What the Hell's In My Tub?
Research time again! Go to your bathroom and grab all the hygiene products you use on a daily basis: shampoo, conditioner, hair gel, soaps, lotions, antiperspirants, toothpastes, makeup, shaving cream, you name it. Drag all that crap down to your computer (or, if you use a lot of product, take your computer to your bathroom) and log on to the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database.
Now start looking up the toxicity level of all those products you slather on your skin every day.
And then think about how porous your skin is.
And then think about whether or not the word "is" is a preposition.
And then think about why your flamboyant 10th grade English Teacher told you to never end a sentence with a preposition.
And then start to wonder if his "roommate" was actually....
Ooooooohhhhhhhh.
It's all starting to make sense now, isn't it?
Anyhow, once you go through and determine the toxicity level of your beauty regimen, start to think of which items you can maybe live without. Or at least find out what alternatives might exist. And where you might buy them at.*
I'll be tossing out some helpful tips over the next few weeks. You know, fun stuff I learned the hard way. But in the meantime, feel free to start swapping toothpaste recipes and paraben-free shampoo products Yahoo! Group.
*Now there's a preposition! And yeah, I spent 50 minutes of the past hour Googling "prepositions" and "dangling participles" and all of 10 minutes writing the actual post. Because I'm thorough like that. ;-)
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Scrub-A-Dub-Dub
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15 comments:
Thanks for the link! I'm heading there now.
As for prepositions, it's been over 20 years since I graduated from college - I don't have to remember that stuff any more, my editor catches all my mistakes!
"Is" is not a preposition! It's a "linking verb" (or whatever they call it, now). I think you're in the clear. :) I'm sure there's a tighter way to construct the sentence, to avoid ending on "is," but I'm grading papers and my brain is fried.
The Skin Deep Database is terrifying, but fortunately, I've scaled my beauty regimen down to about three items. My only real problem is that I can't seem to give up my Kiss My Face moisturizer. Tell me I won't die a horrible and painful death!!
I have to say that I'm somewhat afraid to do this, but curious at the same time. Thanks for the link.
On the grammar front, "is" is definitely not a preposition, it's a verb. So you're safe ending a sentence with it. Per Wikipedia: In grammar, a preposition is a part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. In English, the most used prepositions are "of", "to", "in", "for", and "on".
Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I cannot put.
I have recently gone back to olive oil for a skin lotion, and I don't know why I ever stopped.
My cup runneth over.
You know that Sesame Street cartoon with Grover yelling "Near! Far! Over! Under!"
Those are prepositions.
And even though I taught SAT Writing for a jillion years, I STILL end sentences with dangling prepositions.
As for your flamboyant teacher and his "roommate," I think it depends on what your definition of "is" is. :)
Dude, do I need to send you all the Schoolhouse Rock videos??
And Leslie, that is one of my favorite Winston Churchill quotes!
My husband screams when people say things like "where are you at?" So I say it just to irk him.
I love EWG database. You can find scary things there. The interesting thing is that Europe has banned a lot of the suspicious substances based on the precautionary principle (i.e., when in doubt, don't use).
Perhaps we in America are just not worth it :(
We've switched over to healthy shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, deodorant, and facial wash. Still more things to work on.
Hi ibmommy,
I might not have made it through English if not for Mr. Churchill.
I wonder if he knew a good definition for what "is' is?
"Is" Is a form of the verb "to be". And who says you can't end a sentence with a preposition? The language arts police? Theirs up!
Is Joan being ironic?
I started using shampoo bars a few months ago with fairly good success, but the humidity has really whacked out my hair lately. I stopped in our local health food market yesterday and browsed the hair care aisle and was disappointed to find so many products there with ginormous lists of ingredients I couldn't pronounce. I picked out a bottle of shampoo and conditioner with all "real" ingredients, got to the checkout counter and started thinking about $20+ dollars AND two plastic bottles vs. my $4.95 bar of locally hand-made shampoo and just couldn't do it. Even with the all natural ingredients in the shampoo and conditioner I had in my hand it still felt so much better to support a local company and skip the packaging. I'll experiment with some homemade conditioners to deal with the frizz.
I'm still working on weeding out the chemical scariness in other parts of my daily routine. I'll be checking out the database (and likely chucking products immediately after!).
Well my 10th grade English teacher was a really mean woman with a chip on her shoulder and a roommate.
But yes, it's the stuff in the bathroom that is going to hit the skids next.
I'm so grateful I never got started on any routine for faces. I've used soap and water for ever (unscented and without additives although I'm using a manuka and honey organic soap at present - locally made and really nice). I use baking soda for hair. Toothpaste is something the dentist thought would be good for oversensitive teeth and it is. I'll investigate that....
There isn't anything else....oh yes - a deodorant rock and some talcum powder :)
viv in nz
Bourbon mom gots award! from a guy who participle is all dangled out!
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