The first thing I tell people to do when they embark of their holistic living journey is to ditch fragrances. Fragrance and hormones don’t play nice. It’s the first but also often the hardest step to embrace. Fragrances are deeply rooted in our memories of what grandma was cooking as a child and fresh sheets on a Sunday morning. That’s why going natural and fragrance-free can be such a difficult step to take. But today, I’m going to tell you WHY you should try to eliminate fragrances from your household. Companies have been manipulating what you buy to trigger these happy memories but they haven’t taken your health into account.

We’’ll get into the specifics of what exactly is in these fragrances that makes them such a problem for your health and its direct relation to infertility, hormone disorders, miscarriage rates, and more. But I won’t just leave you anxious about the pervasive use of fragrances in our products. Luckily, we’ve got so many options to choose in order to avoid these toxins now and I’ll dive in to the exact products I approve for my family.

IN THIS EPISODE, I’LL DIVE INTO:

• Our sense of smell connects directly to our limbic system (the part of our brain the processes memories and emotions) and why that makes fragrance such a hard thing to break up with

• A little history on the development of synthetic perfumes

• How marketing manipulation has led us all to associate the smell of laundry detergents (laden with toxins like phthalates) with being clean

• Studies have shown that women are more emotionally impacted by fragrances than men

• How the hormone disruptors in fragrances can effect fertility, miscarriage rates, and pregnancy

• My Tossing the Toxins roadmap and how it can help you differentiate the clean products from toxic ones on the shelves

• Zero federal laws or regulations prevent companies from using toxic ingredients make the companies disclose them

• What exactly a phthalate is and how it’s used to make our fragrances sticky

• Peer-reviewed published research detailing the effects of high amounts of phthalates in women who are pregnant

• Risks for high amounts of phthalates in non-pregnant adults

• My favorite brands for fragrance-free products

RESOURCES

• Download the Tossing the Toxins Roadmap.

• Shop Skylar Perfume

• Shop Henry Rose

• Shop more Safe Fragrance

CONNECT WITH ME:

Receive weekly Toxin Free Tips & Sips right to your inbox by joining my email list here and follow me on Instagram @wendykathryn_ .

STUDIES MENTIONED:

2002 Phthalates in Products: Safe Cosmetics Report

Dr. Shanna Swan’s research

Risk of Diabetes in Caucasian Women

Phthalate Exposure and Autism In Boys

Phthalate Exposure and Genital Deformities in Boys

Birth Outcomes

Pregnancy Loss and IVF

Reduction in Male Sperm Count and Phthalate Exposure

Phthalate Exposure & Thyroid Function in Pregnancy

NOT SURE WHERE TO FIND SAFE, CLEAN, NON-TOXIC PRODUCTS?

SHOP THE TOXIN FREE SHOPPING GUIDE

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, PLEASE:

• Leave a positive review or rating wherever you listen
• Shop toxin-free products on my Toxin Free Shopping Guide
• Download your free Tossing the Toxins Guide
• Post a screenshot, what you loved, and tag me on Instagram @wendy_toxinfreeish
• Want to ask me a question to get answered on the podcast? Leave me a voice message here.