I’m considering this type of personal care product as a topic for “Eating Economically at the Co-op” because some of the same questions shoppers face when choosing safe, economical food also apply to these items. Furthermore, even if we don’t eat such products, we most certainly do ingest them. The Environmental Working Group (EWG; www.ewg.org) explains why we need to pay attention to the ingredients in body care products: “Nearly all these chemicals can penetrate the skin, and some we ingest directly from our lips or hands.” Many accumulate, not only in us, but in the environment.

The ingredient list for those Jell-Olike slabs contained many of the usual suspects: sodium lauryl sulfate, methyl and propyl paraben, and others. In fact, some of the same ingredients were in the bottles of shower gels that also took up residence in my bathroom during my guests’ stay. These seemingly luxurious, fragrant soaps boasted of botanicals, but also harbored artificial colors and toxic preservatives. In fact, the Environmental Working Group has found that “more than one-third of all personal care products contain at least one ingredient linked to cancer.” Others contain allergens, as well as known or possible neurotoxins, endocrine disrupters and reproductive toxins. The EWG points out that “when risky and unstudied chemicals are used in cosmetics, the stakes can be high — unlike trace contaminants in food or tap water, chemicals in cosmetics are base ingredients.”

Reading the labels on shampoos, bubble bath, suntan lotions, hand soaps, etc., can be bewildering. It seems you need a degree in chemistry to really know what you’re about to slather on your body. The Environmental Working Group’s survey found that an awful lot of slathering is going on: “The average adult uses 9 personal care products each day, with 126 unique chemical ingredients. More than a quarter of all women and one of every 100 men use at least 15 products daily.” If only we were eating that variety of plant substances every day, instead!

You can inform yourself of the hazards of body care ingredients by checking out the detailed reports at the EWG site, and by looking at the materials provided by Friends of the Earth (www.foe.org) in their work on nanoparticles in cosmetics. Even armed with a list of the worst offenders,though, it can be confusing to sort through the labels.

Just as with foods, the simpler the ingredient list, the greater your chances of finding something healthy. Honest Weight carries a line of bar soaps that exemplify this, while having two other aspects in their favor: They’re produced relatively locally and energy efficiently. Made in small batches, Just Soap comes from Florence (Mass.). It contains “no synthetic perfumes or chemical hardeners — just the purest vegetable oils, essential oils, and organic herbs and spices,” and is solar powered. Yep. A guy on a special bicycle pedals for two hours to get the soap to thicken. Just Soap is a model for the ecological, economical personal care product.

Colorants include such recognizable old friends as paprika, cinnamon and clove. The seven different soap options smell fantastic and come entirely free of packaging. That’s right — just real, naked, soap. So, don’t be misled by bottles that use the words “nature” or “natural” in their product name and trumpet their green tea or lavender contents, while containing mostly 6-syllable chemicals that don’t exist outside the laboratory.

And if reading the labels makes you feel like a paranoid Mad- Eye Moody from Harry Potter, practicing “Constant Vigilance!” about your shopping choices, products like Just Soap can give you some much-needed relief.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Stacy Malkan, author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, will read from and sign copies of her book at UAlbany on October 30.