Can I get Botox and still be a non-toxic girly?

a question I ask myself

About a month or so ago, I went in for my first Botox consultation. At 35, it sometimes feels like I am the last woman standing who has yet to try Botox, so I was curious to learn a bit more firsthand.

The consultation was free (that’s how they get ya!) and I was led back to a clean, well decorated room by a fit, attractive nurse injector about my age. I explained my “issue” — no issue, I just have two young kids and am tired! I’m interested in prevention! Everyone else seems to be doing it!? I want to see what all the fuss is about!

I was asked to raise my eyebrows, frown, and then smile before she confirmed the obvious — I do indeed have fine lines and wrinkles — and that Botox can help smooth them out. (She also told me, unsolicited, in an “oh btw, I’m just being helpful!” kind of way, that there’s a procedure where she could take blood from my arm and inject it into my under-eyes to remove my dark circles. LOL thanks.)

She wasn’t wrong: I do have dark circles. These help.

I left the consultation slightly better informed about Botox options, but still with some hesitations. For example, I do like the idea of aging like a vintage car. But also: WHAT ABOUT THE TOXINS?!!

I don’t know about you, but in the past few years my algorithm has gone very non-toxic and I have become obsessed with things like microplastics, synthetic materials, and off-gassing. Each day it seems there is a new thing to avoid (black plastic), a new product to swap out (toilet paper). And while it’s exhausting, boy have I bought in:

• “Clean” label skincare, makeup & hair products

• Air purifiers throughout the house

• Filtered water

• Organic bedding

• No Windex!!¹ (or any other mainstream “toxic” cleaning materials for that matter)

• Non-toxic pans (that frankly, don’t work…lol)

• Much less plastic

• Etc.

AND YET! Despite having embraced many aspects of the non-toxic marketing being shoved down my throat, I am (many of us are?) still very open to Botox, which is, quite literally, botulinum toxin.

@marnsAnyone who knows me personally knows this is so accurate for me 😂 #foryou #funny #lol

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My husband asks how I can reconcile the two things in my head: denying him his beloved Dawn dish soap and throwing away all of our (expensive) plastic water bottles, while simultaneously thinking about injecting chemicals into my blood stream. He jokes that as soon as I get Botox, he gets to bring the Windex back out.

The answer as to how I reconcile the two probably lies somewhere between vanity, “everything in moderation,” and all the medical studies that say it’s totally safe.

But he does kind of have a point. It is funny, for instance, that the hosts of the wellness podcasts I listen to will be talking about purging their homes of candles one minute (the fumes!), and the chemical treatments they’re getting the next. Which is actually more “toxic”?

Ultimately, I don’t know exactly how it all comes together to make sense for me personally, so I think for now I’ll just say: I’m not perfect.

I can get Botox and be a non-toxic girly if I want to! But no, you can’t use the Windex.

1. I don’t actually know much about Windex’s toxicity lol. But I feel it’s representative of your traditional cleaning supplies that have since become akin to poison (eg. Clorox Wipes). Austin’s inclination is to spray it on EVERYTHING from our kitchen countertops to our daughter’s high chair. It’s a no for me.