Realfoodology - Is Your Makeup Giving You Cancer? | LowToxLawyer

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

256: Is your makeup killing you? On this episode of Realfoodology, I’m joined by Attorney Whitney Ray Di Bona (or the LowToxLawyer on Instagram) who has represented women who developed terminal cancer due to asbestos in their cosmetics. We talk about why even the ‘clean products’ can’t always be trusted, and the regulations that could prevent this from happening in the future. Trust me, I know this sounds overwhelming. But I hope you can take away one or two tips from Whitney to start cutting back on the most toxic products so you don’t end up in one of these lawsuits. Topics Discussed: → Toxic ingredients in skincare and beauty products  → Whether clean products are actually safe → The truth about botox and filler  → Biggest lawsuits against cosmetics companies → Regulation in the makeup/skincare industry in the U.S. vs. abroad  Sponsored By: →  JASPR | Go to jaspr.co/realfoodology and get $400 off with code REALFOODOLOGY. → Beekeepers Naturals | Go to beekeepersnaturals.com/REALFOODOLOGY or enter code REALFOODOLOGY to get 20% off your order.  → Paleovalley | Save at 15% at paleovalley.com/realfoodology and use code REALFOODOLOGY. → LMNT | Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at drinklmnt.com/realfoodology. → BIOptimizers | They’re giving us an exclusive offer! Check out bioptimizers.com/realfoodology and use promo code  REALFOODOLOGY.  → Our Place | Use code REALFOODOLOGY for 10% off at fromourplace.com.  Timestamps:  → 00:00:00 - Introduction   → 00:05:29 - The Top Worst Ingredients Found In Skincare  → 00:06:04 - Mesothelioma Lawsuits Among Young Women  → 00:07:20 - Skincare Product Additives to Avoid → 00:09:15 - What ‘Fragrance’ Really Means   → 00:09:53 - Is ‘Clean Fragrance’ Actually a Thing?   → 00:12:25 - Cosmetics Regulations in the United States vs. Europe   → 00:16:47 - The Benefits of Natural Deodorant   → 00:17:45 - Skincare Products to Put on High Alert   → 00:18:26 - Concerns about Tampon Ingredients  → 00:23:20 - What To Look out for When Buying Tampons  → 00:25:55 - Suing the Biggest Brands in Makeup and Skincare  → 00:28:25 - Johnson and Johnson Baby Powder Litigation  → 00:34:57 - The Talc to Asbestos Pipeline → 00:38:02 - Asbestos Exposures through Makeup → 00:38:55 - How Clean Are Sephora’s Products Actually?  → 00:42:58 - Whitney’s Takes on Courtney’s Clean Makeup Brands  → 00:44:21 - Whitney’s Advice for How to Pick Your Products → 00:45:10 - Clean Hair Care  → 00:48:05 - Identifying Toxins to Eliminate First  → 00:51:00 - Nail Care and Health of Salon Workers  → 00:54:40 - Managing Toxic Load While Being Realistic   → 00:56:26 - Using Informed Consent to Make Choices About Health  → 00:58:05 - Calls for Regulation in Food and Health   → 01:01:40 - Pressuring CPG Companies to Do Better    → 01:04:30 - The Dangers of Botox and Filler  → 01:10:20 - Face Taping / Alternatives to Botox → 01:12:51 - Teens and Twenty-Year-Olds Trying Botox and Filler Check Out Whitney Ray Di Bona: → LowToxLawyer - Instagram   → The Wellness Verdict with Whitney Di Bona Check Out Courtney:  →  LEAVE US A VOICE MESSAGE →  Check Out My new FREE Grocery Guide! →  @realfoodology →  www.realfoodology.com →  My Immune Supplement by 2x4 →  Air Dr Air Purifier →  AquaTru Water Filter →  EWG Tap Water Database Produced By: Drake Peterson

On today's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. In the tip of your finger, you can have up to like a trillion asbestos fibers in that little tiny space. So you know, if it's in your makeup compact or whatever and you're brushing that and blowing on your brush and that's all going up into your airspace, you could be potentially breathing in a trillion asbestos fibers if it's contaminated. Hello friends, welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. On today's episode, I sit down with Whitney DeBona. She is an attorney and advocate for safer beauty.

And y'all, this episode was so jam packed with all of your questions. We talk about toxic makeup brands and skincare. What are the most concerning ingredients in skincare and beauty products that you want to look out for? What are the ingredients specifically that you want to look out for? What are the ones that are most concerning? Endocrine disruptors. We talk about dyes and fragrances. We also talk about which product is the absolute worst that you want to be staying away from. She also names some names in the craziest litigation that she want to be staying away from. She also names some names in the craziest litigation that she has been involved in yet.

And how regulated is the beauty industry? What natural deodorant does she recommend? And why is it so important? much more. We also talk about hair care, we talk about Botox, we talk about it all, and we share some of our favorite products. And you're not going to want to miss this episode. It was so jam-packed. I can't believe that we got all of this in in one hour. If you're loving the podcast and you want to take a moment to rate and review it, it means so much to me. It really, really does help this show. And also, if you want to find Whitney DeBona and follow her on Instagram, she's at Low Talks Lawyer. We'll also leave it in the show notes. And if you're loving

this particular episode and you want to tag us, please tag me at Real Foodology and at Low Talks Lawyer on Instagram. Thanks so much for listening. You all know that I am really into reducing my toxic burden and that includes making sure that the air I breathe is as clean and purified as possible. The EPA has actually said that indoor air is more toxic than outdoor air, which I know sounds really shocking. But when you think about we spend so much time indoors, plus we get exposed to things from cooking inside, if you're burning candles, also our furniture off gases,

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They're also available at Target, Whole Foods, Amazon, CVS, and Walgreens. Whitney, thank you so much for coming on. I'm so excited to have you. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you. Yeah, this is a long time coming. We've been trying to do this for a while. I was supposed to be in Florida like a couple months ago and then that got moved and then

just it's my travel schedule is nuts right now. But I'm so happy that we were able to make this work. Yeah, me too. This is so fun. So you are a lawyer. Let's just like dive right into it. So you're a lawyer and you talk a lot about beauty, skincare, Botox. I want to go into all of that because it's so fascinating and I know that my audience is very curious about all this and we want to know like how to navigate things. What do we need to avoid? How toxic is Botox? We're going to go into all of that. First and foremost, what are the most concerning ingredients that are in our makeup and beauty products and are they being regulated?

