Making The Permanent Switch To Clean Beauty
For me, every pregnancy has sparked something within me to make a change for the better. With my 5-year-old, I get really into learning about nutrition and eating better. This pregnancy I have really gotten into clean beauty and wanting to do better for myself by selecting chemical-free beauty products.
First I’d like to share that the beauty industry is highly unregulated. Meaning large companies will do whatever they can to make sales with zero regard for your health. The “regulations” are only one page long and written back in 1938. Can you imagine how terrible those regulations are for beauty standards today? That means that companies can literally put whatever they want in their product to make it cheaper, work-faster, and make you happier.
But is the beauty industry really making you happier?
The main goals for the beauty industry are to have softer looking skin, feel prettier, smell irresistible, and “reduce fine lines and wrinkles” aka to look younger. However, common chemicals like lead, parabens, artificial coloring and perfumes, phthalates, and heavy metals are found in every day items that we use. Our skin is our largest organ and absorbs whatever we put on it in approximately 26 seconds. Thats insane! Before I dove into clean beauty, I had no sense of what I was doing to my body. I didn’t know that by using drugstore hair spray or swiping on mascara every day was putting my body into harms way. Chemicals mess with our endocrine system, our hormones, the nervous and immune systems, and our reproductive organs.
I’m not perfect but I’m learning
This is the part where I let you know how I am human and admit that my whole life isn’t 100% clean beauty. Clean beauty is expensive, it’s harder to find, and to be honest, it takes some research to know what is really considered “clean”. My goal is to take steps every day to be more conscious of what I put on my skin and the products I buy.
Form opinions then form habits
For me, the hardest part about starting something is making it a consistent habit. The clean beauty seed had been planted in my mind for years but I never took the steps to make it a habit. I would still go for convenience and price point over a little research and taking the risk of spending a little more on clean beauty. So I decided to start from the beginning of my routine and take the plunge on products I use everyday.
Here’s what I’ve been using and what I love so far
Facial Lounge’s Pore Clarifying Cleanser and Calming Hydragel – When I first found out I was pregnant, my hormones went wild. I had worse acne than I did in my teenage years and this, along with icing my face, really helped a lot.
When I got into my 2nd trimester my skin started to clear up. So I finished off these two products and switched to Facial Lounge’s Gentle Facial Cleanser and Feather-Light Moisturizer. These are what I’m still using today.
And my favorite skincare clean beauty line of all time is definitely Biossance. I’ve only tried their Squalane + Marine Algae Eye Cream but its something I keep purchasing over and over again because it works so well. The Squalane + Marine Algae Eye Cream made my under eyes look more hydrated and got rid of dark circles. Once this little baby is done baking, I plan to try out their Squalane + Phyto-Retinol Serum too.
Next on my list…
I would love to find a non-toxic sunscreen, a non-toxic primer, and a non-toxic deodorant that I love. If you have recommendations for those, please let me know; I would love to try them!
What’s your favorite clean beauty product? Let me know in the comments…
