This post is the second in my Beautiful Change Challenge series! Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing one post per week about how you can make beautiful changes in various areas of your life. This one focuses on healthy beauty products. (Read #1 on Foods for Beauty)
A few months ago, I was walking past a beauty product / cosmetics store and the woman outside asked me if I wanted a free beauty consultation. Since I had just recently gotten into more natural beauty products, I was very curious to see what kinds of chemicals she was going to recommend to me. I decided to get the consultation, and of course she recommended I purchase about 10 different products with a million different ingredients that would have cost me hundreds of dollars. Sounds pretty standard, right?
The funniest part was when she asked me what products I was currently using. When I ran down the list, she looked at me like I was an alien. “Wait….are you serious?” She asked. I think she thought I was joking. How could I possibly be a living and breathing woman if I wasn’t slathering chemicals all over myself?
Anyway, I’m about to give you the same list I gave her.
Just so you know, I didn’t tell that story to say that you shouldn’t ever use conventional beauty products or that the woman at the store was wrong — she was just doing her job, of course. I just wanted to showcase to you that using natural beauty products isn’t considered “the norm,” and a lot of people don’t even know you can use natural products on your skin.
Even if you don’t want to switch to totally 100% natural products, it’s a great idea to wean yourself off of the products that contain harsh chemicals, and start using products with more natural ingredients. Read more here for chemicals to avoid.
So here’s the list of some of the products I use:
- Homemade scrub (face + body): green tea, sugar and lemon juice
- Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap (face + body)
- Homemade toner (face): apple cider vinegar, rose water and witch hazel
- Jojoba oil (makeup remover)
- Sesame oil (moisturizer)
Read the comments section here for TONS of natural beauty ideas!
How to get started with natural beauty products:
According to Rebecca Casciano, makeup artist and holistic wellness consultant:
“Look for plant-based ingredients you actually recognize, such as flower, herb, fruit, vegetable and nut derivatives. I try to use the same theory for choosing beauty products that I use for food: the less ingredients, the better. Obviously, certain beauty products will require multiple ingredients, but if you can’t pronounce the majority of them, don’t buy it!”
And check out this book: Nature’s Beauty Secrets
My challenge for you — check out the beauty products you’re currently using and identify one way you could make your beauty routine more natural! Let me know if you have any great tips!
Amanda says
I just use an eye cream, Eucerin moisturizer, Vaseline on super-dry days (which is more often than not this time of year lol) and Tom’s soap to wash and face wipes when necessary. I love Bare Minerals make up and I’ve been using it for 2 years now. I find it so funny when women load their faces with anti-aging this and anti-aging that. It’s just doing more harm that good. But I know people who are in love with that stuff as a hobby.
I love the natural stuff you use! :) I’ve heard olive oil is a good makeup remover, too. I
Cori says
I also use coconut oil as a moisturizer for all over my body and face. It’s a little oily at first, but it will soak in pretty quickly. And a little handful goes a long way!
Sylvia Alakusheva says
Thank you for another great post Jenny! It is indeed amazing how much money we spend on beauty products. The cosmetics industry and all the advertisements we get bombarded with every day have led us to believe that as women we need to look and smell a certain way to be attractive. It took me years to realize how toxic my make up was, and to find out that instead of moisturizing it, my 75-dollar face cream was dehydrating my skin and contaminating my body with cancerogenic chemicals I never knew existed!
After some research, I discovered the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep guide to safe cosmetics. The group has done extensive research and has tested close to 70,000 beauty products currently on the market. EWG has come up with a rating system to measure the level of toxicity in cosmetics and to inform consumers about the health dangers of the seemingly harmless ingredients used in our beauty products. I am so glad I found this guide, because I can now make informed decisions about everything I buy.
One of my best finds is http://www.bodysense.com, a wonderful website where you can purchase (at a very low shipping cost) healthy, natural beauty and household cleaning products that have been rated “safe” by the Environmental Working Group’s system. Check it out, it is a great resource for all of us beauties :- )