Safer Beauty, The Politics + Advocating in Washington, DC
T-3 days before, I’m on capital hill to help advocate for safer beauty laws. I am so excited and bit a nervous! When I think of my health and what I do daily around my habits, it’s interesting because I don’t really even think about them anymore because they’ve become, well, a habit! Some of my habits I wake up to every single day are: I drink a full glass of water to get my thirst quenchers going for the day. Then, I move on a hot lemon water, I also scan ingredient labels on food at the grocery store, I move my body somehow or strength train every day, I meditate for at least 20 minutes, and check beauty products for parabens. This is why I love Beautycounter so much because they’ve done the work for me, and it’s one less habit I need to engrain and check every time I pick up a personal care item, because I know it’s obsessively tested.
Every single one of our beauty products should be like that. We shouldn’t have to scan them to make sure they don’t have ingredients directly linked to cancers, endocrine disruption and hormones. We shouldn’t have to worry about heavy metals in our makeup or if a company is using child labor for the sparkly stuff in our eye shadow. Furthermore, we also shouldn’t have to wonder if our makeup and the stuff we use on our entire body and on our family’s bodies every day is toxic. I always say, if there is something safer for us to use, why not try the products if they are available to you? Over time, our bodies will thank us for less burden of potentially harmful ingredients. That’s why I love Beautycounter’s Never List because I know I don’t have to scan the ingredients of their products.
The Politics of Beauty
I’m headed to Capitol Hill with Beautycounter April 25-28 to advocate for more health protective laws in the cosmetics and personal care industry.
The United States has not passed a major federal law to regulate the safety of ingredients used in personal care products since 1938.
Here are some stats to date: Over the past two decades, the European Union has banned more than 1,400 chemicals in the product formulas of personal care products and restricted the levels of over 250 more in such products. The United States has only partially banned 30 to date. This is part of my WHY.
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I am serious about taking good care of my skin and weekly, I get asked what my skincare routine looks like.
If you want a personalized skincare recommendation, fill out my skincare questionnaire, and I’ll email you back, or you can email at angie@angiebloom.com. I know the Beautycounter skincare and makeup lines best, but if I think products from other brands will work well for you, I’ll share those too - I like to keep it real here over at Angiebloom.com and if there are other products that would be a better fit for you, you better believe I will share that with you!.
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Personal care products are just that…personal. Their safety affects all of us and our farms. I’m very passionate about the PFAS bill this year, as there are many farms, including ones in Maine. Also, in my home state of New Hampshire where I live, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) tested public and private drinking water supplies in the Southern New Hampshire area that may have been contaminated by discharges from nearby factories. Some public and private wells are contaminated with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). There have been New Hampshire towns polluted with PFAS that have ELEVATED CANCER RATES. The level of PFOA in the blood of Merrimack residents was almost three times the 2015-2016 national average. PFAS have also been found in Maine in a number of places including: agricultural sites, drinking water supplies, surface waters, landfills, wastewater, sludge and septage spreading sites, and remediation and cleanup sites. In general, PFAS can enter the environment through direct releases from specific PFAS-containing products.
PFAS are used as ingredients in certain cosmetics, such as lotions, cleansers, nail polish, shaving cream, and some types of makeup, such as lipstick, eyeliner, eyeshadow, and mascara.
The safety affects all of us. Every year, Beautycounter leads an advocacy trip and this year, I get to participate in Washington, D.C. Two consultants from each state were invited, and I’ll be representing New Hampshire. We’ll meet with Congress and share with our elected officials why better beauty matters, and I’ll also receive training, so I can better help all of you with your Beautycounter questions.
Educate yourself and know that every dollar you spend within the personal care industry, you spend is your vote. The more you know, the more informed decisions you can make for you and your family. I like to vote with my dollar because companies pay attention!
Support beauty brands that don’t just “follow the law”. Choose brands that follow health and safety standards well beyond what’s required by U.S. law. Truth bomb here, I have not found a company, to date, more committed to this as Beautycounter. Or as transparent.
Beautycounter does advocate as part of a Counteract Coalition of like-minded brands (like Seventh Generation cleaning products and Rahua hair, or Cote nail polish), our products go above and beyond, even Sephora called us the Leaders in Clean.
Beautycounter is actually a B Corp, which you can read about here. They are ranked with Patagonia, Seventh Generation and others as a company that uses business for good. It’s a pretty small group that earns the distinction.
Join the movement as a Beautycounter consultant. You can help make change in the industry while making extra money for whatever goals your family has — taking vacation with your kids, paying your mortgage, paying off debt, reducing the need for student loans, extra shopping money. These are all things the people on my team do with their Beautycounter income, and it’s amazing to see the personal growth and confidence they gain growing a business for a good cause. OR, you can still advocate for safer beauty as a consultant without working to earn a paycheck. Many women join for the community, the product discount, the personal development and training too! I’d love to share more, or you can read more about it here.
You can read more about why I became a consultant here and my answers to FAQs about being a consultant here. You can also see my skincare and makeup routine here.
You Helped Make This Trip a Reality For Me
Part of the way I earned this trip is through my sales from YOU. Thank you so, so very much for shopping through me and supporting my small business and mighty mission to get safer products into the hands of everyone. I’m so grateful for your support, and I’ve really loved getting to connect with all of you on a more personal level through Beautycounter. I’m passionate about the laws needing to be changed, and how my very own personal health journey brought me to Beautycounter.
Thank you again! I can’t wait for the trip – I’m heading out Monday to do the work for all of us!
Here are FOUR ways to help our cause today:
Text BETTERBEAUTY and BANPFAS to 52886 to urge Congress to pass better beauty laws.
Text MICA to 52886 to ask our government leaders to uphold laws already in place but not well enforced.
Shop brands who are working to eradicate child labor and put safer products into the hands of everyone, like Beautycounter. Bonus: you also get to support my small woman-owned business and a B Corporation!
Join our mission-driven purpose as a better beauty ambassador.
Even if you’ve reached out to legislators before, they refresh their own agendas so frequently. Even quarterly reach outs remind them it’s still an important matter!