Very loosely regulated. I would say that the top, you know, questionable. there's a lot of questionable ingredients. But for me, kind of where I started diving into all of this was with talc. That was like the starting point for me and then it's just kind of been a like a neverending deep dive into ingredients since that. Because I was representing a lot of clients who had developed mesothelioma which is a fatal cancer that's caused from asbestos

exposure and a lot of my clients you know started to be younger women and even some men but you know people in their 40s 50s not your typical kind of person that you would see with mesothelioma. Typically you think of like an older, 80s, 90s, 70s men who worked in construction or they were auto mechanics, things like that. And so we started getting all these younger clients and we started suing all of these companies for makeup products. Like it wasn't just baby powder and those kind of products. It was, we're suing CoverGirl for face powder and things like that. And so when I started taking those cases,

I was like, wait a minute, what's going on here? We're suing for makeup products and a lot of makeup products that I've used throughout my life. And so that was really where I started kind of diving into everything. And so talc was like the tipping point for me. And then, since then I've kind of just been

researching ingredient after ingredient. And I think that the main things that I look to avoid in my products are gonna to be talc, for sure. Fragrance, the synthetic fragrance, which people don't even realize there's synthetic fragrance in things like foundation and things that don't have a scent, but they're putting fragrance on the label and masking all these chemicals to cut. Sometimes things can have a funny smell, so maybe they are adding some kind of whatever to make it smell better, but the fragrance I think is huge. And then there's other things.

There's a lot of concerning preservatives. So most makeup, most cosmetic products are water-based. And so whenever you have something that's water-based, you have to add in preservatives to keep it from molding. And so that's really where we see a lot of things like parabens, I mean, that's a preservative and that's why they are added to these products. But we know now that the parabens are impacting our hormones.

And same thing with phthalates, those are added to products to really kind of make are impacting our hormones. And same thing with phthalates, those are added to products to really kind of make the scent last longer and make it really like seep into your body. And we now know that those are all endocrine disrupting chemicals. And so I think the biggest things, I mean you can get really technical and I'm still learning new things all the time. But for me, I'm always looking to avoid talc. I'm looking to avoid anything with parabens or phthalates, anything with synthetic fragrance. I would say that those are really like the big ones to look for. It's interesting because I feel like fragrance has become the artificial or natural flavors.

Like you pick your poison, either one. It's kind of one of those umbrella terms, right? Or it can mean there's a bunch of different chemicals under there that are allowed to be under the umbrella of fragrance, and then the companies don't actually have to name what they've put in there. Right, that's correct.

And you know, when I first kind of learned that fragrance on a label like that, there could be thousands of chemicals in that fragrance, and they don't have to tell us what is in there. And so I think that that's kind of the most troubling thing is, you know, we don't even know what's in this fragrance. And so, and a lot of that, when you see that blanket term on a label, usually it does contain parabens and phthalates. That's all just kind of like mixed in there into the fragrance. So, you know, you really have to just be careful because you don't know what's in there. You don't know what you're putting on your body and they don't have to tell you.

Yeah. And I've been seeing a lot of companies popping up recently making cleaner fragrance. Do you think that there's such a thing as clean fragrance? I think that so there are some companies out there that are making cleaner fragrance at least according to them. Some of them, I know there's one company it's called Esauce or Esauce NYC, I don't know if you've ever heard of them. I would say that they're just from looking at the ingredients they're kind of one of the more cleaner brands that are out there because I think that they use pretty much all essential oils in their products. But then some of these other brands, like there's another brand, Henry Rose, and I really

like Henry Rose. I really like their, everything smells fantastic. They are, they use synthetics. They call them safe synthetics and you know it kind of just becomes a judgment call because I love that company because they're very transparent. They disclose every single ingredient. They tell you exactly what's in their fragrance and they say you know we don't include any of these harmful things. We don't include any known endocrine disruptors, any known

you know problematic problematic things. And that's where the big issue is, if you're using some of these safe synthetics, do we really know that they're safe? We don't really know that. So, all of this, I mean, and I think it's the same with food, it's the same with everything, it comes down to like, we just have to do the best that we can, And then it's a judgment call, you know, you can say I 100% don't want anything synthetic on my body at all, it's not worth the risk to me,

or maybe you're going through some kind of a health issue, or you're trying to get pregnant, or like there's a big reason why you would want to just completely say, I'm just not gonna do any of that right now. But for some people, you know, you might look at it and go, all right, well, they're disclosing everything. I'm just not going to do any of that right now. But for some people, you might look at it and go, all right, well, they're disclosing everything.

We don't know that there's anything dangerous about these specific ingredients. So maybe I want to smell really nice every once in a while or whatever. safer ingredients even that they're, so they're now a lot of companies are taking the parabens out, but they're replacing them with other preservatives. Yeah. And again, the problem is, we don't really know. I mean, there hasn't been this extensive testing done for us to know if those are actually safer or better than the parabens that were, you know, that we were already using. So yeah, yeah, parabens are concerning to me.

I remember years and years and years ago, I was really on it with parabens. And now, to be honest, I don't even really think about it because all the companies that I buy from, I know that they don't use parabens. But I know there was a lot of concerning links to breast cancer, right? It was breast cancer and maybe some other cancers, I think.

And so I was super concerned about parabens. And I kind of feel the same way about fragrance. For me personally, I think. And so I was super concerned about parabens. And I kind of feel, I feel the same way about fragrance. For me personally, I really believe in kind of like a picking your poison and also just informed consent and knowing when you're putting all this stuff on your body that it will potentially have risks, especially like infertility. And for me, I'm like my poisons, my nails. Like I know they're terrible. And I'm actually going to ask you about this because I know, I know they're terrible.

And I get messages all the time People saying well, why do you do that? Or are you doing something that we don't know about that's clean and I'm like, no I just have decided that everything else in my house is clean. Right? I don't wear perfume I own a couple from like dime because they're apparently cleaner and I will maybe wear dime every like two months But I just feel like for me. I'm like, I don't really care that much. I would rather maybe wear Dime every like two months, but I just feel like for me, I'm like, I don't really care that much. I would rather use my quote unquote allotment of like toxins on nails. Yeah. But I think the thing that's most concerning to me is that I started learning

that even compared to places like the UK, for example, and I want to hear from you if this is actually true, but what I've heard is that they are way more concerned, like they actually regulate the ingredients that are allowed to be in cosmetics versus here. And for example, I know there was some testing that was being done and they were finding things like formaldehyde and some of these really big brands too. It was like, I feel like it was like Chanel, Mac, like all the really big ones that people are spending

top dollar on and they're getting formaldehyde. Yeah, yeah, so in the US, I was really shocked to find out that when it comes to cosmetics The FDA doesn't really regulate cosmetics. They put it off on the manufacturers and say You have to make sure that your products are safe, but there's no they don't have to like submit a bunch of Safety data or testing or do anything. Like there's nothing required.

It's just them saying, yep, it's safe and popping it on a shelf somewhere. By the way, they do this with food companies too. This is the exact same thing that the FDA allows for food companies through the loophole gross, which is generally recognized as safe. But yeah, so it's interesting how it's paralleled. Yeah, it's kind of all the same, just a different.

