Discover Natural and Organic Intelligent Beauty with Sally Malanga

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest is Sally Malanga, the founder of Ecco Bella – an environmentally friendly company that formulates cosmetics and beauty products with safe natural and organic ingredients.

Sally discovered that commercial beauty products are rife with unhealthy ingredients, animal byproducts, and cruel animal testing so she founded a company that would be an alternative to commercially produced personal care products. She called it Ecco Bella, which means “behold beautiful” in Italian.

Sally discovered a whole universe of plant-based raw materials, herbs, oils and vitamins and worked with a chemist to formulate the products. Many times, the chemist suggested that she put small amounts of beneficial ingredients into the products, just for “label-claim” and to save money – that’s what the big companies do. Sally refused. That is why Ecco Bella products are known for their richness and voluminous use of precious organic ingredients.

Sally is committed to running a socially responsible business where staff, customers, and vendors are treated with respect. In addition, through her products, she educates consumers and raises money for a variety of environmental causes including climate change, factory farming and wildlife protection. Sally currently serves on the Board of Directors of Friends of Animals and their primate sanctuary, Primarily Primates.

Main Questions Asked:

  • What are some of the dangers of commercial cosmetics?
  • Your company came out with FlowerColor cosmetics. What makes them different and are the safer for us?
  • Where do flower waxes come from?
  • Is there one category of cosmetics that tends to be the most toxic or harmful for us?
  • What is ‘greenwashing’?
  • How can we look at an ingredients label and know if it’s a good product or if they’re really just greenwashing?
  • Why does your product line contain a limited number of products?

Key Points made by Sally:

  • The FDA recently tested and found lead in about 400 brands of lipsticks.
  • Commercial cosmetics often contain heavy metals, like lead, cadmium, arsenic, and others which can penetrate into your body and create havoc.
  • Instead of using traditional chemical preservatives, Ecco Bella uses natural preservatives, including herbs and essential oils.
  • FlowerColor cosmetics are safer because they use flower waxes instead of talc. This helps the products feel lightweight, glide on, and are long lasting.
  • .Flower wax comes from the process of making essential oils – it’s a happy by-product.
  • There isn’t one particular category of cosmetics that’s more harmful than others. They all contain pigments and chemicals that are bad for us.
  • Greenwashing is cosmetics trickery for stretching the truth about how green a product is or not.
  • Companies list ingredients from the highest to the lowest, and this is how you can tell if you have a good product or not.
  • At the top of the ingredients list look for things like aloe vera, organic oils, organic herbs, essential oils, etc.
  • Sally believes in having fewer products but making them more powerful – their Keep skin creams contain a full list of powerful ingredients.
  • Sunblocks in cosmetics should be titanium or zinc based – not chemical based.
  • The number one thing you can do to keep your skin beautiful is eat great healthy.
  • If your digestion is flowing your skin is glowing.
  • Supporting organic farmers helps support our planet – that’s why Sally makes a priority that her company be environmental responsible.

Resources Mentioned:

FDA Report – Lipstick & Lead

Sally’s website – Ecco Bella

Find Ecco Bella products at a store near you

Sign up for a natural beauty consultation – FREE

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