I like to think we all excite by the discovery of something new.  Sometimes little discoveries can be found right on our doorstep, as was the case with a little trip to my local pharmacy.

My latest find is a holistic German brand called Dresdner Essenz, and it’s affordable bath salt sachets.  Made up of a base of sea salt and magnesium sulphate (remember the epsom salts from my previous post?) with added plant extracts to offer us an extra health boost.  I bought a little selection for the winter months:

For soothing baths to help sleep and de-stress: 

• Deep relaxation: Melissa & Valerian, including Lavender
• Sooth and Unwind: Lavender & Hop, including Valerian

Invigorating baths to help boost your immune system

• Immune Boost: Thyme & Honey, including Eucalyptus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pictures above show the new packaging used by this brand.  At the time of shopping, I purchased a mixture of what I thought were just the old and new packaging, liking them both.

Old packaging:

However when I got home and looked at them more closely, I realised that the old packaging was also an older blend, and include PEG emulsifiers.  The new packaging signifies a new recipe with natural emusifiers, replacing the silicon PEG variety.

I keep a beady eye on ingredients in health, beauty and home products.  Where I can, I will choose to avoid as many artificial chemicals as possible – many are carcinogenic and on a day-to-day basis feed fatigue.

Not all my products are ‘clean’ (yet!), but I’m nearly there.  It takes a while to find good clean substitutes for some of the products you have used and loved your whole adult life.  There is great innovation and variety now-days, that it doesn’t feel like a compromise to go clean, you just need a little patience and sense of discovery.  So the older sachets are destined for the bin, if unable to be replaced by the pharmacy.

PEG Emulsifiers

Emulsifiers are used in mixtures to bind other ingredients, and they often have their own benefits to the recipe above being the glue.  PEG emulsifiers are a silicon variety found in make-up and beauty products, detergents and paper to name a few.

One of the easiest articles I’ve found to read on this is by The Ecologist: http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/behind_the_label/269662/read_the_label_emulsifiers.html

From their article, I have lifted a list of the naughty toxic emulsifiers to avoid:

Carbomer
L PEG-40 sorbitan peroleate
Carboxymethylcellulose
PEG-150 stearate
Ceresin (aka mineral wax, Ozokerite)
Diethanolamine (DEA)
Isopropyl stearate (laurate, palmitate, oleate etc)
Polysorbate 20
Polysorbate 60
Polysorbate 80
Potassium hydroxide
Propylene glycol
PEG compounds, eg:
PEG-8 myristate
PEG-30 glyceryl cocoate
PEG-80 glyceryl cocoate
PEG-15 soyamide/IPDI copolymer
Sorbitan stearate (laurate, palmitate, oleate etc)
Steareth-20
Triethanolamine (TEA)

And the natural non-toxic variety:

Beeswax
Candelilla
Carnauba
Cetearyl alcohol
Cetearyl wheat bran glycosides
Cetearyl wheat straw glycosides
Decyl glucoside
Jojoba
Lecithin
Quince seed
Rice bran wax
Sucrose cocoate
Vegetable glycerin
Xanthan gum

The new Dresdner Essenz sachets are PEG free, so keep an eye out for them for a winter treat or a lovely postable gift at Christmas.

Happy health,

Lulu x