Picture from Ottawa Magazine
This weekend was very busy for me; however, all week I had heard of a new "Eco Friendly" store in Ottawa called Terra 20 and I couldn't wait to see it for myself. My greatest hope, that they carried the products from "Carina Organics" which I have become so fond of.
First impressions, the store at Pinecrest is MASSIVE. You walk in and immediately notice how much it looks like an Apple Store - Bright, clean, very nicely organized and fancy designer looking shelves. That's all well and good; but, what about the products?. They carry many of the brands I'm used to seeing in other stores like Lablaw's, Whole Foods, and Natural Food Pantry. Their brands seem to be organized more or less by price point. In the very front you have the "Live Clean" products, followed by "Nature Clean", and "Hugo" Shampoos. As you make your way around the shelving units, I encountered other brands I'm not familiar with. One glaring difference that I noticed in Terra 20 was the price point of their products as it is much higher than Lablaw's and Natural Food Pantry. I would say that the prices rival those of Whole Foods, where you not only pay for having all of your good things in one place, you pay for the name as well. A very good example of this was their "Nature Clean" products: Regularly the shampoos are sold at Lablaw's for $8.99; however, at Terra 20 they are being sold for $14.00. I suppose they need to make a profit too.
I was also very excited to see what they had in terms of their refill bar at the back of the store. They carry a brand of product I have never seen before which contains ingredients I have not yet encountered. Unfortunately, this "Eco" brand also contains dyes - there are many brightly coloured products which come in pinks, blues, and greens. Since I have personally decided to do my best to avoid purchasing products which have dyes in them, I did not investigate any further. Accompanying the brightly coloured laundry and house cleaning products at the back of the store, were all of the "Nature Clean" dish washing and Laundry detergents. I was very happy to see that Terra 20 did carry "Nature Clean's" Eco-Refills for their Unscented Dish Liquid Soap and "Unscented" Liquid Hand Soap. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, the price point was about $3-$4 higher than at your local grocery store.
Terra 20 also carried many toys, towels, makeup and bed linens which I didn't take a look at as I was chiefly interested in their soaps, shampoos and deodorant. Overall, my experience at Terra 20 was kind of "Meh". When I was looking at the backs for some deodorants and shampoos I was upset to find that they had covered them over with their bar code tags. If you're like me and always on the look out for a different product to try, you will want to read what's on the back. Although, I was impressed with the very wide selection of products they carried. One thing I was particularly surprised to see is that "Dr. Bronner's" makes travel sized versions of their liquid soap. That was pretty fantastic to discover, however I'm sure that I could have found that out visiting their website. It's also ironic that this "Eco Friendly" store picks on Methylisothiazolinone (MI) on it's website (I spoke about this compound in my previous blog entry), when they stock products like "Live Clean", which have Phenoxyethanol as a preservative which is equally, if not more dangerous because it is created from Benzene and Ethylene Oxide - Both documented carcinogens.
Methylisothiazolinone (MI)
In my opinion, Terra 20 should be used for "Eco-Refill" purposes more than anything. I endorse that specifically because I have not seen many Lablaws stock such a wide variety in the refills. I would like to say that I am happy to see a store like this, and would like to see more of it's ilk in the future. At the end of the day, if Terra 20 were to only stock items which posed the least amount of threat to people and the environment their store would be 1/4 of the size that it is and it would only carry 10 brands. I do wish they did stock more Canadian products like "Carina Organics" and "Rocky Mountain Soap Factory" because they are both excellent brands which have, so far as I have researched, no chemicals in them. Not to mention, they are Canadian, and supporting our own economy is key. Maybe I should make a suggestion?.
Stereth-20: is a synthetic polymer composed of PEG (polyethylene glycol) and stearyl alcohol. The Steareths are prepared by reacting ethylene oxide with stearyl alcohol. The numerical value in the name corresponds to the average number of units of ethylene oxide. For example, Steareth-2 is prepared using an average of 2 units of ethylene oxide reacted with stearyl alcohol 1. Sereths can be found in a variety of personal care products including deodorants, cleaners, lotions and even food like salad dressings. Primarily used for their emulsifying properties, meaning, they are placed in products to keep the ingredients from separating.
The danger of this product is from the ethylene oxide in the manufacturing of this compound. Unless otherwise specified, our good friend 1, 4 Dioxane will be accompanying it as a bi-product of the manufacture. Stereth-20 is another ethoxylate like our other friend Sodium Laureth Sulphate.
The reason why I bring up Stereth-20 in this post is because I saw it as an ingredient in one of the natural deodorants I have used. It appears as though I need to find another to replace it. The more I learn, the more tricky this mission to keep the crap out of my personal care products seems to become.
Stay green friends, and read the labels carefully. Just because a store claiming to be "Eco-Friendly" opens up, doesn't mean everything inside is good for you.
Until next time....
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