start with skincare and makeup. I imagine a lot of you listening have already heard of brands like beauty counter. I'm not a brand purist. Both of us are affiliates consultants. I treat it more of like an affiliate relationship. I
Adina: 51:48
Yeah.
Diane: 51:49
We do love it. Love that they are. I think Adina mentioned this earlier. They are focused on safer. They're not all about just all natural because that's the. Always the move. Right. But they are very science driven, which I really appreciate coming from the aesthetic world. Uh, so love that they are also leading the charge with this movement of getting people to think about, um, their overall stress load and some swaps that they can make. So they nail product development. I am bitter that they're taking away a lot of their makeup offerings. It's not the only brand I love, but as far as skincare, a couple of favorites, I love the Countertime Tetra peptide Supreme cream from beauty counter, especially as we go into the winter months. So for anyone who has a mature skin, dry or dehydrated skin, I really love this because I think seeing Tetra peptides and peptides in safer skincare is relatively new. So I'm really excited about that. And the actives that they include.
Adina: 52:52
Yeah. And that one's actually my favorite as well. And I think if you do have sensitive skin, it can be a really good option because there are some good actives in there, but there are not as many actives in there as some of the other moisturizers,
Diane: 53:05
right. And they use
Adina: 53:05
cream. Yeah.
Diane: 53:07
which is, is if you're a pregnant, cannot use retinol or you're just trying to avoid it. I'm not appear as in that. I don't think that retinol is a hard, no, I think that it can be useful when used under the direction of say your esthetician or for shorter, shorter periods sometimes. But if you do, you want to avoid that, but is a lower and slower cell turnover. So that's something that you can use more frequently,
Adina: 53:30
Yeah. But even in my flare freest of flares with my face situation, um, I was able to continue using that Su-Preme cream and it did not irritate me at all. So that's certainly a favorite for
Diane: 53:42
a little goes a long way.
Adina: 53:44
Yeah. And like you said, you're not a brand purist I'm not a brand purist either. I'm just lazy. And I don't like love skincare the way that you do. So for me, I'm kind of all beauty counter because. I found stuff that worked for me.
Diane: 54:02
one
Adina: 54:02
liked the products. It's a one-stop shop. And so I, like, I know we had talked about this before. Like I was never one of those people that like flipped through Cosmo and was like, Ooh, I need to try this. Ooh, I need to try that. Like, beauty counter just kind of made it easy for me where it's like, I know I love their product development.
Diane: 54:20
they did their
Adina: 54:20
doing as a brand. Yeah. It made it simple. Here we go. Um, so yeah, that's kinda where I'm at.
Diane: 54:27
they really do now. So do you have any makeup favorites?
Adina: 54:30
I mean, they took away some of my makeup favorites, like you said, which they're in a big, they're in a big transition stage, trying to figure out how to do powder makeup without the use of talc and some of the, yeah. So I really loved those shadow palettes, but now they are gone and I'm hoping that they're bringing some FAQ, but I also just love their lip products. Like a good beauty counter lip can be wonderful.
Diane: 54:57
very creamy. I used to go hard on Mac cosmetics all through college, love their back to Mac program where you could like bring it 10 empties in for a new free lipstick. So I was all about that. Yeah. I really do love beauty counters, lip glosses, favorite makeup. I really like ilia beauty. They like all of the products I've tried for them, honestly, but especially their concealers because I know beauty counter is tabling there's until they could figure out better packaging. I also like tower 28 right now for cream. Blushers you can also use them on your. But they have very pigmented cream blush formulas. I know beauty counter is rolling some out too that I haven't, I have not tried, but I like that tower 28 has a nice color range, color story that works on so many different skin tones. I'm so I'm kind of opposite of Adina Adina I do like keeping things somewhat minimal when I find a favorite I'll stick to it with my makeup and skincare, but I still like going into YouTube beauty holes. So, so I'm liking that ilia beauty. He makes a lot of great products and I think finally kosas us two has a nice mascara.
Adina: 56:01
Wait, did you try the cover girl? The safer mascara
Diane: 56:04
Yes. And I, I like it. I have oily eyelids, so I feel like I can truly put different formulas to the test and kind of with my Filipina list. If something's going to transfer I'll know pretty quickly. I like the Covergirl clean mascara. I love the color of the packaging very on brand, but sometimes at the end of the day, it would kind of wear off a little bit or flake off, especially as you get further into the tube. So still trying to find something always trying new makeup favorites for me, that shadow needs to stay. And unfortunately, a lot of safer clean beauty shadows, just aren't quite there with the pigmentation. Some of them are patchy, so hopefully beauty counter does bring back some shadow
Adina: 56:48
Yeah, cause they're old ones were good.
Diane: 56:50
Yeah. ilias are pretty good. Eighth or beauty. Genny B recommended, but they're always out of stock. So I'm looking for that body care. So I mentioned kosas briefly, but also our friend aesthetician, Genny B beauty recommended kosas good body skin. So this has some gentle exfoliating acids. Love it. So if you have KPA keratosis pilaris or maybe you experienced some back breakouts. That was me. That's why I chose this, um, in the summer when I'm sweaty around like my sports bra. I really liked that a lot.
Adina: 57:23
Yeah. I used to like, um, the charcoal bar for that a lot. I, I know for some people it can be too drying the charcoal bar from beauty counter. Um, but that was what I really liked that for just like that humid summer bodywash accompaniment. Um, and there was something else I wanted to say, Okay, this one is not so sexy of a product, but we will talk about them a little bit later on in home care. Um, but branch basics, the concentrate is what I use for just about everything. And so I use it for my cleaning products. It comes in a concentrate, you refill the spray bottles with water. I also use it for all the hand soaps around our house. And when I was really symptomatic with my eczema, I used it for body wash as well because my hands were so broken up in tender. Everything else, even the safer body washes still, if there was any kind of oil in it or any kind of fragrance, even if it was completely natural, it would just burn my poor fingers. So I started using the branch basics as bodywash and it went great.
Diane: 58:32
So what did you do have like your soap pump
Adina: 58:35
Yup. I put it in a hand soap bottle and I would just use that. And to be honest, I don't use too much. Bodywash I don't know if that's controversial to say on here, but I spent so many years like needing to smell like vanilla, honey, whatever I used, like the dial yogurt, honey.
Diane: 58:57
sweet pea from bath and body works
Adina: 58:59
basically. And I would drench myself in this, like I think I used a cup of bodywash in every shower and it was so terrible for my skin, so terrible for my oil production, like the whole deal. And since I've been supporting my detox pathways in a variety of other ways, I really find that I just don't need much.
Diane: 59:19
right. Cause you're not destroying your moisture barrier
Adina: 59:21
Yeah.
Diane: 59:22
really important, especially as we go into. Fall winter, not to destroy that barrier, that in that pH of your skin, because it should be more acidic. Really when we are using a lot of these conventional body washes, they're really drying out our skin
Adina: 59:37
yeah.
Diane: 59:38
and you might notice some more breakouts for that reason. Um, finally, on the body care front, we can't talk about that without talking about deodorant and I'm sure this has been on your radar. Uh, it's primally pure deodorant. I've tried telling you so many, maybe dozens by now, natural deodorants. I hate petrouli and that's seems to be prevalent in that space. Hey, truly. I hate things that make me stinky after like a couple hours where this is the one that seems to work the longest for me through sweat sessions and also just last longer. It's a pretty good size. I love their charcoal deodorant so much.
Adina: 1:00:21
Yeah, that's the one I use and I have had some good success with the beauty counter deodorant as well. I took a big break from deodorant in general. Again, I don't know if that's controversial, but
Diane: 1:00:31
but you're not stinky. Let them know. You're not
Adina: 1:00:33
I'm not stinky. I. Only get stinky, like postpartum. I feel like,
Diane: 1:00:39
hormones.
Adina: 1:00:40
yeah. I, I said this before and it's kind of disgusting. So like everyone listened,
Diane: 1:00:45
are Jake Jolynn homo man. Oh my gosh.
Adina: 1:00:47
you guys are so nice and this is an intimate space. Don't be mean to me. I feel like after I have my babies, I, my sweat kind of smells like cheese curls because I feel like my body is trying to tell the baby that there's food here.
Diane: 1:01:06
we have dairy here.
Adina: 1:01:08
Yes. So I don't know if anyone's had that experience and has been too embarrassed to share it, but that's usually when I use the primary pure charcoal deodorant and it works great.
Diane: 1:01:19
I mean, an aside as you improve your body's natural detoxification pathways, like you might notice that you don't smell very often. I don't sweat very often like, I don't just excessively sweat. I sweat when I work out. But, or when I'm watching scary movies, I just really liked the primary pure because it does have a small amount of baking soda, but I tried so many other brands that had perhaps more of that ingredient in their formulas and I was doing a pushup. I'll never forget it. And as I was pushing up my armpit peeled off from another deodorant Schmitz that I was using. And I've had other women, uh, express the same thing. It works for Neil, I think because he has underarm hair. So if, I guess if you do have underarm hair, maybe that's not that bad, but I think that baking soda was just too alkalizing for my skin. So beauty counter does have an option. I prefer the primally pure lasts a lot longer. It doesn't seem to be irritating. And I think they even have an unscented completely unscented formula too, if you are really sensitive.
Adina: 1:02:25
So that's that.
Diane: 1:02:27
Very breathless. Talk about nail care. So this one I'm kind of like conventional sometimes every now and then I just want some really good nail art. Yeah. Other times I'll use a dazzle dry, and I'm really impressed with their color variety and they're aware and also Zoya. So it was the way I think was one of the first nail Polish brands that avoided things like formaldehyde in their formulas. So
Adina: 1:02:55
Yeah. zoya is pretty readily available. Like you can go into some nail salons and see that in there.
Diane: 1:02:59
they have a fantastic color selection. Yeah.
Adina: 1:03:02
yeah, I really liked. Again, I had to be pickier with my nail care because of my skin for a long time. And I used to get manicures very regularly. And then I just stopped because like my skin was so irritated and then I just felt like it was a waste of time for me, but I, every so often I do really like getting my nails done and actually local to me, there is an organic nail salon called karma organics and their product is great. It lasts really well on my nails. And the experience is really nice too, because they're using a scrub that's just made out of sugar and some oil. So it's, if you are looking to go in the Bergen county area to a nice organic nail salon that has good products, that can be a fun experience. And for me, I think that's going to be a fun experience to take Minnie to as well, because for her, she sucks her thumb also. So I would be pickier about what she's putting on her nails,
Diane: 1:03:59
right. Or you nail by nail biters. Is this an opportunity to maybe switch things out a little earlier? If you bite your nails?
Adina: 1:04:08
Yeah, but in, in a lot of like major cities, there are nail salons that make that whole experience a little more focused on those safer products.
Diane: 1:04:18
yeah, yeah. For me, I'm an occasional gel Manny or, sometimes I like to do a dip powder too, and that's pretty easy. Sometimes you can even do those at home, but for me, it's a more occasional thing. And if I'm going to paint my nails at home, I'll use one of these other, other brands. I love it. There are a lot more options out there now, too.
Adina: 1:04:37
Yeah. That's another thing to consider. How often are you doing this thing? Right. So I've had this, people have reached out to me before and been like, oh, I'm getting my makeup done for my sister's wedding. Do you know of any makeup artists that you save her products? And sometimes I'm like, if you, yeah. Like if you want that makeup to wear all day and you don't want to have to think about it, just like
Diane: 1:04:59
girl just spray it with urban decay.
Adina: 1:05:01
the conventional shit, just do it.
Diane: 1:05:04
Yes, that's true. Yeah, it's an occasion. It's what we do most of the time that we want to think about. Yeah, for sure.
Adina: 1:05:10
So this is your permission slip. If you are out there searching for a makeup artist for your sister's wedding that uses clean products, just throw it away.
Diane: 1:05:18
the next gel Manny I want to do is for a special, maybe for a special occasion is to do bacon and eggs on my nails. And you can kind of raise up the eggs. But I remember this was a couple of years ago now. My troll DM was this woman it's that gel unfollowing. And I'm telling all my friends who followed you, that you got gel manicure and almost like, dang, how sad is your life?
Adina: 1:05:44
What was that meme? What was that meme I sent you today
Diane: 1:05:47
Oh yeah, this is hilarious.
Adina: 1:05:49
Okay. This is the me and my son, Diane today. Hi, most annoying person you've ever encountered here. I noticed this post, you wrote in three seconds. Doesn't line up with every experience I've ever had. This is extremely harmful to me, the main character of the universe.
Diane: 1:06:05
the main character. The universe
Adina: 1:06:07
So if you feel the need to come into Diane's DMS and tell her that she should, she should get her holistic health license taken away for getting a gel manicure.
