natural and chic beauty: ingredients matter!

Did you guess this week's theme from the picture of my facebook page?

Here's the picture: 

This week is natural and chic beauty week! I will be sharing my favorite products, tips, and routines. I find that many people want to learn more about natural beauty, but are lost in the sea of new products and routines. I promise you that natural and chic go hand in hand, and that natural products will not have you looking like you just rolled out of bed after going to Coachella. I have been a natural beauty fan for a long time, having practically grown up in health food stores. This is second nature to me now, and I want to share the knowledge I have gained! 

First, lets get a handle on what is actually in conventional beauty products. It's important to understand why we need to be advocates for ourselves when it comes to beauty products. Simply put, as stated by EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetic Database (link below), 

"The American government doesn’t require health studies or pre-market testing of the chemicals in personal care products, even though just about everyone is exposed to them."

So, who's watching out for you? You are! Luckily it's really easy to look up ingredients and what data is out there on them. 

There's a lovely website, called Skin Deep Cosmetic Database. It gives you a quick score (green, yellow, red and a number score out of 10-- high=bad) on any product you search for, as well as links to scientific studies on ingredients. 
This is a foolproof method, as you can quickly search a product and see a color indicating the rating immediately  You can leave your research at that level, or--with a few more clicks--determine exactly why it received the rating. 

I don't want to get into specific brand analysis, since that gets complicated with legality and all that, but I did take some time and search for some various 'big name' shampoos, deodorants and other beauty products. Then search your products that you use day in and day out. It won't take long, and you might be surprised on what they are rated. For example, I learned that I need to switch my mascara to one that has even cleaner ingredients. 

Obviously, when you are shopping it's a great idea to check the ingredients and see if you can recognize or pronounce them. Other than that, I have three tips when shopping to make sure you are getting a healthy product: 

1. One of my easiest 'alarm bells' when shopping for beauty products is the catch all word 'fragrance' in the ingredients. This is going to be in a lot of stuff, so don't get frustrated. In fact, I practically guarantee that you will have to look at a 'natural' product to get away from 'fragrance'. You should think hard about getting away from this ingredient though, as it can encompass a wide range of scary things. Here's the ingredient link from Skin Deep. It got a red rating, and there's lots of mentions of organ toxicity and reproductive troubles. One of the main ingredients that can be in the catch-all term 'fragrance' is phthalate. This is basically a plastic based artificial scent. It's currently being phased out in many products over health concerns, but it's still overwhelmingly present. 

2. Shop at a health food store or natural store. Usually, these places can be counted on to do some of the hard work for you. They also tend to have a ton of variety, which makes shopping really fun. Try the samples, and see what you like. 

3. Brand loyalty. If you find a brand that works for you, stick with it. Later this week I have a post that is all about my favorite beauty brand. It's a lot easier to stick with a brand that you already trust and can stick in your cart without a second thought. 


PS: A note about prices. People often think that natural products are super expensive. If you compare them to conventional products, sure. But think of it this way. You can compare a conventionally grown orange at Whole Foods to another conventionally grown orange at Walmart, and Walmart most likely has the better price. But you can't compare conventional vs natural beauty products between stores, since they are not the same products at all. The ingredients are vastly different. Really in this case you get what you pay for. 
 Buy on sale, buy smartly, and you will get your money's worth. 

I hope that this post inspires you to do some research. Learning new things is super fun, and this makes you feel like a fancy scientist when you know what long ingredients really are!
 
This is what you get when you google "fancy scientist."

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland.