And now it's the monkeys!

So, now Bill Nye the Science Guy has a show on Planet Green. I gotta say--I do think that his ol' buddy Ed Begley Jr. likely called in a few favors to hook him up, but in any case he's got his thing happening. Earlier this week, he ran a piece about the effect of sodium laurel sulfates (SLS) on the orangutans of the world.

Not surprisingly, no one he asked knew what the heck he was talking about. It turns out that not only is SLS a major toxin that is in almost all conventional beauty and body care products, but it's based from palm oil (who knew?). So what, you ask? Apparently the world's dependence on palm oil has caused major rain forest teardown which is replaced with palm plantations. The orangutans that live in the rainforest normally end up losing their food sources, so they eat off of the palm plantations. You could guess that the plantation owners don't love that, so they end up killing the orangutans. So, if the toxicity of this junk isn't enough for us, we are also killing monkeys--and of course no one wants that!!

Why is SLS so appealing? In the quest for great products to feature on www.OrganicallyHappy.com, we have found tons of great items sans SLS, sans cocamidopropyl betaine and other chemical yuck. My latest fave? Eden's Kiss Anti-Aging Facial Balm. Obviously my days of using department store products are over, so I was thrilled to find this gem. Made by hand in California, this balm is very rich but isn't greasy on my skin at all. I definitely feel dewy! And I didn't kill any monkeys to get that way.