You've probably heard by now that Honest Company detergent was recently found, by two independent lab tests, to contain sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), a foaming agent that Jessica Alba has called "toxic." I have three quick things to say about this: 1) In our review, I listed Honest's detergent as "possibly sneaky" since we couldn't confirm what exactly they use as a surfactant--now we
sneaky stuff
Is Ava Anderson Sneaky Stuff?
Over the last few years, many of you have asked for my thoughts on Ava Anderson products, and I've always replied honestly that while I have a knee-jerk negative reaction to multi-level marketing ("pyramid scheme") companies, the ingredients in Ava's skincare and cleaning products are fine, and I've enjoyed the samples I'd been sent over the years. As it turns out, Ava Anderson products
Sneaky Stuff: Mott’s Applesauce Has High Fructose Corn Syrup
Hungry for some arsenic-laced apples from China, mixed with high fructose corn syrup and artificial colors? Look no further than Mott's! At a recent birthday party for a 5-year-old, my own 4-year-old ate three slices of the pizza being served, and turned up his nose at the cup of Mott's applesauce at his place setting. I grabbed a spoon and started to peel off the tinfoil lid so I could feed it
The Honest Company by Jessica Alba: Good, Bad, or Sneaky?
We get multiple emails a day asking about Jessica Alba's line of baby and household products, The Honest Company, whose mission is "to reduce the ubiquitous presence of toxic chemicals in our our natural environment, man-made environments, and our personal environments." It seems that Gimme the Good Stuff readers are all dying to know: Is The Honest Company truly good stuff? I'd feel
Sneaky Stuff Alert: BabyGanics Sunscreen
We just got back from a week in the Caribbean, before which I unknowingly made the rookie parenting mistake of not packing enough sunscreen (isn't it amazing how MUCH you go through every day when at the beach?). Halfway through the trip, we were out of the Good Stuff (which for us is either Kabana Green Screen or Babo Botanicals Clear Zinc Sunscreen), so I headed to the resort's sundries shop
Skin Trip Lotion: Sneaky Stuff!
When I was a kid, my hippie parents always had a bottle of Skin Trip coconut moisturizer on hand. My mom bought it at our food Co-Op, and kept an extra bottle next on an end table in our living room for easy reapplication during those long, dry Vermont winters. I continued to use Skin Trip (which is made by a company called Mountain Ocean) during college, never tiring of the yummy coconut
Pangea Adding Synthetic Preservatives to Some Products
Pangea has long been one of my favorite skincare lines, and it was one of the first we carried in our online store. Recently, we learned that Pangea is intending to change the formula of some of their products. Notably, they are adding a couple of preservatives to some (but not all) of their products. This is too bad for several reasons--not the least of which is that some of the affected products
Biokleen & Seventh Generation: Sneaky Stuff
I'm sure many of you have seen that the Environmental Working Group has at last launched their Guide to Healthy Cleaning; it's awesome! EWG's Skin Deep Database is a wonderful (if overwhelming) tool for determining the safety of cosmetics, and the Healthy Cleaning site makes finding safe household cleaning products less confusing, although it's still overwhelming. I was happy to see that
What’s Wrong With Dreft?
This blog entry is part of our “What’s Wrong With” series, each installment of which profiles a different product and gives you the bottom line on its safety. Think of these as cheat sheets for our more comprehensive Safety Reviews (which we publish less frequently). Any laundry detergent you use will leave a residue on clothing and linens, which is then inhaled and absorbed (via skin) by the
Sneakiest of the Sneaky Stuff
Obviously, I'm obsessed with hunting down Sneaky Stuff and calling these companies out. Ecover, Burt's Bees, Earth's Best...lots of "natural" giants fall short when it comes to producing truly safe products. For the most part, though, Sneaky Stuff is made by companies that avoid some of the most well-known toxic chemicals, like phthalates and parabens. More importantly, these companies are