The HowGood Plug-In is Here to Save The Day!
I remember the day my sons were born clear as day. The first scream cracked my entire foundation. The second scream followed about 10 seconds later and my entire world was shattered. A mother of twins was born! Everything that seemed important to me before was hazy and so far in the past. The present moment was all that mattered. This very moment of holding my sons to my chest and providing my breast milk for the first time in my life. It was surreal.
I gave birth in the morning and once the afternoon came, we had already accumulated a room filled with fresh flowers, baby toys, baby lotions, baby wash, and various items I had never even THOUGHT of buying before my sons were born. My goal was to be a minimalist mom with just my breasts, a wrap, some Moses beds that were never used but too beautiful and traditional to part with and my mother who had flown all the way from the other side of the World.
As the gifts kept coming, I quickly realized how little I knew about what was in these various bottles. A huge issue that I faced was the fact that none of the products were in English as well.
Oh Boy. I was in a pickle.
Slowly but surely, as you all have witnessed in my very public motherhood journey, I learned the ins and outs of all the baby products. I learned what I wanted to use and what would never enter my home. I learned how to make my own cleaning products and baby wipes. Reading the label in 3 different languages doesn’t even phase me anymore.
So much time was spent researching, digging and getting overly frustrated at how certain products were even allowed to be sold to parents. It broke my heart. Some products that had thousands of 5-star reviews were full of toxic chemicals that should never be used on children.
I always wondered why nobody was doing anything about this….until now.
About a month ago I received an e-mail from a wonderful woman who introduced me to a plug-in that would have saved my sanity back to that first day of motherhood. This plug-in (which attaches to your browser and is on standby until you shop) will rate products for you and offer natural and safe alternatives for those that fail the ‘HowGood’ rating.
“HowGood, a sustainability research company, has launched a new tool for parents looking to avoid
toxic chemicals in their baby products. The Google Chrome Extension displays while shopping on
Amazon, revealing if a product contains problematic chemicals and recommending safer alternatives. It
is now live for baby products, with cosmetics and skincare coming next.”
If you are at all confused about what a “plug-in” is, do not fear! I had no idea either. It is so easy, FREE and helpful. I’ll show you how to download it, step by step.
What Does the HowGood Plug-In Do?
Once the free HowGood plug-in is downloaded (on a google chrome browser), it simply sits there in the upper right-hand corner of your screen awaiting your amazon shopping needs or simply just analyzing a product’s safety using the Amazon search function before purchasing locally.
I am going to show you a screenshot of myself shopping on Amazon and searching a lovely natural body wash from Weleda (this is the exact body wash we used on our sons for the first year). As you can see, the HowGood plug-in approves this body wash and gives a green checkmark!
After I searched for the Weleda body wash, I went ahead and did a search for the most famous body wash there is in the Mommy World; Johnson and Johnson Body Wash. I was so happy to see the plug-in suggest more natural options and also tell the user why they may not want to purchase from this brand. For the rating, you will see an orange caution sign. The following text is visible:Â Contains chemicals of concern and undisclosed ingredients. As a more natural and safe alternative, the HowGood plug-in has suggested The Honest Company.Â
The entire HowGood plug-in is community-built and driven so it is important to let the plug-in know if one of your items is not yet rated. The HowGood guys will have the product reviewed in just a couple of days! Here is the option to get a product tested from your plugin drop-down menu.
And that’s it! It really is that easy.
How to Download
To get the plug-in set up for your shopping experience, just click on this link to download.
Next, Click on “Add to Chrome”. Be sure to be using your Google Chrome Browser for downloading.
After downloading, you will see this pop-up appear asking if you want to add the “HowGood Baby Product Safety Scanner”. Just click on “Add Extension” and you are on your way!
It’s as easy as 1-2-3!
Final Thoughts on the HowGood Plug-In
I feel so honored and blessed to have had the chance to review and share this plug-in with you all. There’s many reasons but the most important is that I know how hard and confusing it is to decipher between the good guys and the bad guys. While I am very grateful for the long journey that I personally went through to understand all of the ingredients and even find my own DIY home care, I really do wish I had this available to me in my most trying times. It breaks my heart a bit to look back and remember feeling so overwhelmed and emotional at all I did not know…I really did start from scratch.
Anyway, I hope this does help you with your own natural journey. Please share with any Mamas/Papas/Caregivers/etc who you think might appreciate this helpful plug-in. Enjoy!
**For full disclosure: The HowGood company sponsored this blog post. Of course, all the writing, opinions and full review are straight from my own fingers and heart! I have a huge responsibility to my followers to only support and recommend the best brands and companies out there. I would never promote a brand or company that I do not use myself.**
