Do you know how many chemicals you are exposing yourself to just during your morning routine? This was not a question I thought much about until recently. I shared in this post a bit about cleaning up my personal care products. I’ve spent a lot of time searching and trying new products. While, I’m still experimenting finding the “perfect” products; I did want to share what I use and other places to find cleaner beauty products. I have spent so much time looking for products and thought maybe this would help you get started cleaning up your beauty routine. “Spring Clean Your Beauty Routine” will be divided into the following:
Part 1~Chemicals to Avoid, Where to Shop, Deodorant
Part 2~Shampoo/Conditioner, Body Wash, Face Wash
Part 3~Hair Products, Body Butter/Lotion, Face Lotion/Oil/Serum
Part 4~Foundation & Eyes
Part 5~Lips & Nail Polish
I hope you will take a peek at some of these and consider replacing at least a few items you use everyday. When I started my journey in cleaning up my routine, I felt really overwhelmed with even identifying brands to consider and places to shop. While, I realize this seems like a lot of information, I really hoping it will be useful. Things that work for me may not work for you, and vice versa; that is why I’m laying out plenty of alternatives.
Chemicals to Avoid
Below are links listing ingredients you should keep an eye out for. I like to think of it as each product I replace that has less chemicals, that is one less stress my body has to deal with. You don’t have to replace everything at once to be taking steps in the right direction.
What Toxic Chemicals Is Your Body Absorbing
Keep It Clean: The Top 7 Ingredients To Avoid In Beauty Products
Exposing the Cosmetics Cover-up
10 Common Beauty Products You Should Not Be Putting On Your Skin
Where To Buy
The shops below are ones that carry a good amount of clean brands, but you should always read the ingredient list. I have found some brands contain ingredients I would prefer to avoid. Most of the brands that will be shown later can be brought directly from the company website but I hate to pay for shipping. These shops are places you can find several clean brands and maybe be able to grab free-shipping in the process.
Spirit Beauty Lounge This site offers a neat feature to order samples of some of their products (they are very small samples but when I tried it was enough for at least one full face test if not two)
Pemberley Jones
Beauty Sage
Eco Diva Beauty
NuboNau
Charleston Naturally
Saffron Rouge
Integrity Botanicals
Natural Solutions
The Mighty Nest
Abe’s Market
Pretty Stick Beauty
Planet Beauty (not all natural)
Whole Foods has the Whole Body section, that carries a lot of choices. Additionally, Sephora and Ultra have started carrying some natural brands.
Etsy may not come to mind when thinking about beauty products but there are a number of sellers out there from makeup to lotion to soap.
Big box stores have also listened to consumer trends and started carry product lines that are cleaner. Sites like Vitacost, Drugstore.com, Vine.com are also good places to find cleaner products.
Want natural sample boxes:
Goodebox
Beauty Sage Sample Box
Deodorant
I thought deodorant was going to be the hardest product to find a cleaner replacement for and it turns out one of the first brands I tried worked great. Schmidt’s works amazingly well, other than the application there is no compromise. It works so well P uses it, and he told me flat-out when I started cleaning up products he was not going to give up his deodorant. He tried Schmidt’s (on a weekend trial) and was sold. He wore it to work and had zero issue (ie no sweat marks) and he was using clinical strength antiperspirant before and would sometimes still get sweat marks. No white marks on clothing to worry about either. The biggest thing with the switch is the application, because you have to rub it one with your fingers, which for me was SUPER weird, but you get use to it. There are so many reported risks with antiperspirant ingredients this should be at the top of your list to try switching out.
Schmidt’s: The Bergamot +Lime is my recommended favorite and P likes the Cedarwood + Juniper. I tried the Lavender + Sage and did not think it worked quite as well. Make sure to read the application instructions and follow directions on amount to apply. Some people can be bothered by the baking soda, and I read that harsh soaps can make you more sensitive, especially shaving with soap. It was recommended that you use a non-soap cleanser on your underarms (like face wash) if you seem sensitive.
While I love Schmidt’s different things work for different people, so below are other brands of clean deodorants:
Soapwalla Deodorant Cream
Osmia Deodorant Cream
Erbaviva Organic Deodorant – Jasmine Grapefruit
Lavanila
Weleda
Pit Putty
Nourish Deodorant
In Love with Body Care
Poofy Organics Deodorant
Face Naturals
Aubrey Deodorants
Fresca Natural
MeowMeow Tweet
Miessence
Find other brands and see how your brand rates on the EWG Skin Deep Listing of Deodorants