What Is Clean Beauty + Why Should You Care
Clean beauty for me means using skincare, beauty and self-care products that are free of toxins and harmful ingredients known to be carcinogenic, cause respiratory issues, contain phytoestrogens and/or be endocrine disruptors. Your skin is your largest organ and it is absorbent. What you put on it does matter. Everyday, we use products – like our cosmetics, lotions, soaps, deodorants, shampoo, conditioner, etc. – that contain chemicals. While not all chemicals are bad, the toxic ones are, and unfortunately the U.S. beauty industry is one of the most unregulated industries, allowing many toxic chemicals into products we use daily, often not even realizing it. Having struggled with hormonal imbalances and an autoimmune disease, finding ways to help my body function optimally has become a necessity. Knowledge is power, and when we know better we do better. And if we all did better and demanded safer products, the industry would be forced to do better to create safe, non-toxic products as the norm. How great would that be?! In the meantime though, I hope my tips for transitioning to clean beauty help you to improve your health and skin!
3 Easy Tips To Transition To Clean Beauty
Start Small
My first tip is to start small. You really don’t have to clean out ALL of your current products and replace them all at once. There are two reasons I don’t recommend this. First, it’s freaking expensive! You already spent a decent amount of money on your current products, and it would be wasteful and expensive to replace them all at once. So financially, this isn’t feasible for most people and that is ok. Second, I don’t recommend switching all your products at once because it can actually be kind of traumatic for skin. In my experience, a gentler approach is more effective and sustainable long-term. If you switch out all your products at once and your skin has a bad reaction, you’re going to be super bummed and upset and then feel like cleaner, safer products don’t work. They do. Your skin just got mad that you went and switched everything all at once, so don’t do it!
Start With The Worst Offenders
Ok, so we’ve established that you don’t want to go wasting money or freaking out your skin. Good. So, where to start then? Start by replacing your current products that contain the worst offenders. What are those you ask? Well, here are the critical ingredients I think you should avoid.
“Fragrance” – this is a word used to mask icky ingredients. I avoid it. Parabens – this is a preservative used in many lotions, deodorants, makeup, body wash, shampoo, etc. that is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) or Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) – ingredients used in many self-care products to make them foam, and have been linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, organ toxicity, skin irritation and endocrine disruption according to the EWG Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. Phthalates – used in many hair products and cleaning products and is a known hormone disruptor.
Next Steps
Now you know which ingredients to specifically look for. Go ahead and check out your own products at home. I’d start with the ones you use the most – deodorant, facial lotions, cleansers, makeup, etc. Then, assess which ones are the most likely to be the most toxic. Start there. Replace one or two items if it is in your budget this month. Then, next month replace another one or two. As your current products run out, research and replace them with a safer option. Just rinse and repeat until all of your products are healthier for you! My favorite tool for researching products and ingredients is the EWG Skin Deep Database. You can search for specific brands, and if they don’t have a particular brand you’re looking for, you can search for the individual ingredients to see if they are safe. See….once broken down into a few easy steps it’s not nearly as daunting of a process, and the maintenance is actually quite manageable because you will notice your new products made with healthier, quality ingredients last longer because they require less each use without all the fillers and garbage.
Some Of My Favorite Clean Beauty Brands
I definitely have my favorite brands that I trust, approve of their performance and think they are worth giving a shot! Because I like to be transparent, please note that I am affiliated with Beautycounter, Primally Pure and Bend Soap Company. After using Beautycounter products for about a year I decided to become a consultant because their products really helped me to improve my skin and get unhealthy products out of my life. You can read more about my experience with Beautycounter here. Similarly, after falling in love with Primally Pure (first their deodorant and then many other products they make) I reached out to them about being a brand ambassador. I was already telling everyone I know to use their natural deodorant and everyone I was recommending it to really liked it, so it felt like a natural fit. You can read more about my Primally Pure favorites here. Lastly, we love supporting local companies and Bend Soap Company is in our backyard here in Central Oregon. They reached out to us and offered to let us try their products. Both Justin and I fell in love with their soaps and then visited their farm here in town and really fell in love with the company. If you choose to shop Beautycounter with me I do earn a commission. Similarly, if you shop using the links in the post for Primally Pure and Bend Soap Company we make a small commission for the referral. This is one of the ways we support our blogging activities at Real Simple Good. So, thank you for your support and please reach out if you have any questions at all. I’d love to help you transition to a clean beauty routine. Email me at beauty(at)realsimplegood(dot)com.
Beautycounter – the charcoal products were what originally hooked me, and I have many other favorite products including their makeup. There are SO many to choose from, and I can share more with you via email if you’re interested in learning more. Email me beauty(at)realsimplegood(dot)com. One of my favorite things about Beautycounter is that they have a 60-day no questions asked return policy. It is completely risk-free to try any of their products! Primally Pure – they have my favorite natural deodorant and I use their body butters, beauty cream and oil cleanser right now to name a few favorites. Again, happy to send more personalized recommendations via email. Truly I love this company, their people and pretty much everything they are doing. I also love that they have quality products and ingredients at a pretty affordable price. Bend Soap Company – their soaps are gentle, effective and smell wonderful. They’re story is pretty great too! They began because they couldn’t cure their sons eczema with traditional approaches and created their first soap to do that, and it did! They have several other products that are amazing as well. Reach out it you want more personal recommendations. Mineral Fusion – we are not affiliated with this brand, but I use their pressed powder foundation and really love it. Before transitioning to clean beauty brands, I used mineral powder makeup, so the Mineral Fusion pressed powder was an easy transition for me and has worked well especially over the winter! Cocokind – we are not affiliated with this brand, but I love that they have clean beauty and skin care products at an affordable price. True Botanicals – we are not affiliated with this brand, but they rate very well in terms of safety. The price points are a little steeper than the other brands listed above though. Redmond Life – we are affiliated with Redmond brands and they’ve got my favorite toothpaste (Earth Paste), some fun facial masks and a great foaming soap. LIKE THIS POST? CLICK HERE TO PIN IT FOR LATER!
