Greenwashing

GREENWASHING: a form of marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly and therefore ‘better’; appeal to nature.

This product sells for $7.50. It comes in a plastic bottle (that we should be recycling or reusing if we are using these! Every bottle counts!) This label makes you think you're doing something naturally, right? But really it's got the same ingredients as the other soaps- they just ADDED a minuscule amount of essential oils.

This isn't anyone's fault- humans are VERY easily manipulated. We live in a "go go go" society and trust that companies aren't going to lie to us or trick us into purchasing things. The issue is, they are and they know they can get away with it. The bottle is pretty, the soap smells good and that's the end of it for most consumers.

Most of the products that boast ALL NATURAL are not natural at all. This product says "with essential oils" when they're at the very bottom of the ingredients list AFTER synthetic fragrance. Whats the point?! 

There are loopholes in the system and that system benefits the large chemical manufacturers that masquerade as "self care" on the front but have a laundry list of chemical crapola on the back. We've been trained since childhood to fall victim to marketing. Things don't sell themselves- that's why companies have easily identifiable logos and cute cartoons and celebrities making appearances on super unhealthy products- to convince you to look past the ingredients and just let the instinct to trust that cute little bunny or Shaq isn't going to lead you down the wrong path. 

MARKETING MADNESS! BUT THE COMMERCIALS ARE SO CUTE! Shhh.... read the ingredients. Do research. Learn for yourself. Stop letting the TV or instagram ads tell you what is good for your family. When you start to break out of that learned method of buying- you will also start to break that natural impulse to trust these money making machines.

I used to use a number of products that advertised as natural but are listed as up to an 8 on the THINK DIRTY app (if you don't have the app... I highly suggest. It's pretty mind blowing.) I've seen more people question what essential oils are safe for babies than the laundry detergent marketed towards parents of young kids- and those products have chemicals in them that do a number on the development of their bodies from hormone and endocrine disrupters to chronic asthma and cancers and all of the things we hope to never have to see in our children. Essential oils are plant-derived, ACTUALLY all natural and can be used to make virtually anything you have in your lineup.

I could spend $7.50 on one soap that will last a month or spend $25 on entire bottles of eucalyptus and peppermint oils, $5 on castle soap and have foaming hand soap for literally the next 2 years if I dedicated those products to just making soap. Not to mention if I wanted to make a foot scrub, face oil, cleanser, energy/ focus roller, soft scrub, face scrub, face mask, chest rub, pimple cream, etc etc etc I can do that too. This soap is... just soap. 

STOP letting the fronts of packaging fool you! This stuff is NOT cheaper and in the long run it's doing way more harm than good. What good is cleaning your hands with harsh chemicals? Your skin is your largest organ and we're consistently dousing it in things that not only aren't good for our skin, but that seep into our blood streams within minutes- slowly poisoning us and the people we love.

We can all do better with reading labels. Nobody is perfect. Just get into the habit of flipping the bottle over and running for the hills when you see the word fragrance. If rat poison smelled good, it would be allowed in that "trade secret" fragrance blend. The FDA does a lot of things, but protecting us from Greenwashing ISN'T one of them. BUYER BEWARE! I was an advertising major in college- the stuff you learn about why and how they do what they do is fascinating- but I'm so glad I chose a different path. Manipulating people is a sad job to have and I wouldn't be able to have pride in myself while doing it.

Pay a little more attention to the ingredients in the things we deem necessary in our everyday lives and I guarantee you'll learn a lot more than you ever would've pleading ignorance and giving into the buzzword marketing scams that are so easily believable. Is it more work? YES. But what's the saying, nothing worth having comes easy?