A study conducted by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the Environmental Working Group found that 17 of the top fragrances contained 38 secret chemicals!

Here are the list of the fragrances that has the most chemicals:

American Eagle Seventy-Seven – 24
Chanel Coco – 18
Britney Spears Curious – 17
Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gio – 17
Old Spice After Hours Body Spray – 16
Quicksilver – 16
Calvin Klein Eternity for Men – 15
Bath & Body Works Japanese Cherry-Blossom – 14
Calvin Klein Eternity for Women – 14
Halle by Halle Berry – 13
Hannah Montana Secret Celebrity – 13
Victoria’s Secret Dream Angels Wish – 13
Abercrombie & Fitch Fierce – 11
Jennifer Lopez J. Lo Glow – 11
AXE Body Spray for Men: Shock – 10
Clinque Happy – 9
Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue – 7

See the problem is, studies have shown that our skin do absorb chemicals that we put on our body.

Frankly, I have not been using any chemical perfumes ever since I got pregnant with my first kid. I didn’t want anything to be absorbed into my baby’s body. Luckily for me, Asians have been using fragrances for hundreds of years. Traditionally, we soak flowers and nice smelling herbs in a warm  bath water, hmmm, about an hour before we take our bath. The wonderful fragrance from the bath water is what would lightly perfume our body.

Image taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/30471084@N07/2937326324

Bathing with fragrant flower water is something most brides-to-be in Southeast Asia will undergo

Asian women also use fresh flowers, like the tiny, pure white fragrant Jasmine flower,  on our hair.

I myself love perfumes, and when I decided to ditch my bottles of perfume, I did feel a twitch of sadness. Only the thought of doing something for the greater good spurred me on.

Ok, speaking of flowers being good for the hair, I’d like to share a natural hair shampoo that you can make at home using the hibiscus flower and leaves.

Hibiscus or Bunga Raya (Joyous Flower) is Malaysia’s national flower. And let me tell you, these plants can be found just about anywhere in Malaysia.

All Natural Bunga Raya Shampoo

• Firstly, you’ll need to collect a handful of leaves and flowers (remove the stems and stamen from the flowers).
• Wash and soak the flowers and leaves for about 15 mins.
• Then, cramp the entire thing into a blender. I like my Magic Bullet for this sort of thing.
• Blend the leaves and flower petal, adding a little bit of water to get the whole thing moving.
• The brown paste is ready for you to use as a shampoo.
• When you are washing your hair, first, be sure to wet your hair.
• Then, massage the brown paste  into your hair (yes, it can be used as a body scrub as well). You will get a mild foam when you do so.
• Wash and rinse really, really well to get everything out of your hair.

This cleanser is very gentle and totally safe for kids as well…  unless they are allergic to hibiscus.

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What beautiful flowers.

My grandma used to pick these bright, blue, delicate Telang flowers from her garden and use it to color quite a few things like fabrics and stuff, but she used it to color mainly food. I get mine outside a narrow grassy area at my neighborhood CIMB bank where it’s growing wild.

Back in the old days, women would cook one part sticky rice with plain water, while in another pot, they would have cooked another part sticky rice with bluish colored water. The water was previously soaked with the Telang flower petals and boiled gently for about 15 minutes to extract the colors. Once both the rice are done, they would just combined both the rice, gently stirring it together to create a two tone blue and white sticky rice dessert.

Some people add blueberries in their smoothies, turning it blue. I like to call my blue smoothies “A Very Smurfy Smoothie”. I don’t know why, but my kids think that name is just totally hilarious.

It would really be nice if more people used natural food coloring to color all the things around them, rather than using artificial coloring and food additives like calcium propionate.

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Read about

• Is food making people around you crazy?
• Is your bread bad for you and your family?
• My homemade bread, no preservatives, no artificial coloring, no eggs
• Malaysian bread statistics you may not know

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