PERSONAL SKINCARE
After the Workout
All right, you’ve worked hard for an hour, and now it’s time to reward yourself. Enjoy your post-workout shake, cool down for a moment, take a shower with a soap that strips your skin of moisture, wash your mouth out with soap, and use a deodorant full of heavy metals.
Wait a minute, you say? Well, that’s exactly what happens to you most of the time you use a standard skin care product --- so what are you to do?
Nicole Sommers of Gents, LLC
Enter Nicole Sommers, NYS Licensed Esthetician, and President of Gents, LLC, a Manhattan-based company exclusively dedicated to providing men with effective all-natural skincare.*
From shaving to psoriasis, she has gathered many of the best skincare products without the harmful chemicals found in most mass-market and prestige-level brands. I use several of her products myself – shaving items, deodorant, toothpaste, and sunscreen. I have had an extremely positive experience with her product line; indeed, her shaving products are the best I have ever used.
Nicole Sommers’ Background
Nicole practiced as a CPA for many years before realizing that she was much more of a people-person than a numbers-person. She was always interested in skincare, and took more of a holistic approach when caring for her own skin.
She knew that the men's skincare market was burgeoning and under-served, but also knew that many men needed a great deal of education in this category. To that end, she became a licensed esthetician (the designation allows her to work alongside a dermatologist or plastic surgeon), and started out offering shaving and skincare consultations to men.
She soon realized that many men used products that stripped their skin of moisture and caused dehydration and premature aging. She decided to hand pick effective products from companies who put their money into ingredients, and not into massive marketing/advertising campaigns. All of her selections are made with skin wellness in mind.
When Being Clean Means Being Toxic
Major loopholes in federal law allow the $35 billion cosmetics industry to put unlimited amounts of chemicals into personal care products with no required testing, no monitoring of health effects, and inadequate labeling requirements. These companies routinely market products with ingredients that are poorly studied, not studied at all, or worse, known to pose potentially serious health risks such as birth defects or cancer.
The European Union has more stringent and protective laws in this regard than the U.S., and in January 2003, the EU amended their cosmetics directive to ban the use of chemicals that are known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation, or birth defects. This amendment went into force in September of 2004.
In the U.S., federal oversight is virtually non-existent, so some states are taking their own action to limit toxic chemicals in cosmetics. California led the way with SB 484, the California Safe Cosmetics bill – the nation’s first state law on chemicals in cosmetics. It requires companies to notify the state when they use chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects.
Unfortunately, not all states are as progressive as CA, and we are repeatedly exposed to industrial chemicals from many different sources on a daily basis. Many of these chemicals have gotten into our bodies, our breast milk, and our children.
What Skincare Items Are Safe?
From shampoo to shave cream to mouthwash, many companies use artificial preservatives, dyes, sweeteners, etc. that have been linked to cancer, birth defects and more. Many chemicals which your body doesn't recognize are stored in your fat tissues, where they remain for life, unless you get on a good program of detoxification. I welcome anyone interested in finding out more information to visit www.safecosmetics.org. Many of the suppliers whom she deals with have signed the "Compact for Safe Cosmetics" found at this site.
If you have an awareness of what you’re eating, be aware that your skin eats, too.
*For women, Nicole also carries hand-made organic products from www.eminenceorganics.com, which can be ordered by calling at (212) 734-8348, or emailing at nicole@gentsllc.com.
ALSO CHECK: Gents LLC
