It is hard to make a living for someone wanting to do this 100% professionally. Most of those who work in this area, do it as a side job or as a service. Over time, to try and generate income, some may resort to selling supplements, tests, products, utensils, small appliances, cosmetics, etc. Often, there are high priced versions of the items and in most cases, unnecessary. Not that one can’t benefit from having certain kitchen equipments or gadgets, but to think one must have them, and certain high priced versions, is not true and becomes an added obstacle.
Over the last few years, I have seen a push from some in the field to sell cosmetics and skin care products. This may be through direct sales, affiliate marketing or even through a Multi-level Marketing (MLM) set up, or something similar. You can read my post on MLM’s here.
Why You Should Avoid All Products Sold Thru a MLM
https://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/view ... &hilit=MLM
Unfortunately, many of these products being sold are marketed as being natural, organic, GMO free, vegan, non toxic, etc, yet some of them may still be fairly toxic. What matters is the chemicals used in them and their relative toxicisity. The regulations of cosmetics and the chemicals that go into them, is also a concern. You can read about it here...
https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics ... -regulated
One way you can check is to use a website called cosmeticdatabase. They rate cosmetics and personal care products based on their ingredients and give a overall score. You can also see the breakdown of the chemicals and the individual ratings and links to further discussions. A few years ago, they started a “verified” program for any product that met all their guidelines for safety. Reminds me somewhat of the system used by ConsumerLab.
It is not a perfect system but we have used it for many years and find it very helpful. The best part is the rating system as one can look at exactly how they got the rating and what it is based on. When I teach label reading, I always explain the how and why of my rating system so everyone knows my thinking and how I came up with the system and ratings. This way, if they disagree with some of it, they can make their own adjustment. And, like with food, you have to recheck every now and then because formulas and ingredients change.
You also may not like some of the products that score high in safety ratings as they are not rated on effectiveness. They also have an app which will scan the barcode of a product.
You can read about their rating system here
https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/contents/users-guide/
When you first go there, and start looking up products, you may be a little surprised at how poorly some of the “organic natural, etc” products score. You also have to check individual products within a brand, as some may score low hazard and some may score high hazard and it can be one ingredient that changes it. There is also an important difference between “fragrance free” and “unscented.”
We use as few of these products as possible and use a few home-made ones. By checking out a few of their verified products and those rated the lowest hazard, we have found a few products that are no only effective but safe and in many cases, fairly priced.
This past week I received another WFPB Professionals email promoted their new line of personal products. Sadly, many of them did not score well at all.
Sadly, Caveat Emptor!
In Health
Jeff