It's been about a year and a half since I began my quest to find safe, healthy, non-toxic cleaning and beauty products for my family. The biggest factor that held me back is that I'm a bit picky about the products I use. When it comes to beauty products & cosmetics, I admit, I'm a bit of a snob. I actually use them, as opposed to not using them, and I didn't want to look like I just came down off the mountain just because I now have a commitment to purity in the products I use. When it comes to cleaning products, I have one qualification that I DO NOT compromise...EVER...they have to work. And they have to smell nice. OK, so technically that's 2 qualifications, but whatever. By "smell nice" I mean, I want them to smell like I'm walking into a spa, not a hospital. I can smell a chemical fragrance a mile away. Even if the manufacturer tries to make it smell fresh & clean, I immediately get a headache and a fuzzy brain if they have used a non-plant-based fragrance to create that fresh clean smell. And, I'm sorry, but cleaning products have to work. AND, I don't have time to mix vinegar and baking soda to make my own cleaning products...they have to be convenient, quick and easy to use (yes, I am aware that I just added a 3rd qualification)...
OK, now to the good stuff...the products I've tested and tried and LOVE...
In my next few posts I'll go over my beauty regimen from head to toe...beginning to end and let you know what all my favorite products are.
Step 1: Take A Shower.
Shampoo & Conditioner-
Most natural shampoos don't work, don't lather, or don't smell nice...NOT OK with me. So, after spending hundreds of dollars and a full year testing 15-20 of the top-rated all natural shampoos, I switched to a premium brand and have been spending an arm and a leg on Aveda products. They smell amazing and have a green light in the "clean, non-toxic" department. I still have them in my shower and will continue to use them up because...well...they smell nice and they cost me an arm and a leg.
HOWEVER, I've discovered a shampoo & conditioner that DO NOT cost an arm and a leg, smell AWESOME and work like NOTHING I've ever used...not even the toxic crap I used for 12 years. Jessica Alba's Honest Shampoo+Body Wash & Honest Conditioner. I just don't even know what to say I love them so much. They are super-concentrated, so a little goes a long way. My hair is shiny and full of volume and smells great without being over-scented with chemical fragrances. They are $9.95 each (which is already a great price) unless you bundle them with, say, a laundry detergent, dryer sheets, and hand soap (which I also love)...then you get 5 products for $35.95...which works out to $7.19 per product. It's kind of a no-brainer. AND...Costco now carries a "Costco-sized" bottle of the Shampoo+Body Wash! If there's anyone I've met (OK, I haven't met her, but I read her book and she is a kindred spirit) who is MORE committed to clean products that WORK than me, it's Jessica Alba. When she couldn't find products that met her stringent standards and her beauty needs as an actress...she decided to recruit a team of experts and make her own...that's what I call ingenuity!
Soap/Body Wash-
If you are a bar-soap kinda guy (or gal) go with Dr. Bronners Bar Soap. The lavender is by far my favorite scent. I also like peppermint, but certain members of my family brought to my attention that putting peppermint oil soap on certain more sensitive parts of your body can be not-so-comfortable...point taken...I'll stick with lavender. OK, so this is NOT the cheapest soap I've ever purchased, and if you're used to buying copious amounts of Dial or Dove at Costco, you will definitely balk at the price. It's, like $4-5 PER BAR...I'm not kidding. Stock up when it's on sale at Sprouts.
If you are a liquid body wash kinda guy, which I never was until I saw the price of Dr. Bronner's bar soap and now I'm a full-on convert, go with Everyday Shea Moisturizing Body Wash. It comes in Lavender, Vanilla Mint (which does NOT have so much mint in it that it causes you to tingle...just smell good), and unscented. I like to mix Lavender and Vanilla Mint...mmmmm! It's about $14 for a 32 oz. bottle which will last you forever. Once again, stock up at Sprouts when it's on sale...it goes down to about $9.95 on a regular basis. I use the stuff on my body, face, for shaving my legs...everything! I even keep one by my bathroom sink for hand washing. One squirt on a loofah or scrubby bath mitt, goes a LONG way!
Face Wash-
Like I said before, if I'm in the shower, I use the Everyday Shea for everything. However, it is a squeaky clean kind of clean, and as I age, I'm finding I need all the moisture I can get. So, I also use SKIN By Ann Webb Peppermint Milk Skin Brightening Cleanser. This one is for "mature" (aka "dry & wrinkly") skin, but there is also one for oily/combination skin. I put a quarter-sized dollop in my hand and massage into dry skin. It can be wiped off with a warm wet washcloth or rinsed off with warm water. You could also use a Clarisonic if it's in the budget.
