going natural

Nikon 85mm 1.8 shot at ISO 800 - f/2.8 - 1/160sec

For over 6 years we have been making our own cleaning products (recipes found here: Clean House Clean Planet) and 2 years ago we I decided to go the more natural route on personal care and cosmetics.  Did you know that the average US woman uses 12 personal care products and/or cosmetics a day, containing 168 different chemicals  (chemicals of concern), according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG).  it's astounding, really.

After much research and looking up our many soaps, shampoos and conditioners, face lotions, body lotions, deodorant, toothpaste, loads of makeup I felt like we were overloading ourselves with horrible toxic chemicals.  Many of the items were either given away to friends who wanted it, returned unopened products or were tossed.  This process included getting rid of dermatology prescriptions for both of us and then figuring out how to manage our 'problem' more naturally.  Goodbye benzyl peroxide for me...  It was reassuring that we were putting less chemicals on our bodies, but became very frustrating for me when breakouts began started again.  Poor Joe had to deal with many tears of mine...  Of course for Joe his skin improved with changing to more natural products - others even commented on how good his skin looked (best ever!?).  For my breakout issues, it took almost one year to figure out what was causing it and thank you Lord that it has now been almost a year of minimal breakouts and skin healing.  Even though I still have residual hyper-pigmentation it is starting to finally fade and I feel okay wearing minimal or no makeup in public.  There were times I felt like I wanted to hide my face walking into a store.  I felt embarrassed being 33 and breaking out like a 15 year old.  I didn't even breakout at 15 or 18 for that matter.  Not until I was in my 20's...

OH and memory foam pillows are horrible for acne prone skin!  Last year I found a breathable pillow which is organic shredded latex.  It's amazing!  It keeps it's fluff way better than my memory foam did as well and breakouts seemed to stop with also changing my pillowcase nightly and wrapping my hair in a scarf.  Good protection for hair breakage too.

So what do we use you ask?  So take from this what you will.  Here are the main products we've liked:

Makeup

• Alima Pure: primer, concealer, powder, eye shadows and lip
• Dr. Hauschka: mascara
• RMS Beauty: highlighter and concealer
• Jane Iredale: blush
• Mineral Fusion: bronzer
• Acure Organics: lip balm

Deodorant (homemade) - works better than over-the-counter!

• Use a small wide mouth container with lid
• 3 TBS raw unrefined organic coconut oil
• FYI - melts at 78 degrees
• 2 TBS baking soda
• 2 TBS cornstarch
• 10 drops of tea tree oil (optional)
• Note: You can add 1 TBS of 100% grated beeswax for the hotter months if you want to use a deodorant stick.  A stick only works well if it's warmer than 78 degrees, in the winter months the stick gets too hard to use and won't work.  

Toothpaste

• Nature's Gate

Shampoo and Conditioner

• Acure Organics

Soaps

• 7th Generation: hand soap
• Nubian Soap: bar soap

I still use LUSH bath, shower and body lotion products.  Sometimes there are things I just love and don't want to give up.  I figure you can't hide from it all and live in moderation, right?

Face

It's quite difficult to find natural products that do NOT contain coconut oil or cocoa butter for the face.  Either of those products will wreak havoc on your face if you are acne prone.  However, the LUSH Vanishing Cream does not contain either ingredient and is mostly a clean product, but unfortunately still contains parabens as the last item (smallest quantity).  Sometimes you just have to pick your battles.

• LUSH Fresh Farmacy Cleanser: Face Soap
• LUSH Teatree Toner
• LUSH Vanishing Cream: Face Lotion
• Acure Organics: Eye Cream
• Weekly Face Mask: Aztech Secret Indian Healing Clay Deep Pore Cleansing {amazing stuff}
• Acure Organics Face Lotion (for Joe only - has cocoa butter which doesn't make him breakout).  Great for his rosacea!

Sunscreen

• Badger  (non-comedogenic!) - general use, this stuff doesn't rub in well so if we are home working in the yard or playing outside it's fine for us...  
• Honest Company Sunscreen - runs in well coated to Badger.  Joe uses the spray sunscreen for mowing as well.
• EltaMD - which is not natural at all, but is is what I use for when I'm in public as I can't look like a ghost or vampire during a photoshoot with clients!  embarrassing.

Next we need to work on cleaner and healthier eating. (: