to not understand why people spend money to pollute their homes with pointless chemicals?

I would think it quite easy to ditch perfume and scented candles?

Also you really need to cut down on coffee. Since you are so impassioned with Shein and Temu you probably don't want to support the coffee industry either.

Exactly.
The smugness of suüposedly 'better' choices, combined with some folk having a very poor understanding of basic chemistry (understandable up to a point but should be willing to learn), are two irksome trends on this thread.

I agree. People really only care about themselves... Some people even wear perfume, can you imagine. PERFUME! The audacity of it all.

I also love how when it comes to environmental impact and fair trade we target Shein and not Apple.

Air fresheners and not coffee.

You see the hypocrisy right?

.

Just to add, genuinely fragrance free cleaning and body products are very difficult to get hold of and punishingly expensive. I buy them because I have no choice.

There's a difference between expressing your opinion and acting like you're better than everyone else for your choices 🙄

I don't have children (arguably one of the worst things you can do for the planet) but I don't go around telling parents that I'm so much better than them because of it.

Humbled? No... I am just an ordinary person who is aware of the impact of my purchases and choices and trying to take steps to minimise that. Nobody can do it ALL unless as I said you live in a cave and eat nettles.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't bother even thinking about it or doing anything, and the easiest things to dispense with are the things which a generation ago nobody used like plug in air fresheners, scent boosters and anti-bacterial carpet spray.

With all due respect, you don't seem to understand basic chemistry that comprehensively either. For what feels like the hundredth time, it's not just about naturally existing or artifical (aka synthetic), and concentration/dosage is highly relevant.

Living in a cave with your scented candles, perfume, and antiperspirant...

You are admittedly part of the problem you are smugly rallying against.

How are you not the tiniest bit humbled by that?

I'd probably advise people not to boil Zoflora tbh....unless they want to end up vomiting....⛔️⛔️⛔️

So many people on here don’t seem to know the difference between chemical elements, in various combinations, that are what everything is made of and chemical compounds that are used to produce artificial freshening fragrances which may be harmful when inhaled constantly, and which may produce even more harmful substances on burning as in candles. We accept that inhaling smoke damages the lungs but insist that scented candles are perfectly harmless. It’s very naive.

I'm with you, most of these are so strong it's unpleasant. Lots make my husband's asthma worse.

Oh yeah - I don’t care what anyone else does, with anything, none of my business.

Boil a pot of zoflora in your kitchen (wasn’t that Hinch?), crack on. I don’t care what dh family do, even if they make me sneeze.

That is SUCH a lazy argument @fieldsofbutterflies . That unless you're living in a cave and knitting your own clothes out of nettles you have no right to an opinion. That you have to be 100% perfect to even comment.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, most of us are doing our best not to have a detrimental impact on the world we live in.

It’s nothing like smoking.

If you vaped natural oils you’d do yourself just as much damage as vaping any air freshener.

And if you think ‘craft’ businesses and pushers of ‘natural’ products who scaremonger about big business will do you no harm…well.

As is often said in a different context about ‘complementary’ medicine, “better big pharma than woo harma”.

Lavender is not 'old lady' it's a beautiful natural plant that smells great. It's actually very fashionable in perfumes at the moment and my DD can't get enough of the Lush Sleepy fragrance which is natural lavender and vanilla.

I mean, you could say the same thing about people buying smartphones, or synthetic clothing (which isn't necessarily cheap), or designer handbags - or 1001 other things that aren't strictly essential and that cause damage to our environment.

There isn't a single person out there who is perfect and who never does anything to harm the world around them. So I'm not sure why some people insist on acting so superior when it comes to this one thing.

Can remember seeing the warning about the danger to aquatic life on a box of Zoflora

But it smells nice! 🙄 People just don't care about anything else than their own needs and wants. Same reason as they buy endless cheap shit from Shein and Temu, because it's cheap and they want to.

But scented candles, perfume, and antiperspirant are linked to environmental pollution and health issues.

I mean I personally avoid antiperspirant at all costs because they freak me out.

