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Follow on Google News | If You Like Handcrafted Soap You Need to Read This.The handcrafted soap industry is taking off and not just because it's trendy. More and more people are learning that store brand soaps and products are loaded with harmful chemicals. Handmade soap is a detergent free alternative at stake.
By: Kelli Oakleaf Owner, Desert Soapstone Smelling good is high on the priority list of most of us, but using harmful chemicals like phthalates and sodium laureth sulfate are not. That's why we need "clean" bath products provided by such Etsy style artisans. Due to the larger companies wanting to super produce, leading them to use these harmful chemicals to meet demand, there is currently a bill out that is quite controversial. It is called the Safe Cosmetics Act 2011 HR-2359 and it is misleadingly called that since it in no way makes cosmetics safer. The bill, although well intended (or is it?), is not based on science and is in fact putting a strangle hold on the very small businesses it says it is "trying" to help. Should it pass you may not see many smaller handcrafted soap shops on Etsy anymore. Is it because these smaller businesses are using harmful chemicals? Although there are some that choose to use these additives, the vast majority are "clean" products (free of harmful additives). Rather the problem these smaller businesses face is the high cost of complying with crazy requirements that don't disarm the larger companies from using these chemical additives. Really this bill is an assault on the smaller businesses of the handcrafted soap and bath industry. The bill will make the ingredient labels hard to understand and raise prices of your everyday cosmetics, including deodorant. How convenient for the larger companies. Lela Barker from Bella Lucce, a popular natural and very safe conscious skin care company says, " it will significantly limit what exotic new ingredients I can travel the globe to bring home to you... it will give those “big, nasty chemical companies” a leg up in the marketplace... it will decimate the natural products industry, preventing new innovators from entering the market and causing the likely closure of THOUSANDS of small businesses (most of them women owned) at a time when many Americans are working double time just to put food on the table. I have a few (dozen) more reasons [I am against it]…shall I go on?" The bill is called the Safe Cosmetics Act 2011 HR-2359 in a misleading attempt to get it passed. Desert Soapstone manufactures soap that is free of these "dirty" chemicals and operates under self imposed rules that any ingredient used has to register below a 2 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most dangerous. They use the very calculator to figure safety that is made by the same people that this bill is being pushed by (Environmental Working Group) and yet, due to the nature of this bill all smaller companies like Desert Soapstone will have to list the ingredients in the water they use, even though distilled. So just listing "distilled water" as an ingredient will no longer be good enough, now they will have to list every mineral or trace element in the water. This kind of thing is what would drive the prices up as there will have to be tests done on every single ingredient, even the distilled water, to include every single element on every single bar that domes down the line. A bit ridiculous wouldn't you say? This bill has been rejected 3 times and is now coming up again. As Ms. Barker put it so we can all understand, "Quite simply: this legislation won’t do what its sponsors are telling you it will do (improve safety). And it will do a flurry of things they tell you it won’t (negatively impact natural products and cripple small companies)." In fact it will make you less safe by empowering the larger companies. Bottom line, companies like Bella Lucce and Desert Soapstone are committed to making healthy, safe cosmetics; That's why they got into the business. Their products are hands down safer than even some of the most popular companies you find at the health food store. Yes, they are that safe. However, that real safety is about to be taken away by a bill named for what these companies truly stand for. So what can you do? 1. Sign the online petition http://www.thepetitionsite.com/ 2. Contact your congress people. Look them up here and tell them what you think. https://writerep.house.gov/ 3. Tell everyone about this bill and what you know about it. The more people that are informed about it the better. Thank you Lela Barker, for making this information readily available. For more information: You can visit Ms. Barker's blog at: http://www.bellalucce.com/ Or visit Essential Wholesale's Blog at: http://essentialu.typepad.com/ And for some premium quality homemade soap you can visit Desert Soapstone's site here: http://www.etsy.com/ Join the REAL campaign for safe cosmetics, join small cosmetic companies like Desert Soapstone and Bella Lucce and save your right to understandable labels, healthy herbal alternatives to the dept. store chemicals and support handcrafted, homemade style small businesses. Your health depends on it. # # # Handmade soap, glycerin soap and cold process soap made with healthy ingredients and loved by the whole family. End
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