It's copy and paste for every industry. Yeah. But yeah, so we really don't have a lot of regulation when it comes to our cosmetics. And you know, the EU, for instance, they have way stricter regulations than we do here. They ban something like 2400 or I think it's more than that ingredients in cosmetics there and I think our list right now is 11 or 12. So I mean way stricter regulations even with things like fragrance. So if you're buying a product that is coming from Europe and it's manufactured in Europe, if it says fragrance on the label

there, you at least know that it has, they do require some safety testing and things like that for their fragrance and they have that huge list of ingredients that are not allowed to be in there. So it's very different if you're buying something that says fragrance from Europe

versus something that says fragrance here in the United States. So the lack of regulation is really concerning, and I've talked to other people that have gone off and tried to start skincare brands or some kind of cosmetic products, and they were just shocked at, they're like, I was trying to contact the FDA

to figure out what do I have to do to get this product approved and get it on the market and get it sold. They were basically like, I don't have to do anything. There's nothing there. It's just wild. It's crazy. So from what you have seen, what do you think is maybe the most important product that should

be non-toxic? For example, I don't really worry as much about mascara. I still try to buy like cleaner brands. I think I buy, what is it called, Tower 28. But to me, I'm like mascara is kind of on the lowest totem pole for me. I'm more worried about what's actually being absorbed in my skin and maybe what I'm eating.

So like lip stuff. Yeah. I think deodorant is major. And that's unfortunate because I think switching to natural deodorant is very hard. A lot of people have a really tough time with it. Most of the natural deodorants have baking soda in them. Most people are sensitive to baking soda,

and they just will break out in rashes, and it's a whole thing. But I think that that sensitive area of your body, I read something that said what you put in your armpits, I think it said it can absorb up to like 100% of whatever you're putting in your armpit because it is such a sensitive area. And that is the area where we're dispelling

all of the toxins from our body. There's also lymph nodes there. Yeah, you have the lymph nodes. It's just close to the breast tissue. So I think that deodorant is, it's one of the hardest switches, but I think that that's one of the most important. And then I really think, I don't know,

like you're saying, you kind of have to weigh and evaluate like what is the worst thing to be putting on my body when it comes to your cosmetics? But I think that lotions, I mean, if you're, like, slathering yourself with lotion from head to toe once or twice a day, you know, you really kind of want to know what's in there. You're putting that all over your body. You're using a large amount of it.

If you're somebody that wears makeup every single day, like foundation and things like that, where you're just really putting that all over your face, that might be, you know, an important area. Something that I have recently kind of bumped to the top of my list that I never really, I just hadn't gone into that rabbit hole yet, that I think that tampons are extremely important.

And I don't think that this has been really talked about enough because everybody's so focused on clean beauty and all these things. But I think that the ingredients in your mascara are probably way less something that you should be worrying about than what is in the tampon that you're putting inside of your body multiple days, every single month, leaving it inside your body

for prolonged periods of time. I just interviewed a tampon manufacturer for my podcast and we were just kind of going through the ingredients and I was like, oh gosh, it just wasn't something that I had really, you know, gone in and looked at yet. So I think that that is, I think deodorant, I think tampons, I think that's super important. And then I just think anything that you're using

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people are going to like come for me when I said I eat it. I'm not literally eating it obviously, but you know, like we're consuming it. Yeah. When you put it on your mouth. Yeah. The tampons one is a really big one. I was actually gonna bring that up because this is one that when I finally discovered this. So I actually my very first YouTube video I ever did was on tampons and it was in 2016

because I remember like it was kind of one of those like moments where I feel like everyone can relate to this and I'm sure it was same for you or like you suddenly learn something like that and it's like a light bulb turns on, you're like, oh my God, why did I never think about this before? And I very much felt that way about tampons. Especially because I was reading too,

I don't know if a lot of people are even talking about this yet, but one of the things I read was that TSS, which is the toxic shock syndrome, a lot of the reason why that is happening is not necessarily because of the tampon itself, but it's because of the materials that they're using in the fake tampons. I'm calling them fake tampons, but a lot of the tampaxes of the world, they don't use

100% cotton. They use rayon in there and other synthetics that they're mixing with the cotton. And what I read is that if you just use 100% cotton, your risk for TSS basically almost becomes non-existent. Oh, wow. I hadn't read that, but that's crazy. Isn't that crazy? I was super mad when I learned about that.

That's wild. Because a lot of these tampons are not actually using 100% cotton. And then you go even a step further. And I know it's so annoying, but we have to go there. If you're not getting organic cotton, it's being soaked and sprayed in glyphosate. So then you're sticking rayon and glyphosate up in a very vascular area of your body, meaning that there's a lot of...

Oh my God, why did I just blank on the arteries down there? Yeah, I was like, what am I looking for? So it's going basically into your bloodstream in a very absorbable place of your body. So that is a huge one and I'm so glad that you brought it up. Yeah. Can I go just even one more step to be even more annoying about the tampons? So yeah I just learned that even these tampon brands that say 100% if it just says 100% organic cotton on the box, that does not mean that the entire tampon

is 100% organic cotton. It means that some percentage of it is organic, but it doesn't mean that the entire thing and every part of it is 100% organic. So what you really wanna look for is it needs to say 100% organic certified. And there are specific certifying agencies that it's very, very difficult. That's why most tampon companies, even the organic ones, don't have these certifications

because you have to really be on whatever ingredients you're using in there. And it's more expensive and all of those things. So just to make it even harder for everyone, you really want to be looking for 100% certified organic on the box with a little label. I can't remember the names of the agencies right now, but there's, I think, two of them that certify the tampon products like that.

I mean, it is so absurd, the amount of like, just how much we have to care about all this, and how much we have to look into it. I actually didn't even know that, but it makes sense to me because knowing what I know about food, they can do the same thing. Or they can claim that a product is organic. I don't remember the exact percentages, but it's up to a certain percentage of the

food ingredients that are in there organic. They can say that it's just like organic. Otherwise, if it's under, I think it's if it's under like 75%, it might be higher than that, then they're allowed to say contains organic ingredients. They're not allowed to call it organic. But that makes sense because what they're doing there is they're saying it's 100% cotton, but then they don't have to say that it's 100% organic. They're saying 100% cotton and contains mostly organic ingredients. I can't. That makes me crazy.

What is the craziest litigation you've been involved in yet? And can you name the brand? So, I mean, I think the craziest thing for me and what really just kind of opened my eyes to, I mean, I was already, I was handling asbestos cases, but like I said earlier, they were mostly your typical asbestos type of exposure cases. There wasn't, you know, it was like pumps and valves on Navy ships and cars and construction sites and things like that.

But when we really started suing all of these companies for the powder products and the makeup products, that was when I just, like, my whole world was, like, turned upside down because I just... That affected me, you know? Like, I didn't work on a Navy ship. I never was a construction worker. So it's like, you know, I'm representing these people and I'm learning those exposures. But it felt far away for me. I didn't understand that. I had to watch, I don't know how many YouTube videos I watched on how to change a tire and replace a valve and change brakes and whatever. But when we're talking about makeup, it was like, oh, I've been wearing makeup since I was, I don't know, 12. And that really hit home, especially since a lot of the

brands that we were suing were, like I said earlier, these were products that I had used. I'm talking to these clients who were, you know, a little older than me, but okay, we're going through all the makeup that you used in your life. It's, you know, Allmay eyeshadow and CoverGirl face powder and MAC and, you know and all these different brands.

