Going Organic Part 2

Last month I wrote this post about how I've decided to switch over to organic for all my personal care products. Some of them, like soap and shampoo, will include my husband. But most, like my face lotions and sunscreen, are for myself. It seems I use a LOT more personal care products than he does.

I received such a wealth of information from reader comments that I made a list to keep in my purse, and I thought I'd write up a post as a sort of "organic roundup" that will hopefully be helpful for all of us. I'm including the categories I most need to replace, along with some of the reader suggestions, plus where to purchase if they included that information.

So if you want to go organic, but don't know where to start, here are the tested recommendations of my very smart readers:

SOAP:
Dr. Bronner's tea tree bar soap
L'Occitane
Publix pure castille soap
Organic, homemade soap sold in specialty shops or online
Alaffia shea butter soap (Whole Foods)

SUNSCREEN:
Badger
Burt's Bees
Alba Botanica
Keys (online)

LOTION:
Giovanni (drug stores, Target, Whole Foods)
Nature Clean
Burt's Bees
L'Occitane for hand lotion
Skinbiology
Renew lotion from Melaleuca
Skinceuticals
Earth Mama Angel Baby baby lotion
Terresentials

SHAMPOO:
Organix (drugstore)
Desert Essence
abba (salon)
Dr. Bronner's
Kiss My Face
Ligett's bar shampoo
Aubrey's organics (Whole Foods)
Lavera

MAKEUP:
Burt's Bees for lips
EyesLipsFace.com
everydayminerals.com
Physician's Formula organic (Walgreen's and Target)
Dr. Hauschka

GENERAL BRANDS:
Brittaniesthyme.com
Weleda
Mountain Rose Herbs for organic jojoba oil for bath, moisturizing, and massage lotion
Melaleuca for all products including Nicole Miller makeup and Renew lotion

The website Saffron Rouge carries many organic brands, including Badger, Dr. Bronner's, Weleda, and Dr. Hauschka

The products and brands that got the most raves and multiple mentions were Aubrey's organics shampoo, Burt's Bee's, and Badger lip balm and sleep balm. One reader wrote that she'd been using the sleep balm on her eye area for a short time and her crow's feet had entirely disappeared.

I'm working on switching over our soap first, and so far I've tried Dr. Bronner's, but it got a thumbs-down from my husband, who isn't a big fan of peppermint. I'm not too worried about finding organic soap, but I do need to find a brand that's affordable for everyday use.

And here's another category: a product that isn't specifically labelled or marketed as organic, but which doesn't have any of the offending parabens or other ingredients listed by Vanessa in this post. The facial moisturizer by Bioelements that I've been using for the past few years falls into this category.

You can check the toxicity of a product at Cosmetics Data Base. Also, if you want more details about any of these suggestions, go back to my original Going Organic post and look in the Comments section.

Thanks again to everyone for contributing your knowledge and experience, and if you have more ideas you just have to share with us, feel free to leave them in the Comments section. I'll post updates on products I've tried over the next several months.

UPDATE: L'Occitane is NOT organic, and Origins and Bioelements both score relatively poorly at the cosmetics database, so I'm going to have to switch facial cleansers and find a new face moisturizer. I'm learning every day!