Face Scrub-
I use Aveda Tourmaline Charged Radiant Skin Refiner ($40 for 3.5 oz), and have recently discovered Shikai Borage Therapy Facial Scrub, which is pretty good and carries a much friendlier price tag (about 10 bucks for 4.2 oz.) I use it twice a week. It's important to exfoliate your face regularly to rid it of dead skin cells that cause you to look dull and more dry (if you have dry skin) or more oily (if you have oily skin). For acne-prone skin, Burt's Bees has a great line as well as ALBA Botanica (no relation to Jessica Alba). The salicylic acid that these brands contain is a necessary evil if you are fighting acne. It is rated a 4 on the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Website (which rates cosmetic ingredients on a scale of 0-10, 10 being the most toxic), but if you have acne, you gotta do what you gotta do, and salicylic acid is the least-toxic-but-still-highly-effective solution.
Body Lotion-
Because we live in Arizona and every member of my family has dry skin, I searched high and low for a lotion that would REALLY moisturize...ALL DAY...without mineral oil, dimethicone (the "active" ingredient in Aveeno Active Naturals Daily Moisturizing Lotion), or other chemical agents that coat the skin to keep the lotion in all day. My favorite is ShiKai Borage Therapy Dry Skin Lotion in the green bottle. Because it's in a green bottle and contains the word "therapy" I thought it would smell like menthol or something and passed it over in the aisle at Sprouts for months. One day they had a tester out and I tried it...love at first swipe! We also use Everyday Shea and Everyday Coconut (Sprouts)...especially in the Summer when we don't need quite as much moisture because we're sweating our tooshies off, but Borage Therapy is my go-to lotion. Another, light-weight lotion option is Honest Face+Body Lotion...lightweight and silky going on, but seemed to leave a teeny tiny bit of a film at the end. I'm trying it a bit this month. I like it, but not QUITE as well as the Borage Therapy. If you do not have super-dry skin, you might love it! SkiKai also makes a face lotion and a hand cream. The hand cream is nice if you need something REALLY emollient or if you like to have a small tube in your purse. Don't waste your money on the face cream...it's basically the same as the body lotion in a smaller, more expensive tube.
Do you use Meleluca products? I love theirs but are they "green"?
ReplyDeleteI have been using Melaleuca for about a year and a half. I love the Automatic Dishwashing Detergent as well as the Fragrance Free Laundry Detergent. The problem I have with most of their other products is that they use chemical fragrance. All of their skin & beauty products and 95% of their cleaning products contain fragrance, which is known to cause reproductive problems and cancer. I used them because they were a safer alternative to the bleach-based products I was using before, but I have since found safer alternatives...The Honest Company makes fabulous cleaning products that are very effective...an all-purpose cleaner, spot treater, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent and rinse aid, floor cleaner, bathroom cleaner, and toilet cleaner. I have recently switched to using all Honest Brand products.
DeleteWhat do you use as shaving cream? I'm having a hard time finding one... I'd been using just Say Yes hair conditioner as a shaving cream but it wasn't moisturizing enough, especially under the arms. Even the "natural" stuff has PEGs and aluminum I them :(
ReplyDeleteI like to use www.bodysense.com in conjunction with www.ewg.org/skindeep when I am looking for a new product. I do not use a shaving cream...I just use body wash in the shower. However, bodysense.com sells products that rate low on the toxicity scale but still work. All of their products are tested by their employees and they have recommendations that are helpful. They recommend Alba Botanica Moiturizing Cream Shave, which rates as a 2...which is pretty good. I noticed that it does contain PEG-7, however, which is a 4 because of organ system toxicity. I searched shaving cream on EWG's website (click on "Men's" at the top, then "Shaving Cream") and see several options that are rated "0"...the first of which is Garden of Eve Adam's Shave Cream...which, ironically, still has PEG-20 (which is a 3), but must contain so little of it that it still gets a zero on their scale. I cannot recommend this product personally, though, as I haven't used it. You might also try Herban Cowboy Aloe Shave Cream, which is sold online and in some Walgreens stores. It's a non-lathering formula created for men (so it may have a manly botanical fragrance...I'm not sure) but the ingredients check out and Jessica Alba is a fan. Sorry I couldn't be more help!
DeleteI can't wait to hit Sprouts and get some of these products :). Have to say, with this heat right now, we're in desperate need for sun screen recommendations - any chance that's coming soon, my friend?
ReplyDeleteBTW, I love the way you write. It's just like sitting next to you and hearing you talk - I miss that! I love learning from you and I'm super excited to follow you on this journey, miles behind you, learning from what you've experienced.
Well...I was going to post it on Friday...but...for you, I'll try to get it out sooner!
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