My point is simply that we all have our vices and boundaries.

Please don't call yourself insufferable - do what is right for you, with the acceptance that others are free to make different choices. I used soap nuts too a while back, they really do work fairly well, but I just didn't ever get round to buying new ones when they finally stopped working. I've used the Eco balls too, with mixed results. I like a basic biological powder these days but am also using up my liquid stash.

I’m with you OP. Can remember seeing the warning about the danger to aquatic life on a box of Zoflora and just thinking about the fact that these products end up somewhere was enough to really put me off. The other thing that I hate is unnecessary antibacterial stuff in hand wash soap (and even washing up liquid now I think…). It’s really easy to exist in a bubble where you forget (or avoid thinking about!) about the effects of what you do but just because e.g you drive a car, doesn’t mean that you’re a lost cause for anything that might reduce your impact on the natural world. I do think that marketing companies have pushed the idea that artificial scents = clean so hard that it will take ages to change this.

after my kids have been in the bathroom the manufactured smell is infinitely preferable.

On the other hand, my friend bought me a hyacinth and the smell makes me feel sick. I can’t get rid of it as she keeps popping round but I am trying to kill it asap without it being obvious. It gives me a headache.

I grew up in a house full of this shit, both parents smoked and if we weren’t choking on cigarette smoke it was air fresheners, bleach and perfumes. It was also the 80s so hairspray was king! One parent at least would open all the doors and windows when he got up so the house would be full of fresh air, until the other closed everything and sprayed everywhere with a fag in her gob.

As a result I dont use many sprays, I use a dettol one on my bed daily but only after I’ve opened all the windows, and in the dcs rooms when they are at school. I’m immune compromised and my snotty brats are always in my bed, so for me it’s a germ killing thing. Bleach was god in my home growing up but I only use it in the toilet these days and only when needed, for the most part I use hot water when cleaning and yes, white vinegar for a lot of things. Fabric softener just for mine and DHs towels and only because we don’t have a dryer so our towels get quite hard. DCs get extra water washes due to eczema issues so very few chemicals in the clothes.

I do like a nice candle, but I don’t fill the house full and I buy as a rare treat. I have started to use oil diffusers since getting a very smelly dog and the dettol spray gets used on the furniture they sit on. I’m lucky though as there is usually someone home all day so windows and doors can be left open. I’m also able to regularly buy fresh flowers which I love the scent of.

Perfume I do love but I try to be subtle.

Im also lucky no one has bad smelly feet, I had a couple of exs who did and I definitely used spays living with them. One of my exs friends, who I’d known most of my life too was actually banned for staying over his feet stunk so much.

One of my DBs won’t allow anything scent related in his house, his wife and DDs very rarely wear perfumes either, he’d never admit it but I think he hates them (scents not his wife and DDs) because of how much our mother smothered the house and herself in them. He won’t use aerosol deodorants or aftershave either Before anyone comments on him being controlling, my SIL has things she hates that my db won’t do to please her including becoming a vegetarian.

I'm sure you spend some of your money on things other people find unnecessary too 🤷‍♀️

I buy them because I can afford them, because I like the smell and because it's a little thing that makes me happy.

I'm autistic and find the world very overwhelming sometimes, so I'll do whatever I can to make my home feel as safe and reassuring to me as possible.

I also use soap in the shower - another lightbulb moment which started when trying to reduce plastic and realised that actually, soap lasts a lot longer and gets you feeling cleaner than shower gel. The nice French savon de Marseille is about £2 - £3 a bar and lasts weeks. It does smell when I;m using it but doesn't linger. Who wants to have soap/shower gel, deo and perfume all competing scents on their body, and then more competing scent on their clothes?

The use of "chemicals" in cleaning products, perfumery, and skincare is almost as (if not equally as) regulated as their use in medicines.

The EU in particular is extremely hot on such legislation.

Obviously, given Brexit, I'm not sure how that legislation will continue to be adhered to. Hopefully just as stringently as it has been for decades.