The question that changed Julia Chinen made perfect sense, but she had to admit that in 15 years as a skin care specialist she had never considered it.

An esthetician, Chinen was giving a client a facial when the client — a woman who had survived breast cancer — asked if any of the products being used contained parabens. The chemicals, widely used in cosmetics as a preservative, have been linked to hormone problems and increased risks of certain cancers and infertility. Chinen had never heard of them.

The realization — Chinen calls it her catalyst — not only prompted Chinen to use more organic products in her own life, but also inspired her to create Become Clean, an online business specializing in personal-care products that are free of toxic ingredients. For Chinen, who dreams of a greener, more sustainable life, it was an eyebrow-raising experience.

"I realized later that 60 percent of what you put on your skin is absorbed into your blood stream," said Chinen, a 39-year-old Hawai'i Kai mother of two. "It blew me out of the water. Why had I not known this? Why had I not asked about chemicals? I was upset."

Her initial reaction when she learned this last January was to go home and clear her house of every questionable product. Chinen and her husband share the home with her mother and at the time, Chinen's brother was visiting. No one was exempt. If an item contained parabens, it was tossed.

"I think my husband thought I was losing my mind," Chinen said. "That blue recycling trash can was full."

Chinen's next surprise came after she went shopping for replacement items at health food stores. She spent two weeks going from store to store and researching what she brought home, checking items against a list maintained by the Environmental Working Group. The nonprofit organization compares existing product ingredients with more than 50 toxicity and regulatory databases. Its Skin Deep Database allows consumers to look up specific items.

More than 75 percent of what Chinen bought had to be returned. Family members, who were now washing their hair with bars of soap and going without deodorant, grew irritated, she said.

"There were big arguments," Chinen said. "It was not peaceful. I was turning their personal-care product lifestyle upside down. I begged them to bear with me."

By now, Chinen was on a mission; her husband, a Honolulu police detective, called it "an obsession."

"The month of January was a lot of upheaval," she said. "It was believing in something that not a lot of people around me understood and wanting to voice that to others."

Chinen tried to find products online but it was time-consuming. She researched each product individually, selecting what she wanted by ingredients listed rather than by brand name. Not only was she buying piecemeal, she was spending too much on shipping. And a few companies wouldn't even ship to the Islands.

Chinen's solution was as old as capitalism: She decided to stop doing facials and start an online business that only sold safe items. She turned her research into an online catalog, which became available in August. Chinen said 99 percent of what she sells is free of toxins as defined by the Environmental Working Group.

She considers her effort "a call to action."

"We have to understand that we layer these products and there is no one controlling each individual on how many layers we put on our bodies," she said. "It is something that the individual needs to be educated about."

Chinen doesn't view this as an accomplishment just yet, but her family is happy.

"They are very comfortable with the products they are using and I have customers using the products," she said. "I think the main thing is making my family aware and everyone I talk to a little more aware of what they use."