And so that really shook me because I was like, well, if this is the case and these products were contaminated with asbestos and these companies knew about it, what else is in all of our makeup and all of the cosmetic products that we're using? So yeah, I would say that any of the talc litigation, those were the cases that really just kinda,

I don't know, they like blew everything open for me because then that was when I really started just digging into everything. And Johnson & Johnston, we had lots of cases against them for mostly the baby powder and then they also have a product that they made called Shower to Shower. Is this the Baby Tears one, the shampoo, or is this different?

No, this is another powder product that they made called Shower to Shower. So it's similar to baby powder. I never knew that people used baby powder. I just thought baby powder was you put it on babies when you change their diaper. But people really, if you're a powder wearer, I mean, these people would get out of the shower and basically bathe in powder I mean they put it everywhere all over their bodies. They used it for sweat. They used it as deodorant They'd use it after the shower. They'd use it after the gym. They just put it in their shoes

I mean lots and lots of powder use and so I had a lot of clients that were you know these lifelong Johnson & Johnson baby powder wearers. And like I said earlier, 50 years old getting diagnosed with mesothelioma, which is a cancer that typically people maybe have three to six months to live, but by the point that they get diagnosed. So it's a horrific cancer. And Johnson & Johnson currently they're on their third bankruptcy attempt for these cases. So there is a loophole in the law called,

well, it's called the Texas Two-Step, but basically these companies can open up a shell corporation, assign all of their liabilities to that shell corporation, and then they file for bankruptcy on that shell company. And so what Johnson & Johnson has done now three times is they've tried to do that with all of their talc cases. And so they assign all of the talc liabilities to these shell companies, file for bankruptcy protection on that company. The first two times, the courts keep throwing them out and saying, hey, Johnson & Johnson,

you're a multi-billion dollar corporation. You're not bankrupt. Like, you have the money to pay these cancer victims what they are owed. You have the money to fight these cases in court. And so then in the meantime, they've been proposing these mass settlements, which I think the first one was something like $700 million. Now I think they're up to like $8 billion that they're proposing for the settlement. But they're doing that now to try to force all of the cancer victims or their families,

because a lot of these people aren't even alive anymore, because this has been going on for so long. And so they're basically just doing that to try and force them to accept these settlements versus fighting them in court where they could potentially get a $20 million verdict versus whatever it is that they're being offered in the settlement.

And this trust would also, it would be for the next like 25 years or something. So we're talking about it's, $8 billion sounds like a ton of money, but it's being split between all of the current cases plus all the future cases for the next 25 years. So it's, they're just a really, really despicable company in my opinion, and I think one of the worst companies that I've ever really litigated against. And it's just sad.

It's just so sad, and it's so sad for all of these people that have been waiting now for years to get some kind of justice and compensation, and there's just no end in sight to it because they keep doing this over and over again, clearly in bad faith. I mean, yeah, well, because they know that's the problem is that now they know. Yeah. And they just keep doing it because also the baby powder is still on the shelves, right? It is still on the shelves. So they a lot of people don't know this, but they removed talc from all of their baby powder in the US. I think it was like 2020 maybe when they removed it.

And then 2023, no, just a few years ago. 2023 I think is when they took it out of all their products nationwide, still defending it saying we stand behind our products, they've always been safe, there's no problem. But you know, now they've decided to take all of the talk out, so. You know that feeling after a big meal when you're bloated, tired, and you really just want to take a nap? Or when you're sore for days after a workout?

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I wish I could remember what it was called about the cosmetic industry. And it was something really fascinating about how it ended up in there and I can't yeah it was it's so It's not the companies aren't intentionally adding the asbestos in asbestos and talc are both naturally occurring Minerals that form in the earth, but the problem is they typically form very close to each other and so You have the situation where these talc vines are just contaminated with asbestos. And once it's in there, you can't really get it out. And there's a big problem with the testing for the talc. And that's something that is right now being reviewed by the FDA because there was an act that was passed, I think it was, I don't know, maybe two years ago.

It's MACRA or MOKRA, it's the modernization something, I can't remember what the acronym stands for, but basically it was supposed to be this major beauty reform act that was gonna make all of our cosmetics safer. I think that its actual impact is pretty minimal, but they did require in that act that the FDA come up with some sort of unanimous testing for talc in cosmetics.

And so right now, that's sort of being hashed out with the FDA, and they've proposed, you know, what that rule is going to look like and how the manufacturers are going to have to comply with it. So I'm just kind of keeping my eye on that to see. But the problem is there's a lot of disagreement in the way that you actually test the talc for the asbestos. There's different testing methods and so some of them are not as sensitive as others.

So it's like, well, if we adopt adopt this testing method there's a potential that there could still be asbestos in there because you're not using the proper testing method so that's kind of what's being hashed out right now but hopefully there will at least be some kind of uniform rule where the man either the manufacturers or the talc suppliers somebody is testing I think it needs to be every single batch of the talc before it's going into these products because you know you just can't they just they need to have the testing there and we know that asbestos is

there's no safe level of asbestos exposure so even if it's a trace amount you know I remember learning early on when I started doing asbestos exposure. So even if it's a trace amount, I remember learning early on when I started doing asbestos work that in the tip of your finger, you can have up to like a trillion asbestos fibers in that little tiny space. So if it's in your makeup compact or whatever and you're brushing that and blowing on your brush

and that's all going up into your air space, you could be potentially breathing in a trillion asbestos fibers if it's contaminated. Some people are like, oh, it's over-dramaticized and we don't really need to worry about this. But if women are putting this on their face every single day, and most women are, then you're getting small, even if it is small exposures, over time compounding, that's a lot. And then you think about too,

that most of us started wearing makeup when we were 12, 13, obviously not every day, or most of us weren't. But even like playing around with it. I used to buy all those brands when I was younger, Maybelline, Covergirl, all of them. And I think a lot of people still, I still don't think that the masses have totally been hit yet with the understanding that we need to be buying cleaner cosmetics. And also too, I mean, lower socioeconomic, you know, they're not able to go out and buy

the really expensive, nice brands and a lot of the non-toxic ones are more expensive. And so a lot of people are still buying their stuff from like Target and CVS, and they're getting the CoverGirls and Maybellines of the world, and not knowing that they're not clean. Which actually reminds me, are any of the clean products at Sephora actually clean? So some of them probably are. I think the problem is, so Sephora, they actually just had a recent lawsuit. They had a class action lawsuit filed against them for people saying that their clean line

was not actually clean and that it contained synthetics and contained things that they didn't. People assume if you're buying clean, you know, it's clean. It's natural. It's natural. Yeah. And so there was a whole class action that the court ended up actually throwing out because, not because they said, oh yeah, these products are clean, but basically Sephora has very set guidelines on what is allowed in their clean line.

And so they specifically say, we do not allow anything that has parabens, phthalates. I forget the other ones. I think that they have, it's like seven or eight things that are excluded and not allowed to be in those products. It doesn't mean that they're all natural. It doesn't mean that they don't use synthetics. It just means these are the seven ingredients

that we say are clean and non-toxic, and these are the seven ingredients that we say are clean and non-toxic, or these are the seven ingredients that we say are toxic and those have to be excluded. And so, you know, I think with every product line right now, you really have to go product by product because there might be some things in a product line that I would say, oh yeah, I would wear that or I would use that, but then they might make another product that has an ingredient that I would go, oh, that's questionable, I wouldn't probably wanna buy that or use that.

And so that's why it's just, it's so hard right now and people get so frustrated because everybody just wants the answer, everybody just wants you to tell them, well, what can I buy, what is safe? And it's really even hard, I mean, you can make these master lists and things like that, but the companies are constantly changing their ingredients and, you know, so it's just so hard for consumers to actually buy clean

products. But I would say that the majority of things at Sephora, even in the clean section, you're going to find things like phenoxyethanol is a preservative that they've replaced the parabens with. That still is a questionable ingredient. They allow ethoxylated ingredients, so those can leave traces of 1,4-dioxane, which is a carcinogen. Those are in all the clean brands anywhere, Target, Sephora, they're going to have those ingredients in there. I think even at Sephora, they allow Lillial, which is a known reproductive toxin. It's banned in the EU, but it's allowed in the US in clean, clean products. Can we just have regulatory bodies that are actually looking out for us and banning

these ingredients? Because it is exhausting. It really is. I was just sitting here thinking I actually missed the days of when when I was first learning about all of this, it would have been it was probably 2011, maybe 2012. Oh, no, it was actually earlier than that because I was living in LA. It was like 2009. There was one makeup brand that was at Whole Foods.

Now, granted, I don't miss that makeup brand because they weren't the best. But back then, it was like, I still think to this day that they're pretty clean and mineral fusion. OK. I don't know if I've ever looked into that one. I couldn't even tell you now if it was clean or not. But I just remember back then, it was like,

I knew that I could just get clean cosmetics at Whole Foods. It's where I was buying all my stuff. And then all these other brands started coming out with cleaner products, and I was super excited about it. And then I more recently had been learning what you just said, which is you have to look up each individual product. And now I am just, I'm exhausted, girl.

I'm exhausted. I know. Because I was so excited. I was like, oh'm exhausted, girl. I'm exhausted. I know. Because I was so excited. I was like, oh my gosh, all these amazing, like high performing natural cosmetics are coming out. They also have cool fun branding. Like the branding was always boring and like crunchy, if you want to call it that, Whole Foods.

Yeah. Some of the brands that I love and that I use, cause I'm assuming people will ask and I'm curious your thoughts on some of these. So my main ones are RMS. That's like my number one. That's majority of the stuff I use is actually from RMS. Okay. They're a pretty clean brand. I think they're pretty overall. I haven't done a deep dive into every single product, but I've used some of their products and I think that they're overall like a pretty good brand. Yeah. God, because I love them. Their foundation and their concealers, unlike anything I've ever found in the natural space,

they're amazing. Yeah. I use a lot of, well, not a lot. I use a couple of products from COSAs. I use a couple of products from Tower 28, and there's one other one that I'm forgetting that'll probably come to me later. But okay, that's good about RMS. Yeah.

And again, I think- Oh, Ilya. Oh, Ilya, yeah. Ilya is another one that... You know, I think they have a lot of products that, yes, would check the boxes. I wouldn't, you know, consider anything in them to be harmful, but they do. I think Ilya uses some synthetic dyes, and that's the problem is it's really hard to make makeup with color in it without these dyes, And there are companies that are doing it, but it's like, it doesn't last as long.

It doesn't, you know, it's hard to make the super, super clean products that actually work and actually last. So again, it just comes back to, I don't know, just educating yourself the best that you can and again deciding if I wear a lipstick every once in a blue moon, is that going to kill me? Probably not. If it's like something like your mascara or you just have to sort of weigh and balance

everything and decide how non-toxic do I want to go with this? How much do I want to trust some of these companies that are saying clean synthetics, clean or safe synthetics? It's just so hard. I mean, talk about hard. One of the things that I actually, I get so many DMs about this and I personally have not been able to make the shift because every time I've tried products They just did not work for my hair hair care hair shampoo and conditioner I've I've switched out everything else like I use a lot of styling products from evolve. It's Evol H. Yeah, and then I have a couple products from Intersense

Yeah, but I use the Innersense shampoo and conditioner My hair was straw. Oh really like it was straw Yeah, it was horrible and I wanted to love them so bad because I hear that they're pretty clean Mm-hmm. I finally went back to my like Supposedly, it's like quote-unquote like a little bit less toxic than some of the other ones because I know it doesn't contain parabens Yeah, I know that it contains fragrance I can't do it like literally my hair was like one like if I got too close to a candle like the thing would go Up like that's how dry it was. Yeah, and so I don't know what to do

So do you have any good hair care products? I actually inner sense is one that I do really like I love their shampoos. Their conditioner does not condition my hair as much as I would like. I like all of their styling products, so I love their blowout cream and their hair spray and all of those products. Hair care is tough, and I hear people all the time say that too, like, I tried this brand, I tried that brand, I don't like it, it doesn't work. So I think with the haircare, at least if you find something that works for you,

at least make sure, you know, buy it from the clean section at Target, make sure that it at least doesn't have parabens and phthalates and it might still have fragrance in it, but at least they're excluding those harmful things that we know about. They might not be disclosing every single ingredient that's in the fragrance. So that's where a lot of this comes down to. Also, you kind of have to put some trust in some of these manufacturers because you don't have a choice. Otherwise, they don't have to tell you what's in there.

Some brands are becoming really transparent. And if you email the brand or ask them questions about what's in their fragrance, they'll tell you. So that's always an option. But there's another brand that I just found and I've been testing out some of their styling products and I got some little travel size of the shampoo and I thought it was decent and I'm forgetting what it's called. It's like Rao.

Rao. I don't know how you pronounce it. I haven't tried that brand, but some people do really like that one. So I need to get my hands on that and do some testing. I'm trying, I'm really trying here, but I just, with my hair, it was like, oh my gosh, I couldn't, and I also, I've been trying to grow out my hair

and it's been really tough. I think this is something that I have sort of done a 180 on, because I started from a place of looking at all my beauty products, just because that was what was in my face. That's what I was dealing with with the lawsuits. So that was kind of where I started on this whole journey. As I have gone further and further down the rabbit hole into everything,

I'm like, your food is more important than your mascara. Your water is more important than your mascara. You know, the air quality in your home is more important probably than your mascara. Like, there are bigger issues. I think it's all important and it's all, it all needs to be overhauled. It all needs to be regulated better. But I just think, I think that people are focusing on the wrong things sometimes first, which is fine

because however you end up going down this journey, I think it's great. Yeah. And like I said, I went in completely backwards. So, you know, I would be freaking out about phenoxyethanol in my mascara, yet we're drinking plastic water bottles. And, you know, so it's, I just think, I don't want people like panicking and freaking out. Like I said earlier, it's just sort of educating

yourself, figuring out, okay, this is, you know, a product that I'm using all the time, every single day, can I find a safer solution and swap this out and just do it slowly? Like, you can't swap every single product out overnight. It takes time and it's expensive. I've been a couple years now at testing out different makeup and skincare products and all these things. And you might buy, it's all expensive

and you might buy a $50 tube of mascara and it's horrible, but you're stuck with it. I get it when people feel so overwhelmed and so stressed out that they're just like, I'm not going to do anything because it's all too much. Now I'm sort of coming at people from a different lens of focus on the things that are really, really important, which your food is really, really important. Your are like really, really important, which your food is really, really important. Your water is really, really important. And then do all

the other things slowly as you can. And you just have to do the best that you can because it's the wild, wild west and it's crazy out here. It definitely is. And we definitely need to do the best we can. Something I will say though, that horrified me the first time I heard this is that on average women are being exposed to around 160 different toxic chemicals on a daily basis. That horrified me and that lit a fire under my ass to change out a lot of this stuff. And yes, are we going to be perfect? Absolutely not. Like you said, I mean, I just admit it. I mean, I do my nails. I use like a probably somewhat toxic shampoo and conditioner I would say

