Coming back to New Zealand, I was surprised to find out that there are no standards in place for sunscreens. Apparently, compliance is voluntary and is left up to the manufacturer. Unlike in Europe, Australia and the USA - in New Zealand sunscreen doesn't need to meet any standards. For a country that has the highest rates of skin cancers in the world - how can that be?? While Consumer NZ performs some testing on sunscreens, it doesn't pay enough attention to the effect the t

I grew up with the motto: "Schoenheit muss leiden" - which means something like "If you want to look beautiful, you need to suffer". Little did I know how true that statement actually is! Did you know that the body absorbs about 60 percent of what we apply to our skin? The skin is our largest organ and part of what we put on will end up in our blood stream. We expose ourselves to a wide variety of chemicals - not just from cosmetics but also from deodorants, shampoos & condi