Diane: 1:06:17
Yeah. And I remember like, normally I just delete those, but at the time, like my mom had a major surgery and I was like helping her recover and whatnot. And then I saw that and I said, I'm going to need you to stop policing things. Like, it's not that deep. And she said so rude and she got really upset, but I said that my issue,
Adina: 1:06:33
Um, also about bacon and eggs, you know, you know, that Park's joke when Ron asks them to give him all the bacon and
Diane: 1:06:41
I don't think you understood me. I need all the bacon and eggs you have. Yes. I told my nail woman and she's just like very outspoken. She's like, you want bacon and eggs? I said, yes, Vicky want bacon and eggs, breakfast nails. Very on brand. Um, can I write it off? Do you see schitt's Creek. And they're like, well, who pays for it? Oh, you write it
Adina: 1:07:01
write-off people.
Diane: 1:07:03
Yeah. So home care, home care home products. There are lots. There's lots going on here. Something I'd like to talk to my clients about eventually in a later phase for happy is to think about their cookware. If any of you still have scratched up pins from college, I'm thinking those Teflon pans. That's one to throw up immediately. No scratch cookware.
Adina: 1:07:26
immediately get the Teflon out of there immediately. Immediately.
Diane: 1:07:30
don't want to be eating that. And when it's all scratched up, where did it, where did that coding go? Where did that go? So that is definitely one to think about. So some options to check out, le cruset staub lodge. They are investment pieces, but you could get a couple of them, honestly, check home goods. I'm always surprised when I go there, I'll find like an enameled cast iron pan. Whoa, nice steel. This definitely was an investment, but another one where you could maybe get a saute pan or a large, um, pen and add to your collection is all clad. Stainless steel. Stainless steel is another great option for cooking. So those are some of my favorites. Do you have any favorites for cooking?
Adina: 1:08:09
You nailed it. Those are all of them.
Diane: 1:08:11
They last forever, by the way, like forever.
Adina: 1:08:15
I know some people are really just looking for a non-stick option. And so if that's you, I would say ceramic nonstick is the best way to go, but they don't last very long. I've actually been really happy with the always pan from what's that
Diane: 1:08:30
pen our place, or we're going to get an ad. They went hard last year in their ads.
Adina: 1:08:35
yeah. And I will say I really like it. I know it's not going to last forever and it's probably not the best thing for the environment, but it makes it really approachable for Dani to cook eggs in the morning. And that's like the only thing he will do in the kitchen as far as cooking. So for us, it works for our family. I know it won't last forever, but teaching him the technique of getting. Uh, stainless steel or a cast iron pan to not stick was more challenging for us.
Diane: 1:09:04
Yeah, yeah. You just have to consider it. Which battle do we want to pick here? Um, yeah, always Penn. I know green pan is pretty widely available with that one. It's only gonna last you a couple of years,
Adina: 1:09:15
no green pan. I will say doesn't even last a full year that the R place pan I'm going on over a year now, and it's still in great shape, green pan. Like you just had to keep throwing them out. They really are garbage.
Diane: 1:09:29
if you hand wash them. So I know trying to think of like good, better, best. If you have a scratched up Teflon pan, maybe. Okay. Go get that. But then check out your home goods because you can find discounted cookware there.
Adina: 1:09:41
Have you tried caraway? That's the other brand too, right?
Diane: 1:09:44
Um, no, but I just had an ad for caraway. I'm sure I'll get another one.
Adina: 1:09:48
I know people really like those. I like their aesthetic. I like their whole brand imaging is, is really
Diane: 1:09:53
What's the material that they use.
Adina: 1:09:55
I think it's, I think it's ceramic. Non-stick.
Diane: 1:09:57
Oh, nice. That's another option stoneware too. We have for some baking pan stuff. I think Neil got that from his mom who was like pampered chef or something, but it was actually quite nice. It's lasted a very long time. So as far as sense, we talked about essential oils, but that would be what I prefer to use is diffusing essential oils over candles. Even those it's solely it's bees wax candle, because, you're not going to be producing as much smoke or, um, harmful chemicals as a result of burning.
