Once upon a time I attempted to create a fragrance-free skin care business. Due to a number of factors I was never able to get that business off the ground. One of the products I sold was SFIC soap and it is the bar soap I use today. I try many varieties of fragrance free soaps. Dr. Bronners is my favorite liquid, and this is my favorite bar. SFIC is the soap of choice for crafters who use melt and pour bases to make their own creations. They take very well to colors and scents, but I obviously prefer the bar in it’s natural fragrance-free state. There are no synthetic ingredients in these soaps. The are 100% pure soap and they come in a variety of kinds: Aloe Vera, Clear, White, Olive Oil, Castile, Goats Milk, Oatmeal, Shea Butter, Hemp Seed Oil and Cocoa Butter just to name a few.
The clear soap formula ingredients are Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Glycerine (kosher, of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Soybean protein (conditioner).
The one problem with SFIC is their minimums are high for the average customer. They specialize in bulk sales, private labeling and custom soap blending. I placed an order and my minimum was 250 lbs. I figured out that I will have enough soap for 20 years, but according to the company their soap has an indefinite shelf life, so I am good with this.
If you would like smaller quantities, go to wisterialane.com. They sell SFIC soap in with no minimum quantity.
I highly recommend SFIC soap. It is soft, luxurious, and lathers very well.
I’ve been trying to incorporate more natural, organic scents back into my life. I’ve become so accustomed to everything in my life being fragrance-free, I now have to make an effort to incorporate real scents back into the products that I use.
I found Andalou shampoos at Whole Foods. These products are
“made naturally without GMO’s, gluten, paraben preservatives, petrochemicals, phthalates, sulfates, synthetic colors, dyes and fragrances. Verified Gluten-Free 100% Eco-friendly, Vegetarian & Cruelty-Free.” The fragrances they use are organic essential oils and I tolerate them very well. The scents smell very pure and not over powering at all. Unfortunately, they do not make a fragrance-free version, so if you have reactions to essential oils, even organic essential oils, do not use these products. I use the Argan & Sweet Orange, and the Sunflower & Citrus. I haven’t tried the conditioners yet because I’m really happy with the conditioner I currently use.
Andalou products are available through Vitacost, where you can buy them for a better price than Whole Foods.
Vanicream’s line of fragrance-free personal care products are some of the first products I used after I became chemically sensitive. All of their products are “free of dyes, fragrance, masking fragrance, lanolin, parabens and formaldehyde. In addition, they’re all gluten-free.”
The line contains skin cleansers, moisturizers, sunscreens, hair care and shave cream.
Here is a natural recipe for your hair. Avocados are rich in healthy fats as well as Vitamin E and C. Olive oil also provides generous amounts of healthy fats and Vitamin E.
Blend or mash one avocado with ½ cup of olive oil. Add egg yolk, honey or aloe vera gel for added moisturizing benefits.
Apply to dry hair, cover with a shower cap and towel over top of that. Leave the mixture on for 20 minutes, rinse and then shampoo. Condition if you would like.
I don’t use dryer sheets. I’m really not bothered by static cling, but for those of you who are and do not want to use toxic fragranced dryer sheets, here are some suggestions.
Several companies make fragrance-free dryer sheets. Seventh Generation is one of them.
Photo by Seventh Generation
Purecosheet is a non-disposable option. It is a reusable cloth dryer sheet that contains no chemicals. It is good for more than 500 loads.
Photo by Reuseit.com
Another option is to use a damp cloth in your dryer cycle. Also, a ¼ cup of white vinegar in the washer is known to reduce static. I use vinegar to freshen my laundry so I am also getting the anti-static benefits as well.
Cure Care is my go to hair conditioner and I will be very, very sad if they ever discontinue this product one day.
When I was a child, my family used to use Unicure. My mother thought the product was discontinued because our local stores stopped carrying it. I have since learned that they are still in business and you can order Unicure here
Now I use Cure Care. I found Cure Care at Sally’s Beauty Supply several years ago and it is my favorite conditioner of all time. It contains no fragrance or dyes. It is a rich, creamy silky feeling conditioner that is so moisturizing. It is sold in 20 oz bottles and gallon jugs, which is the one I buy because the price is fantastic. The 20 oz bottle costs 2.99 (with a Sally’s beauty club discount card) and the gallon jug costs 7.79 after the discount. I buy several gallons at a time.
Cure Care does contain parabens, which I’m not thrilled about, but we all have to pick and choose how non-toxic we want to go. If you are not comfortable with using parabens, I think this is still a good conditioner to recommend to family and friends who are willing to explore being scent-free.
You can also use Cure Care as a skin cleanser. I even use it in place of shaving cream.
I first heard about Eve many months ago when I was perusing videos about MCS on Youtube. I saw her video link entitled “How to Detox your Body Tips – and MCS Recovery.” Eve was the first person I had found who had recovered and was sharing in detail just how she recovered.
I soon watched all of her videos she has on her Youtube channel, Eve’s Pot of Gold. Her intro video recalls how she initially became sick and the steps she took to become well. Her story is very similar to mine in how she became sick, and it was the first time in a long time that I too believed I could recover.
Eve developed her wellness plan through her own research on the Internet. Medical doctors were of no help so she became the architect of her own health.
Her plan for recovery includes a wide variety of healing modalities, but the foundation of her program is detoxification, based on the principles recommended by Dr. Sherry Rogers. Dr. Sherry Rogers has written many books on MCS, including Detoxify or Die, Tired or Toxic and the E.I. Syndrome. The program that Dr. Sherry Rogers outlines in her book include use of daily sauna, coffee enemas (which is also part of the Gerson Therapy) and a detoxification “cocktail” of glutathione, Alpha Lipoic Acid and Vitamin C.
Eve also discusses gut health, nutrition, supplementation, living in a non-toxic home, emotional health, stress reduction and physical fitness. She even offers Zumba and personal training online through video chat. This is a short list of the health topics she addresses. She updates her website and Facebook page daily with new information to help others detoxify, strengthen their immune systems and get well.
I get emails from a lot of people who are newly chemically sensitive. They are afraid and upset that the life they once knew is gone. I know they are looking for help and hope, and one of the first recommendations I make is for them to read Eve’s pages and watch her videos. Her story of recovery is what gave me the kick in the pants I needed to get back to taking charge of my own health, and continue to detoxify on a regular basis. I was stagnating in my efforts and I quite often felt like I was doing all this for nothing.
I hope Eve’s story will inspire others that you can get well and you can recover from MCS. I have always believed MCS can be reversed if the body is given what it needs in order to be able to heal. Detoxification is peeling back the layers of toxicity our bodies have become mired in through living in this modern chemical world.
Eve is not a medical doctor (nor am I.) Everything she posts is based on her own personal experiences and neither she nor I are offering medical advice. Everything you choose to do in regards to your health is done at your own risk.
I have been struggling with my nutrition for almost ten years now. After a very bad accident left me unable to walk for over a year, I developed an insatiable sweet tooth. I comforted myself with donuts and jelly covered English muffins. Before my accident I was able to pretty much eat what I wanted and not gain weight. When it came to sweets, I could take them or leave them. Nowadays I don’t eat nearly as much sugar but I am still dealing with the negative consequences. I gained 30 lbs and still have not lost the last ten. I am overwhelmed by the amount of conflicting nutritional advice doled out by so called experts who seemingly contradict each other. I’ve danced around with a low carb diet, which does make me lose weight, but I find it unsustainable. I am so depleted by the end of the day that I can’t help but binge on carbs. I was online researching the Paleo diet when I came across the website of Dr. Clyde Wilson. Dr. Clyde is a nutrition expert and adjunct professor at the School of Medicine for the University of California San Francisco and the School of Medicine at Stanford University (where I did my undergrad). Dr. Clyde maintains his own site at DrClydeWilson.com where he blogs about nutrition, health, emotional eating and weight loss.
Dr. Clyde offers some of the most sound advice on eating that I have heard in a long time. The term moderation is bandied about a lot, but he actually offers a workable solution to enjoy the foods that you love by adding course vegetables to all of your meals in order to slow down digestion. He explains very clearly the biological drives that make us crave sugar, fat and satiety, and how to navigate these primitive drives in our modern toxic food environment.
Check out his eloquent metaphor in this video below.
For more information, take a listen to his podcast where he goes into further detail.
I am pre-diabetic and I struggle with keeping my blood sugar in normal ranges due to my love of carbs and sugar. I’ve already started following his recommendations and I hope to see great improvement in my blood sugar levels. I also feel like this advice is doable. I must be honest. I really don’t like vegetables. I don’t even really like salad but I eat them because I know that’s what I need to do in order to be healthy. Upping my vegetable intake won’t be easy but I know it’s what I need to do. I tend to binge and then mercilessly beat myself up over it. Hopefully I can break that cycle and stop demonizing food the way I have been.
I’ve used Seventh Generation’s Free and Clear chlorine free bleach. It is a non-toxic oxygen bleach, meaning it uses hydrogen peroxide. There are no harmful fumes and won’t discolor clothing.
Seeing as this is a hydrogen based bleach, you can also hydrogen peroxide. Vinegar and citrus acids, like lemon juice, are also effective alternatives.
Over the past decade I’ve suffered through bouts of depression. Within the past year I felt myself spiraling into a depression that I was unable to pull myself out of. I had started seeing a therapist but I was beginning to be open to the possibility of taking anti-depressants. I have never taken anti-depressants before except for a very brief (one week) trial of Lexapro. At the time I decided to stop taking Methadone, which I was taking for an injury. The doctor at the pain clinic that prescribed it to me insisted it was much better than morphine for my type of injury. It wasn’t and she’s a liar. When I came off the Methadone I had such a horrific withdrawal that I decided to stop taking the Lexapro because if I had to have a horrible withdrawal, I wanted to get it all over at once. I made this decision on my own, and in the end I was glad to be off of everything.
Several months ago when I was researching psychiatrists I came across SAM-e. I had purchased some and kept it for many weeks because I was actually scared to take it. Some of the potential side effects include anxiety and insomnia, and I am very afraid of anything that might cause me not to sleep. But since I was on the verge of taking an anti-depressant, which have much more side effects than SAM-e, I figured I better exhaust the natural route and give it a try.
I can only speak for my experience, but within a week of starting the SAM-e, I noticed the heavy sadness in my heart lifted a significant amount. I was better able to handle stressful events and my mood felt lighter in general.
“SAM-e (S-Adenosylmethionine) is an amino acid derivative that has been clinically proven to benefit brain and joint function. Found in all living cells, SAM-e is also called “activated methionine” since it is formed by reacting ATP and methionine (an essential amino acid).*” (Jarrow)
Sam-e has been used throughout Europe for over 20 years. It is sold as a prescription drug over there.
Clinical trials have shown that SAM-e may help with depression, joint pain, as well as liver function.
Here is a NY Times article from 2010 that discusses SAM-e’s beneficial use in treating patients with depression who do not respond to prescription anti-depressants.
Jarrow Formulas makes the brand of SAM-e that I take. I get it at Vitacost, where it is much cheaper than other online outlets or health food stores. There has been a surge in SAM-e’s popularity because many companies are out of stock and Jarrow is trying to keep up with demand. As I said before, this has been my experience. I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. I am a big proponent of exhausting natural and alternative therapies if modern medicine and prescriptions can be avoided.
Here is a video from Bastyr University’s Living Naturally Series entitled Overcoming Depression and Anxiety. It is an hour long lecture on natural ways to treat depression and anxiety.
Scent Free Girl 