How To Protect Your Skin From Toxic Skincare Products
Skincare products are just as important as the food you eat!
How so?
Because the skin is the LARGEST organ of your body! It can absorb whatever product you apply to it!
And we've all seen the commercials and articles of personal hygiene products being recalled, and companies being sued because of their link to breast and ovarian cancer.
THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING!
But every day, big brand companies are cutting costs by using cheap, ineffective, and often, hazardous ingredients in their products, all in the name of “mass production.” AKA, to make MONEY!
We shouldn’t have to risk our health just to feel beautiful!
In this Blog Post, I am going to show you how you can Avoid Toxic Ingredients in your Skincare Products so you can achieve Healthy & Beautiful Skin!
How to Protect Your Skin From Toxic Ingredients!
1. ALWAYS read the ingredients!
Don’t let big brands fool you with clever marketing gimmicks!
We are often and easily persuaded to purchase a product just because it has the word, “natural" boldly printed on the front of the label. Because of this, we automatically assume the product is 100% natural. But that is far from true.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, companies are required to list all the ingredients in a product with the greatest amount first, followed in descending order by the ingredients in smaller amounts. The first five ingredients listed are typically the bulk of the product.
But before I try to convince you to switch to Natural Skincare products, I want you to take a look at the ingredients of the products that you are currently using.
Do any of the ingredients look familiar? Can you pronounce them? Try googling the ingredients. Are these the type of ingredients you want to apply to your skin every day? If yes! Perfect! If no, take a moment to reconsider the products you are using and what you are spending your hard-earned money on.
2. Beware of Greenwashed Products
Greenwashing is conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company's products are environmentally friendly.
Examples:Using environmental imagery of leaves, animals, green packaging.Misleading labelsProducts labelled “Certified”, “100% organic”, etc.
Basically, it’s when you see a product that says it’s, “Made with Natural Ingredients,” but later you find out that the product only has 1 natural ingredient and the rest are unhealthy, synthetic, or genetically modified.
How can you tell that a product is greenwashed? Again, READ THE INGREDIENTS! With the rise of natural and healthy living, many companies are joining the bandwagon of greenwashing. Because, technically, if a product has at least 1 natural ingredient, the company can say it is made with natural ingredients.
If a company is greenwashing their products, then the company is unethical and can’t be trusted. PERIOD! (But that’s just my opinion)
3. Choose Natural Over Processed
To give you some background, man-made or synthetic ingredients are created to mimic and/or supersede the functions of natural ingredients. Some manmade ingredients are great, while others are unnecessary or harmful.
For example, Baby Oil aka mineral oil is made from highly refined, purified and processed petroleum. It is designed to help reduce water loss from skin and keep it moisturized. Whereas, unrefined forms of mineral oil are used in automotive, railroad and aviation industry applications.
Then you have oils like Coconut Oil that can also help reduce water loss from skin and keep it moisturized. Both refined and refined version of Coconut Oil is extracted from the edible, fleshy "meat" of coconut and can be eaten or applied to the skin and hair.
Sure, mineral oil may be cheaper to purchase, and it’s not particularly harmful to the skin. But at the same time, it doesn’t have any nutritional value either. This is important to notice because you’ll see that some expensive “natural products” using cheap ingredients like mineral oil. They even go as far as using harmful ingredients that disrupt hormones, harm fertility and reproductive organs, affect birth outcomes, and increase the risk of cancer. (we will discuss these types of ingredients in detail in future blog posts)
Our suggestion: Opt for Natural Ingredients vs Processed!
And that’s it! Pretty simple right? Just choose natural products and voila, all your problems are solved! But we both know that’s not the case. There is a struggle when it comes to finding the perfect Natural Care Products.
For one, there are so many products to choose from. So, how do you know which product to purchase? By implementing these 3 tips above will help you narrow down your options.
Look for names of ingredients that you recognize like Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Sweet Almond Oil or Jojoba Oil. And Remember, Natural Skincare is a journey, not a destination.
As you learn more about Natural Skincare, the journey will become easier and you’ll find the right products and ingredients that work best for your skin. And the last thing we need in our lives is EXPENSIVE & TOXIC SKINCARE!
My goal is to help limit your exposure to toxic ingredients in your skincare products.
Talk soon!
xoxo,
Dominique
1 comment
Hello Dominique, when will you be replenishing the Aquamarine Foot Scrub and Foot butter. I love the fragrance and how it keeps my feet looking and feeling lux