Cleaning up our Skincare Act
What we use on our skin affects our body on the inside
Since our skin is the largest organ in our body and is the barrier between us and the outside world, why not take care of it the same way we take care of our most prized possessions? When our stomach aches after we eat, we look to our diet to figure out the problem, when our joints hurt we rest, apply a mentholated balm, or stretch to help combat the pain. The bottom line, if we take care of our skin by applying clean, nontoxic products to it, it will naturally take care of us for the rest of our lives.
Skin Care is Big Business:
We can’t make a turn in the US without hearing the benefits of the next serum, gel, lotion, or potion extolling its beauty benefits, promising the fountain of youth. There’s a good reason! The global beauty industry makes approximately $511Billion a year while the clean beauty industry is on a trajectory reaching $22 Billion by 2024, according to Statista Research.
One of my favorite clean youth skin care brands: Good For You Girls IG: @goodforyougirls
Why Clean?
Learning how to have a healthy relationship with our skin starts by using clean skincare products, sidestepping unnecessary ills that come with toxin-laden, dirty products. Conventional vs. Clean. Health vs. ? Sadly most conventional brands and products have yet to embrace the green/clean movement, thus putting their customer’s health into jeopardy.
When will everyone address and eliminate dangerous toxins from their products? For the sake of our health, let's have our wallets do the talking by consistently making a clean choice.
A few of my favorites: Salty Girl Beauty, Rosebud, Violets Are Blue, Good For You Girls , Joaquin Botanicals, Graydon, and …..my list continues
Read Your Labels:
We read our food labels, now please read your skincare labels. If you can’t pronounce a word that takes a full line of its own, buyer beware. Toxins to stay away from petroleum, parabens, aluminum, coal tar, Phthalates, Silicones, detergents, BHA, BHT, Gluten (why is gluten -wheat in beauty products??), and synthetic fragrances and dyes to name a few. Please refer to The Never List to see other products that you should never use on your body and eliminate from your bathroom or makeup repertoire. All of these products (and many more) can be extremely toxic to us. These ingredients can cause a disruption of our body’s natural bacteria, cause irritations, clog our pores and create a build-up, moreover get absorbed into our bodies and negatively affect our internal organs.
As for the environment, consciously aware packaging usually goes hand in hand with clean products they contain, whereas conventional products using hard plastic bottles, tops or applicators will continue to add to an ever-increasing problem negatively impacting our planet for up to 400+ years before it completely decomposes. Instead, look for products with upcycled or recycled paper packaging, reusable containers, or no packaging at all. Every little conscious decision and purchase makes a difference!
To add to my favorites check out BOOM! By Cindy Joseph and Raw & Co websites.
BOOM! Has a wildly popular product called BOOMSILK , a real game-changer in the moisture providing category. Made with purified water, organic extra virgin olive oil, beeswax with naturally occurring pollen and propolis, honey with naturally occurring royal jelly, tocopherols (Natural Vitamin E), Boom Silk can be used on your face and for all over body goodness.
Raw & Co offers a miracle balm product called ‘Heal’ both in a jar or a to-go stick that helps heal dry skin, chapped lips, itchy skin, eczema, rashes, burns, acne, and can also be used as under eye cream and is safe for baby skin.
Heal and all the products at Raw&Co are the brainchild of naturopath and CEO Dr. Kristen Haabala.
Blue Beauty Movement
A long-time beauty ingredient purist and creator of the Blue Beauty Movement, Jeannie Jarnot promotes and highlights companies that are both clean for our bodies and the environment.
Puffiness be gone, naturally! Violets Are Blue @violetsareblue
OMG, seriously this gives life to tired skin! www.Graydonskincare.com
When we use products marked as Blue Beauty, the higher standard of quality kicks it up a notch where not only are the products good for our use, when discarded they don't harm the environment. Companies like, Joaquina Botanica Graydon, Violets are Blue, and many more now are beginning to fulfill this standard and populate the Blue Beauty market. Click here for more information about @BeautyHeros and other clean beauty products in the Blue Beauty Movement.
A big shout out to my ever hard working intern Hailey Tedesco for her research and help on our clean skincare blog!