See our friend Heather? We love her fresh effortless look. We prodded for her beauty secrets, and she told us this story the other day. Well! Are we ever impressed by her Sharpie technique for getting the job done!

Two years ago my husband and I made the decision that we were going to eat organic whenever possible. We weren’t going to go to extremes or stop eating out socially but when we ate at home we were going to buy organic produce, meats, and products. This stemmed out of concern for our own bodies as well as the children we would someday have.  Who knows what causes severe food allergies or autism but we were taking chemicals and preservatives out of the equation, or so I thought.

One day my husband, reading an article, peered over his Macbook and said “huh, did you know half of the chemicals and preservatives in your (women’s) system are from your healthcare products?” and then nonchalantly went back to reading. Whoa, WHAT!? I never thought of that. I guess it makes sense, I thought: you can receive medications topically, I guess you can also receive harmful chemicals and preservatives topically as well. When I started thinking about the breadth of that statement I got incredibly overwhelmed. On a regular basis I use face wash, body wash, skin toner, face moisturizer, eye cream (thanks to my 30’s), deodorant, body moisturizer, sun screen, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, shaving cream, face mask,  the list felt like it went on forever and I didn’t know where to start!

After some searching I found Skin Deep’s cosmetics safety database, where I could type in the brand and name of my products and they would rank them on a scale of 0-10 (0-2 low hazard, 3-6 moderate hazard, 7-10 high hazard).  As I sat with every product on the kitchen table and a sharpie I marked each product with its number.  Anything above a 7 got thrown out immediately, 3-6 I’m keeping until it runs out (let’s face it, this stuff is expensive!) and anything 2 or below I will keep and replenish as needed. (See photo of Heather’s medicine cabinet.)

As I’m finishing my “moderate hazard” products I am having so much fun finding and learning about alternatives!  Whole Foods stores are a great resource and some of their larger stores have full make-up lines with people who know what they are talking about.  My favorite face regimen is by a company called Skin Organics, which includes face wash, toner, weekly scrub, day and night moisturizers, and eye cream.  Works incredibly well and very reasonably priced.

I’m so glad I made the switch…every little bit counts!  Now if I could find an organic toothpaste my husband didn’t think tasted like saw dust we’d be great!

Heather K. Margolis is an entrepreneur, part-time foodie, and founder of Channel Maven Consulting. A proud alum of Babson’s MBA program, Heather grew up in Massachusetts, a 6 time Pan Mass Challenge rider who can be found riding, hiking, or attempting to tear up the slopes when not helping her clients reach their channel goals.  Heather and her husband Simeon (also an eco-friendly entrepreneur and Babson MBA) live in Newton, MA.

Links: Heather’s company:  http://www.channelmavenconsulting.com Twitter:  http://twitter.com/HeatherMargolis LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherkmargolis Simeon’s company:  http://www.themonkeybed.com