Blue Tansy “Glow” Serum – Updated

In my mid 50’s, I can honestly say that my skin has never looked or felt better.  I look at photos from just last year and can see the difference in my skin. It looks healthier and “glows”.

Our skin is one of the largest organs and up to 60% of what we apply to our skin gets absorbed. It is the first to show the signs of aging and yet we don’t take as good of care of it that we should. Beginning with the years of over exposure to the sun in our youth to the application of personal care products that we believe are safe. We assume that our personal care products must be safe because the FDA wouldn’t allow a company to sell a product to us that is toxic, right? Well, sadly that is not the case. Did you know that in cosmetics alone, the European Union(EU) has banned or restricted more than 1,328 chemicals because they are known or suspected to cause cancer, genetic mutation, reproductive harm or birth defects, while the FDA  has only banned or restricted 11 of the 10,000 chemicals used in cosmetics as of 2023.

Basically, personal care products are largely unregulated. The FDA does not even require safety testing of ingredients in these products before they are allowed on the market for you and I to purchase and use. In fact the federal law designed to ensure that personal care products are safe has remained largely unchanged since 1938!*

These is not just a problem for women, but men and children are also exposed to these toxic ingredients in personal care products every day.

Personal care products, called “cosmetics” in the law, are much more than makeup and fragrance – they include lotion, toothpaste, body wash, shampoo, deodorant and many other products that people use daily. In fact on average, women use 12 personal care products a day, exposing themselves to 168 chemical ingredients. Men use six, exposing themselves to 85 unique chemicals.

The lack of restrictions allows companies to produce and sell products in the US filled with the very chemicals that are known or suspected to cause serious health issues. Yet, those same companies remove the toxic chemicals from the same products in order to have the ability to sell them in European countries.

I recall thinking that the cost of a skin care product directly related to how good it was to “fix” whatever skin issues I was looking to address and never considered that what was in the bottles was potentially ingredients that were probably aging me faster not to mention harming me. We need to ask ourselves each time we use a personal care product how is our body processing the ingredients that are in it. It only makes sense that we are extremely mindful of what we are applying to our skin. The “dirty” dozen are ingredients that you have to avoid not only to support healthy skin, but for overall wellness.

Know better do better…now I am a convert and believe in plant based personal care products and how effective they are!

One of the items that I replaced was my very expensive high-end face serum from a popular cosmetic company, which I coveted. I originally replaced it with a simple four ingredient serum  that contained jojoba oil, Frankincense, Lavender and Copaiba Essential oils. Since that first serum I have tweaked and now I make my Blue Tansy Glow Serum featuring the same oils used in that expensive skin care line that I once coveted. It contains a blend of Blue Tansy, Frankincense, Lavender, Patchouli, Geranium and other skin supporting essential oils combined with Jojoba, Rose hip seed oil and Vitamin E. It feels luxurious, gives me that same glow and never greasy or oily…your skin will “drink” it up and thank you.

I chose Young Living personal care products and essential oils because they fully disclose the ingredients and I can use them with confidence in all my DIYs from body creams  to lip balms.

My skin isn’t perfect, but knowing what is in my personal care products and getting better results than I did from the “expensive” brands is priceless.

* https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics-laws-regulations/fda-authority-over-cosmetics-how-cosmetics-are-not-fda-approved-are-fda-regulated#What_kinds