Every single thing that you can find that you can swap out do it and then maybe pick your like three top poisons You know and like for me, it's the shampoo. It's my nails and I know there's something else But I'm not thinking of it right now But I know there's something else But so just where you can swap out, because there are a lot of amazing, at least brands that are doing better and they're making cleaner stuff. But, yeah, it is it's it is the Wild Wild West. And we're all out here just trying our best talking about the nails.

You can be really honest with me. How bad is it? I know it's bad. I just like my nails, my nails will not grow past my finger here. They break off immediately. It's a thing my mom has this, my grandma has it. It's just like hereditary for me with my nails and it, I mean, man hands. Clearly it's not good for you. Do you do acrylic or do you gel or what do you do?

I do hard gel. Okay. I think, and I don't know if acrylic is kind of being like phased out because I think acrylic is horrible. I mean, it is like a carcinogen and I mean that stuff when they're drilling your nails like that, I mean you just see it flying everywhere. But you know, I think again, it's pick your poison. I am worried more so for the women who are working in these nail salons, day in and day

out. Also, hair salon workers. And I actually, there was just a lawsuit filed. It's a little bit ironic because I feel like the main thing that people are always coming at me about on Instagram in the comment section is, well, you have your bleach blonde hair, you dye your hair, you know. And I'm always like, all right, whatever, like that's my thing. I've, you know, give me a break. I quit Botox. I gave up all the, you know, all the toxic makeup. Like I'd still dye my hair. Leave me alone.

People come for me for that too. That's my third. Yeah. But there my third. Yeah. So there was just a lawsuit filed and I'm actually going to interview the attorney who filed it because there was a study came out talking about increases in, I think it was kidney cancer. There might have been a few other cancers but basically it was a salon worker who had developed whatever type of kidney, I think it's kidney cancer, and it was from all of the exposure to, what they're alleging is to all of the exposure from the chemicals

and all of the hair dye and all these things that he had been exposed to working in a hair salon. So I think again there's still a lot that we don't know about all of that stuff, but I really do worry so much for women who are working in nail salons. I went recently, I very rarely ever get my nails done anymore in the salon. And I went recently and I sat in there and I had a headache in like 10 minutes. The fumes were so strong. It was so bad. And I'm like, how do these people, this is not good for them. Being in here breathing this in every single day so again it's if it's something that you're

doing every you know couple weeks you're in there for an hour and you're out you know I mean I've started thinking about maybe wearing a mask going in there I just like after COVID I'm so beyond done with masks. But I mean, it is something I'm considering because I totally agree every time I go in there, I seriously fear for everyone that's working in those nail salons. And I need to just get over it.

I think after I get married, I probably won't, but I'm like, I want pretty nails for my wedding. And it's just like, it's tough because my job requires me to be on camera a lot and so it just is hard but I think I just have to get over it at some point. I'm like get over it Courtney it's like not worth your health. I mean but again it just comes back to if every single thing you know if you're doing everything else and really limiting the toxins because I think you know everybody keeps talking

about this toxic bucket and if you're really limiting as much as you can what you're being exposed to, is it going to kill you if you go get your nails done every once in a while? I don't know. None of us really know the answer to that. It's just a personal judgment call for everybody. But I can't stand the, just this whole, like all the trolls and everybody online where it's such a, everything has to be all or nothing.

And if you are not living in a tent in the middle of an organic forest somewhere, they're going to come after you. I had somebody literally say that the paint on the walls in my house, in my dining room, that the paint on your walls is toxic. And I'm like, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to go live outside? What do you want from me? You know?

But even then they wouldn't be satisfied. They wouldn't. That's the thing is they'd be like, oh, well, you're close to a conventional farm, so you're still getting the sprays from the, I mean, I just can't. No, I know. It's so crazy.

These people are so nuts. They come for me all the time too. just can't, no, I know. It's so crazy. These people are so nuts. They come from you all the time too. Oh, I can't imagine. It's honestly partially why I don't really do videos anymore where I talk about toxins and our makeup and stuff because I just am so tired of it because every comment is like, oh, well, your hair and your nails.

And I'm like, no one is perfect. I know. No one is perfect. So you want me to go live off the land? Is that what you want me to do and have no nails and just not do it like not live in the real world? It's and it's crazy. You're right. Because why can't we live in a world where we're just trying our best? I try so hard. I have an air filter in every freaking room in my house. I have water filters on every shower. I have a filter on my bath. I have water filter

that I drink from. I mean, I could go on. I only allow organic food in my home. Like, I go so above and beyond, leave me the eff alone and let me do a couple things. Because that's really what this is about, is it's about the informed consent. Because let's say that, for example, we're dealing with a horrible infertility crisis in this country right now. Women younger and younger are unable to get pregnant like they used to. So many women are having to go on IVF,

which, you know, thank God we have that, but that's a horrible route to have to go through. It's really hard on your body. It's emotionally taxing. And so many women are going, why can't I just get pregnant natural? So information like this could help them. If someone is really struggling with infertility

and they're using all the CoverGirls and Maybellines and Dior's of the world, hopefully this message will get to them and they'll go, oh my gosh, maybe I need to stop using all that. And then I would argue that is a time to go really hard. Like stop the nails, don't use the perfume, go really clean with your makeup, go really clean with your makeup,

go really clean with your hair care, because if you're really, really struggling with something, then that's a time and a place to really go hardcore. And then I think everyone else goes hard as you can without making yourself insane. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, it's just the perfectionism that we uphold for people on the internet is so maddening

It's crazy and it's impossible especially today because it's you You know one video will pop up and tell you that this is the worst thing that you could ever be exposed to and then another Video is going to pop up and say actually it's not that bad and here's why and there's so much conflicting evidence about everything and information So it really is. And nobody in the government, nobody in our regulating agencies, like they're not stepping in and actually like this is the problem doing the research that we need. So we're all just left to our own devices to some extent to just, okay. Well, and that's what's so maddening about this.

