3 Reasons Why Natural Skincare Is Benefiting You
An investment into your long term health.
An investment into your long term health
First things first, check out our post on Fragrance and Parabens and Sulfates if you’d like to understand a bit more about product regulations, damaging ingredients to look out for and the FDA’s misused role throughout the beauty industry.
About two years ago, I began learning about the lack of regulation in self care products and wanted to find out what the best alternatives to conventional skin care and self care would look like in my life.
It’s been a gradual process of upgrading and disposing of used products as time goes on, and I’m finally at a place where my whole routine and home is toxin-free. This spans from shampoo to body lotion to candles to mascara to cleaning products to spices to vitamins and to food in the pantry. For this particular article, I’ll be focused on natural skincare and makeup.
I like to affirm that there is no rush to do this overnight. It’s good to make it a priority, but there’s no need to add unnecessary pressure to make this happen all at once. Look into options for responsibly discarding old products when possible (I prefer Terracycle) and take it month by month.
Click through each image to shop some of our favorite natural products from plant-based skincare brand, Herbivore. And now, read on to find out why natural skincare and self-care products are good for you.
One — Your skin (and environment) is a sponge
Your skin and your environment are absorbing the products you’re using. Not everything you put on your body will make its way into your bloodstream, but research shows that some of it actually does.
“First, because cosmetics are applied directly and are often designed specifically to be absorbed by the skin—think wrinkle creams and anti-perspirant—their ingredients also penetrate the body and join the bloodstream, where they may cause unknown internal harm. This in combination with the daily use of at least several such products amounts to exceptional exposure.
Second, personal care products have a way of getting into the environment, particularly water supplies. Whether rinsed off in the sink, washed down the drain of your shower, or thrown out, the countless chemicals in cosmetics infiltrate the water supply. As water treatment plants are unequipped to remove them, over 100 chemicals from personal care products can be detected at low concentrations in our drinking water or in habitats. (1)
TWO — A plant-based, clean skincare and makeup routine can help to clear up your skin.
I noticed a major shift in my cystic acne once changing from a conventional routine to a natural one. The products I used the majority of my life were not crafted by companies who cared for their customers overall well-being: they were simply making products with a long shelf life, marketed to unassuming teenagers who are eager to try anything in an affordable price range to clear up their skin. That bums me out, but has motivated me to do as much research as I can about ingredients in everything I purchase as an adult, and to educate on this topic to those in a similar place.
If you make any change today, I’d recommend refraining from purchasing a product off the shelf without carefully examining the ingredients list and determining that it’s good for you. According to this study, plant extracts can be a safe and cost-effective alternative to synthetics.
The documentary, Toxic Beauty, follows Mymy Nguyen (a medical student at Boston University) as she submits to three blood tests over three days: one after her usual 27-step regimen, one after a zero-product detox day, and one after switching over to clean beauty products. The results are staggering: on a typical day, Nguyen’s phthalate levels were five times higher and her paraben levels were 35 times higher than when she switched to nontoxic cosmetics.
Three — You’re potentially improving your fertility, risk of disease and cancer with every natural product you choose to use.
As mentioned in our post on perfume, harmful and undisclosed ingredients in conventional products are generally fighting against you: potentially putting you at risk for disease and damaging your skin. By staying away from toxic products, you’re giving yourself the upper hand over each of these risks. This 2018 study examined the risk of skin sensitivity associated with products containing fragrances, and found that products that are more likely to be worn for a long period, like moisturizers, are more likely to cause skin issues.
If you’d like to learn what ingredients are in the products you’re using — and how they’re affecting you — simply download the EWG SkinDeep app and the Thinkdirty app. You can scan barcode labels right from the store on Thinkdirty or choose to look products up and view charts with info on the potential damage to your reproductive organs, risk of disease and endocrine disruptors found in millions of products. I like SkinDeep because you can dive into specific ingredients: learning which products certain ingredients are commonly found in, what they could be doing to your body, and which products are the safest for a long, healthy life.
And lastly, a company who is truly testing boundaries — True Botanicals does a third party verification on each ingredient in their products, via Made Safe. This is an incredible company and so far, True Botanicals is the only skincare brand that has taken this step.
In the long run, what can we do? We need to demand better from the beauty industry, the FDA and individual brands. There need to be rigorous safety standards in place, resources and clean, economical options for those who can’t afford not to shop at big box retailers, and overall accountability across the board.
You can read about the actions that EWG is taking to ensure clean beauty products for all. Donations to EWG help to fight this fight this and keep their database running.
Disclosure: I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you if you decide to buy any of the products I refer to and promote. Information presented is sited directly from sources found throughout the article.