Limonene & Linalool, What the 'L' is it??

Ahead of this weeks installment of How Toxic Are You? I looked into a couple of ingredients mentioned last week, which I was surprised to find in just about every cosmetic I own.

Limonene. It is a naturally derived product from the Rutaceae family of citrus plants, but according to Wikipedia, Limonene works as paint stripper when applied to painted wood!! It provides a lemony smell in cosmetics, in my particular brands it is listed as 'from essential oils'.

When I found info about Limonene on Osha(us dept. of labour) it said: Potential symptoms: Irritation of eyes, nose, throat, skin; allergic contact dermatitis. Health Effects: Irritation-Eyes, Nose, Throat, Skin---Mild (HE16); Skin sensitization--- Dermatitis (HE3).

And also: 3) Although chronic oral administration of d-limonene to rats caused kidney damage and kidney tumors in the males, this effect is thought to have no human relevance (IARC Group 3)... so what was the point of the animal testing?? Now I'm having to assume that Limonene as used in my products, which are against animal testing, and claim to be earth friendly and baby friendly, must be using some form of this which is truly harmless and natural??

The second one is Linalool. From wikipedia: Linalool is a naturally-occurring terpene alcohol chemical found in many flowers and spice plants with many commercial applications, the majority of which are based on its pleasant scent. That makes some sense to me as I noted that Limonene is also a terpene. I suppose this is where some good knowledge of chemistry would be useful. My educated guess would be that there are many ways of combining these natural substances to create different effects. I think the toxicity comes from synthetic versions. So perhaps these two have passed the test. I still would have to say that less is more, and I love the products (again, like Pure Nuff Stuff or Neals Yard) which sometimes have only five easily understood natural ingredients! And perform well.

These are a few of my favourite things...

I'm a milk chocolate woman at heart, that's what I grew up knowing, and not just what I'd call the bland chocolate bars of the brand names, but real, solid, high-quality milk chocolate of the chocolatiers. However, in the past few years of living over here, I have discovered the delights of dark chocolate. It's lower in calories, high in anti-oxidant benefits. And then there's raw chocolate. Raw as in uncooked in anyway. Despite the thrilling reviews that can be seen on certain websites about raw chocolate, for me I'd say its still an acquired taste.


Then there's the chocolate bubble bath and face mask and face cream! I'm not a huge chocolate freak (as you may now be thinking), and I actually have limits as to how much I eat, but these new products came into my field of vision and I just had to try them out. The bubble bath is very nice smelling, although once in the bath, it doesn't seem to smell much, but its very silky and leaves your skin really soft and slightly sweet smelling. The dark chocolate mask is one on my wish list, as it comes from America, but is rather costly for my tiny budget.
I'm waiting to receive a raw cacao 'living' moisturizer from Raw Gaia which is much less expensive than the mask above, and made locally. At first thought, chocolate in cosmetics may seem a bit pointless or gimmicky, but then cocoa butter, a fatty substance obtained from the seeds of the cacao, has been used for centuries in cosmetics and soaps. Yum!