I talk about this all the time because I talk about this a lot from the eating disorder and like food space where now these RDs are saying, oh, if you eat really clean, you know, you're going to get an eating disorder, which I that reasoning is so stupid in my opinion. I get it. I'm not trying to minimize eating disorders. I know it's a real problem, but people are genuinely really sick right now and they're like trying to get better. and if you try to minimize all of the things that they're consuming from an artificial and preservative standpoint it could

actually really help their health a lot. And I yeah I just I see this there's this like perfectionism that's happening right now as a result this is a symptom of living in a society where nothing is being regulated right now okay I can't say nothing but things are largely not being regulated and it makes me so upset because then it's on us To have to deal the to have to do this and we're all going crazy because we're like, oh my god How do I find the haircut and then I have to scan everything at the grocery store now I have to scan all my cosmetics like yeah, it's maddening But it's a symptom of the fact that we do not have regulatory bodies that are taking this seriously Yeah

So from a lawyer standpoint like it Do you think that's that's gonna change like are we starting to wake up to this at all? like is there any way that people listening can get involved and I Mean, I think clearly we have the whole maha movement that's happening right now. I think there's a lot of hope I mean, I think clearly we have the whole maha movement that's happening right now. I think there's a lot of hope that we're going to see some change. But then something because I hear from a lot of people too that they're like, well, we don't want more government regulation or they're worried that there's still going to be these influence like who's influencing these regulations.

And so I don't know. I mean, I don't know what the answer is. I think that the more, as we've seen, the more public information and public outrage there is over all of this, it's really forcing these companies to make safer products. It's forcing them to make, you know, all of these food companies now are either making their products, not all of them, some of them are making their products cleaner or we just have a lot more new companies coming into the system that are making healthier food.

And so I think that lawsuits, lawyers get demonized and villainized all the time and, you know, people think that we're just in this litigious society and people just sue for everything but lawyers really are the police officers of the world because if there were not lawyers I mean everyone would do whatever they wanted with no real repercussion especially when you're talking about these big corporations like if there's nobody who is going to hold them accountable for some of these things. I mean, they would just, they already do whatever they want. But I think that the public outrage, the lawsuits,

there is a big lawsuit that was filed by some lawyers with Morgan & Morgan recently against a lot of the big food manufacturers. I'm really curious to see what's gonna happen with those lawsuits. I'm like, ooh, I just would love to get my hands on the discovery in that case to see what these companies have known forever about what they've been putting in our food. But I think it just is gonna take constant pressure

from us. We have to let this be known that we want these safer products, we want better ingredients. If the government is not going to step in, which hopefully they will, you know, fingers crossed, and we'll get some better regulations on some of these things, but I think it's really just forcing the companies to make their products safer. Because even if you think about Johnson & Johnson with the talc, it took thousands and thousands of lawsuits and all of this,

I mean, I can't even imagine the money that they have spent. Where it's like they could have just taken the talc out a long time ago and reformulated their products and made it safer, but instead they defended all these lawsuits. They paid for these expert witnesses to come in and lie and say that their products are safe and that this isn't actually causing people to get cancer. So they spent all of this money and the end result was eventually that they took all of the talk out. So, and we've seen that with a lot of...

Is that an ego thing? Why can't they just go, oh, like, is it a legal thing where they will then be held even more accountable if they're like, oh, shoot, we like messed up? I think it's a fear that if we admit we were wrong here, we're going to see even more lawsuits. But it's like, OK, so you're just going to keep poisoning people then? I know. And not ever warn anybody and not ever tell anybody.

That's the biggest thing with all of these asbestos cases. And not ever warn anybody and not ever tell anybody. That's the biggest thing with all of these asbestos cases and it's all of the companies. I mean, when they found out that this stuff was so toxic and harmful to human health, rather than just going, whoa, we need to warn people, they either, when the government made them put a warning on the products, they would put these little shoddy, you know Avoid breathing on the bottom of the packaging You know, they weren't really warning people and then they still sold the products like that for decades Before they literally were forced To take you know, take the asbestos out of their products or they had so many lawsuits that they went bankrupt

And so it's just the same thing. I think we all just have to keep putting the pressure on food, on our cosmetics. We have to buy the cleaner options when we can. I know it's hard because it is more expensive and I think that I've heard you talk about this before that it's up to the people who can afford to buy the products that are cleaner and safer, it's up to us to do that because it then has a trickle down effect and we can help people that cannot afford to buy these products.

Because it drives the consumer trends. That's why I always say that. If you have the means to do it, absolutely I feel like we have a societal obligation because the more people that are putting money into the safer, cleaner products, the healthier foods, the more that the consumer drives that trend. And then the companies start going, oh, more people are demanding this. Because that's how we demand it. We're not literally going to go show up on their doorstep and be like, we demand safer products. It's like, no, we just stop buying their toxic products. And then they go, oh, oh, people are buying more of the cleaner stuff.

Yep. Yeah. OK, so before we have to go, I do want to ask you about your thoughts on Botox and fillers. And what do you think is worse, Botox or fillers? Are they both equally dangerous? Yeah. So do I think one is more dangerous than the other?

I don't know. I think that there are more risky complications that you would immediately see with filler versus Botox, but that was sort of my... I think my thinking in the past was that I didn't think Botox was like dangerous or harmful. I literally started getting Botox when I was probably 20, I don't know, I was like in my late 20s. And I just, I don't know, it was like no big deal.

And nobody ever really, I mean, I'm sure there was some warnings in the paperwork that I signed, but I don't know. It was like getting my hair done or my nails done. I didn't really think about it until recently. It's been almost probably a year ago. I told you, I kind of dove into this whole ingredient reading, toxic, whatever, non-toxic lifestyle. I kind of dove into it backwards.

And so I was like, wait a minute, Botox, like this for sure is not good. But I was like really scared to look into it for a long time. And so I actually interviewed on my podcast, the attorney who he sued Allergan, the manufacturer of Botox for all of these cases back years ago, before they had put black box warnings on Botox. And like horrific injuries, death. These women had such horrific neurological issues

after getting Botox, just the Botox poisoning. And so I, after that podcast, I kind of started speaking up about it on my social media. And I have had so many women reach out to me since that saying, I got Botox and then I had all of these symptoms. I had all these horrible things that happened to me. I think something I didn't ever really put two and two together is the autoimmune response that happens in your body after you get Botox or filler. And so now we're hearing women being told, well, if you have thyroid issues or if you have like autoimmune, you know, any kind of autoimmune issues, you shouldn't be getting Botox. And I'm thinking people don't know this and people are not being properly screened for this.

And the injectors are not. They're definitely not asking. Not asking or warning people about that at all. And so I think there's a huge issue with all the cosmetic stuff, with injuries being under-reported. And we saw this with breast implants. I mean, all these women had breast implants.

The breast implants got recalled and they couldn't find the women to tell them that there's tons of women out there right now with these recalled breast implants that don't even know that they have recalled breast implants because they had no way to track them down or find them. And so I think it's the same thing with, you know, Botox injuries. I think women are being kind of gaslit about a lot of these things. They're going back to the provider saying, hey, I got these injections and I've had all these symptoms and they're saying, oh, it's from something else.

It's not from the Botox. And so that's just a whole other issue. And you know, I just kind of decided after I really looked into everything and did the research on it, I was like, I don't want to do that. I don't want to put that in my body anymore. Because I talked to so many women. I think people think, oh, I've been doing it forever. I've never had a problem.