Adina: 1:10:32
Yeah, I feel like I've mentioned this on the show before, but essential oils in a diffuser actually stress me out more than calming me down because when I used to work in inpatient substance abuse, we always had lavender essential oil diffusing in the art therapy room to try to like, create a nice space for the patients. But I'd had some really stressful encounters in those rooms, so
Diane: 1:10:55
send is so strongly tied to memories. Isn't it? I mean, we talked about perfume too. Speaking of sons, um, I did have a perfume that I chose for my wedding day and I only wear it on like special occasions and anniversaries and it takes me right back to that day. So that was a really positive experience, obviously like milestone. So that's where I might use that perfume. But for other instance, I don't wear like a scent really, but I do like in fall some fall sense and actually really like, um, the mountain road.
Adina: 1:11:28
Yeah. Another thing that you can do, if you really like fall scents is just put some apple cider on your stove, who, with some, a niece and some cinnamon in it, and just let that stew on your stove all day. And it just makes your house smell. Like everything I
Diane: 1:11:43
throw some oranges in there.
Adina: 1:11:45
totally.
Diane: 1:11:46
Love that. Yeah.
Adina: 1:11:47
You can put it in a slow cooker too. If you don't want to put it on your stove. I've done that for shabbos before where I make hot apple cider and sometimes we'll pour some like, or bourbon in there and it smells so good all day.
Diane: 1:11:58
yes. Yeah. I love doing that too. So yummy. Finally for cleaning supplies, Dina mentioned this one too, where her bodywash, but branch basics, I was skeptical because I think it's the rebel tendency. I kept seeing ads for this and I thought, how good can it be? But I really, really like it. I finally switched, uh, Neil does our mopping and a lot of like laundry and like bathroom cleaning too. Um, he's like, no, it's not clean unless you use bleach. Listen, if you have to have the windows open
Adina: 1:12:29
If you have so many toxic cleaning products under your sink, that if your kid opened that cabinet, you would have to immediately call poison control. You might want to consider why am I spraying this all over my house? Why am I cleaning my kid's highchair with this? If I would have to immediately call poison control. If my kid was holding it, why am I doing this? And I will say about branch basics too. First of all, female founded company, the founder is such a sweetheart. I don't know if you've ever heard her speak about the products, but their story is that her son was really sick and swapping out their products is kind of what made the difference for them. Um, they had to like sleep outside. They would camp outside because it was the only thing that kept their son. Well, and. You should really listen to her story. She's amazing. And they nailed this product development. They worked so hard to make it as safe as possible. And I can tell you from having really cracked, open, irritated hands, I was still able to use it as hand soap and it's effective. It really works. Like, I think there are some technique to it. I think if you're used to using something like a Windex where you spray yeah. Where you like spray and immediately wipe, I think branch basics works better when you spray, let it sit for a couple of seconds and then wipe it off. Or even then spray it with like a hose sink. Um, that's when it really shines, but I never miss my toxic cleaning products once I switched to branch.
Diane: 1:13:57
And I like that the concentrate can be used for so much. So it's a soap concentrate. Is that right? Yeah. And you'd be surprised what you can do with say so vinegar. We use that instead of Windex, there are so many different applications that you can do, um, with branch basics. And I really liked that they have a lot of resources on their blog,
Adina: 1:14:17
Oh, my God, their blog is amazing. Their email list is one of my F I don't, I unsubscribed from all newsletters. And like the branch newsletter is so good. Sometimes I'll see things and be like, oh my God, how they know how they know I needed to learn how to do that.
Diane: 1:14:32
Yeah, it's very informative, definitely worth opening because a lot of brands just don't send out very. Emails.
Adina: 1:14:39
yeah, it's really helpful and wonderful. And it's a one-stop shop for me, which, you know, I love, I love that I don't need 10 products under my sink. Like I use branch for everything.
Diane: 1:14:48
Yes. Simplify simplify. So that's one of our favorites. We're going to link our product favorites and brand favorites for you to check out in our full show notes on our website. So we hope that we gave you some helpful things, some takeaways, especially if you're faced with overwhelm or you're feeling confused about where to start and do you need to be perfect, totally clean. No, you do not. Um, but yeah, if There are any other favorites, let us know.
Adina: 1:15:20
yeah, you don't need to be perfect, perfectly clean blahbity blah, but given where you are on your healing journey and what type of symptoms you are dealing with, a lot of the stuff we mentioned today can provide some really great opportunities for healing.\ all right, well that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. We love you and we will see you next week. May.