It's fine. But then I've heard from all these women who were like, yeah, I did it for 10 years. And then this time when I got it, all hell broke loose. And I had these horrific symptoms. And my life was ruined for years. And I think that it's just made out to be like going to get your nails done. And it's really not. It's a serious thing.

And I don't know. I think we're going to find out more and more as time goes on about the impacts of what... It's literally one of the most deadly toxins known to man. And you're telling me that going and injecting that into my face every three to four months is perfectly fine. It's totally okay and safe. And I understand there's people with medical conditions and it can help different things, but the way that it's being used right now,

I saw a video yesterday, they were injecting it into a woman's calves to like slim her calf muscles. Literally in the video it said like, so you can fit into your boots this season. And I'm like, what? I saw another video where they were putting it in the bottom of a woman's foot

so that she could wear high heels without pain. And I'm just saying there- Oh my God. I'm like, people are- That's nuts. It's going, we're going off the deep end. We're going just saying that. Oh my God. I'm like people are. That's nuts. It's going, we're going off the deep end. We're going haywire. We're going crazy.

Eww. So. Oh that's so, that like really freaks me out. I had a friend a couple years ago that got all these injections in her neck and under her armpits and I was like, oh, ew, like, ew, it makes me cringe. I know. The under the armpits, a lot of people do that for sweating. And like we were talking about earlier, that's just- You need to sweat. You need to sweat.

That's such a sensitive area of your body and I don't know but they're just putting it everywhere now. And that was the thing with me as time went on, you know, it starts out with, you know, 30 units or whatever and then before you know it, they're like, well, now we're up to 150 units and, you know, it keeps going down further down your face and then they're injecting it in the people's trap muscles now and it's just getting crazy. Yeah, it's getting out of control.

It's getting out of control. I have a lot of friends that are getting really into face tape now. I did a session with my friend who I need to bring on the podcast, Jamie Ann, her name is JamieAnnesthetics on Instagram and she works with this other woman and they do a lot of face taping master classes. And I did a FaceTime with her recently because I was always super, I just was like, I don't know that I have time to FaceTape every night. It just felt

very like, I don't know what the word is, but I was like, this is too much for me every night. And then I did a session with her and I was like, oh, this is really easy. And it took me like less than five minutes to do it. And I was like taping up my forehead and like doing all these things. And I think if people can get on that early enough, like I wish I had started doing that when I was like 28. Yeah. And I wish I started washing when I was like 25. So if you're listening and you're younger, I highly recommend looking into doing that now, no matter what age you're at. Because I wish I had started it when I was younger. My friend Celeste hasn't gotten Botox in like a year because she's been pregnant and she just has been trying to be off of it now. And she face tapes every night and she gushes

and she looks amazing. Yeah, I've been using I started using the frownies. And same at the first time I used them. I was like, what the I can I can't yeah I can't do this every day. My fiance was like huh yeah you got in bed with me he's like what did you do to your face? My husband's used to it now my kids too like I walk around with my face all taped up and they just don't even it's like oh that's just mom it's fine. But yeah the frownies the face taping all those things I wish I knew about them when I was in my 20s versus they just tell everybody oh you need baby Botox now.

Just start getting your Botox, but they don't tell you to take care of your skin. And that was all I was doing. I mean, I was using like Cetaphil face, you know, their little moisturizer and then getting Botox every however many months because that was what I thought was taking care of my skin and I just wish that someone had said hey, you could do these other things instead I'm like think of all the money that I could have spent all these you know toxins that I could have not been putting In my body for all these years There's you know some studies out now that are saying it can actually age your skin faster that it can cause skin thinning and all

These things like nobody told me any of that when I started doing it, and nobody's telling these young girls that now. And I just, I don't know, there's just so much in the cosmetic world that has just really started to give me the ick with more that I have looked at it all. And just the way that it's all advertised and shown to people, I don't know. It feels predatory. It feels very predatory. It's gross.

Like you said, women are starting it younger and younger. I'm so glad that I never got on this trend, but yeah, I knew all these people that were doing baby Botox and they were like in their 20s and early 30s. And I just, it freaks me out. And I think women are doing it younger and younger. I'm seeing these girls online that are like supposedly they're 18, but they're like 14 and they're getting like lip filler and stuff. And it's so horrifying to me. They look so old.

And it makes them look old. I watched an episode of The Bachelor recently. I don't watch it on a regular basis, but it was like the first episode and they're introducing, like when all the girls are getting out of the car and it was saying how old they were and I'm like that girl is 26 Like she looks like she's my age or she looks like she's in her 40s. They you can't tell how old people are anymore It's it's crazy and it's a big problem. I think the fillers are a huge issue I was talking to a friend of mine the other day. Her daughter is probably 22 She's in college and she said her daughter keeps begging her to go get lip filler because all the friends

Are doing it everybody's getting it What is happening and then I'm like you still have these girls with all of this filler and Botox in their faces And then they're still using these face altering Filters on Instagram, so it's like you're doing all this to yourself and you still don't even like how you's like you're doing all this to yourself and you still don't even like how you look and you're filtering your face now. And it's just, I don't know.

I don't know what the answer. It's so challenging for that age group. I feel like I'm so grateful that I grew up in the generation that I did. I feel like we're probably around the same age. Then I'm just so grateful that when I was in high school, we didn't have Instagram and filters. And like, we weren't worried so much about, I mean, we were definitely not worried

about contouring our face, but we were like barely wearing makeup then. And it's just, it's a whole different world now. And I, and yeah, you're just, you're so young. You don't fully understand the repercussions of the choices that you're making, especially if you're altering your body at like such a young age. And it's just, it's heartbreaking. It really is. choices that you're making, especially if you're altering your body at such a young age and it's heartbreaking. I know. It really is.

And I have a daughter now and I'm just sitting here going, oh my God, how are we going to navigate all of this? I would be devastated if she came to me at 18 and is wanting to change her face and inject things into her face. It's just being sold on social media and targeted to women and young girls like oh it's just no big deal just go get you know go get some lip filler go get some whatever filler in your cheeks go get your you know get your botox do all these things and I don't know it's it's really scary and that's another area where I think we really need a lot of regulation is with the advertising for all of that stuff.

So yeah, I couldn't agree more. Well, I got through all my questions. And is there anything else that you feel like the audience needs to know that we didn't cover? I don't think so. I mean, I think we really covered. Yeah, we heard a lot. It was awesome.

I when you first like right before you sat down, I was like, all right, girl, I got so many questions for you. I hope we can get through all before you sat down, I was like, all right, girl, I got so many questions for you. I hope we can get through all of them. So I'm so glad we did. Yeah. We really covered the whole gamut of it. And so I'm, yeah, I'm just so grateful that you came on today. This was awesome.

Thank you so much for having me. This was fun. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology podcast. This is a Wellness Loud production produced by Drake Peterson and mixed by Mike Fry. Theme song is by Georgie. You can watch the full video version of this podcast inside the Spotify app or on YouTube. As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio.

And if you like this episode, please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to WellnessLoud.com. See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider-patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first.

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and what's the best for your gut, your skin, and so much more. I even offer gut-friendly recipes. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday produced by Wellness Loud.