Clean your Routine : How to detox your skincare and where to start.

Switching beauty products to all Clean beauty is just like changing your diet – it takes time and research. Time to transition (buy) each product you currently use and researching the right brands to make sure they are actually Clean. Well friends, this has been my mission for months (I actually started reading on it years ago..) and recently feel like I have really found brands that I feel so wonderful and confident about. So I hope that this post will be a great starting point for many of you looking to make the smart choice of choosing Clean beauty – or if you have already started : more info to carry on your journey. Just like picking the right supplements, vitamins or choices for a healthy lifestyle, clean beauty is just as important to your overall health and wellness. What you put on your body and skin can have as many affects and benefits to your health as what you put into it. So if you choose to eat clean and balanced, why wouldn’t you do the same thing for your outside self also!?

Unfortunately, finding truly Clean products is so much harder than one would think. It should be as easy as reading the ingredients on the label of your favourite moisturizer or cleanser but sadly, it’s not that simple… and that is the ugly side of the beauty industry isn’t it. In a perfect world, using toxic ingredients linked to hormone disruption, cancer risk, and organ toxicity would be illegal and we would never have to research what all of these big ingredient names actually are. Becoming familiar with ingredient lists is step one to really understanding what it is to go Clean with your skin care, and really understanding what it means to be considered Clean. ( like not being fooled by an all-natural , green or organic label). I’m not saying that every product out there with an all-natural label is completely lying, but what I am saying is that these labels can be deceiving. The beauty/cosmetics industry is highly unregulated, so companies can label their products however they want to. So the more knowledge you have about the ingredients and the mission of the brand/company, the better armed you are when choosing safe, healthy and effective beauty (and wellness) products.

A clean beauty brand/product should have two things :

• Transparency
• Non-toxic ingredients

Many product labels will have confusing names with undisclosed ingredients like “fragrance” to hide what it really is. Which could contain different harmful toxins that we will never know about.

My Clean beauty journey started…

like most moms. I just wanted to use the very best products and overall health and wellness care for my baby on board. And it began with skincare, what was safe enough for a newborns delicate skin and how would I know what all these ingredients on the labels actually mean!? Once I grew into my mom role, my need to know and learn about product ingredients trickled over into baby food, baby clothing materials/fibres and eventually my own makeup and skincare. What really triggered my need to find Clean beauty brands for myself was just a couple of years ago – when I discovered my very favourite SPF facial moisturizer was deemed a hazardous product with a (now known to be..) toxic ingredient in it. I was absolutely horrified and just freaked out! I had been using the whole product line through my pregnancies (x2) and I can only imagine what I would have felt if I found out that that moisturizer and it’s deceiving ingredient label had caused any harm to my child or myself. That was really it for me, and I began a pretty relentless hunt for the best known safest and cleanest of products out there. You can find my post on safe SPF for us and littles here.

Take note of these : The top 10 Toxic Ingredients to avoid !

The best way to ensure you’re using clean, safe and effective beauty products is to seek out the cleanest brands and stay brand loyal to them. I couldn’t believe how many products I had been using for years that had un-natural fillers (animal bi-products) in them because I read all natural on the bottle. You should be able to find full ingredient lists on the products or the brands website – this is going back to full transparency! Meaning, they should have nothing to hide. Ok, now that we have covered toxic ingredients and what to avoid, as well as transparency, let’s move on too “I found a brand I love now where do I start”. Let’s be real, there aren’t many of us who can just go ahead and purchase an entirely new skincare, makeup and wellness regimen in one shot (and if you are the exception – Good for you babe, I’m hella jealous! xx) But if you are an average Jane like me, you need to start off slow. Maybe a product switch a month or two, and eventually you will find your whole beauty cabinet will be detoxed and cleansed of all the uglies! But before you can get excited about your makeup drawer makeover you have to start somewhere, so let me tell you how I did and what products you should start with. Now, let me remind you all that I am a stay at home mama (with a little side hustle) so it’s not like I switched to all clean everything overnight. I tried different brands, read up on them religiously, tried samples of different products until I found what I liked and worked best for my skin type and what worked best with my budget (so I can repurchase when I need). And while I still haven’t completed my full clean beauty detox, I have started the transformation and it feels so good. Just to know I am not wasting money on things that do nothing but possibly put my health (and my kids’ health) at risk, and now using products that work even better because it’s more concentrated with the good stuff than anything synthetic. Right now I am currently using All Arbonne skincare. I am in LOVE with the product ingredients, their global mission and everything I have tried so far is amazing! I have linked the products I am using below along with others from Clean brands I have tried and loved.

Make the most important switches first…

These are the HIGHLY recommended swaps to start with first, and my Clean picks. Here’s why:

• Deodorant : Deodorants can contain endocrine disrupters, potential carcinogens, and other toxins hidden in that “fragrance” ingredient on the label. These toxins are coming into contact with one of our body’s most critical detoxifying areas – our underarms. Our Lymph nodes and sweat glands are concentrated there and since our underarm skin is thin and always being exfoliated when shaved makes it even more vulnerable to absorbing toxins. The skin under our eyes is also one of the most thin skin on our bodies – just think, would you want to put anything toxic under your eyes? Probably not, so why do it to your underarms.

• Sunscreen/Moisturizer : The biggest and most important anti-ager – Sunscreen! As I mentioned, this was my whole reason in searching for clean beauty – especially once I learned that chemical sunscreens are among the most powerful irritants in the beauty industry. So the spf that most of us use every morning may actually be working against us with possible endocrine disruptors and toxins I mentioned before. Mineral sunscreen is calming instead of irritating and lasts until it’s washed off (or sweated off), unlike chemical sunscreen which degrades in sunlight after two hours.

• Mascara : Most mascara formulas are hard to imagine putting into your eyes, and that is exactly what we are doing. Most formula’s are made with coal-tar, umm…that sounds like something my husband would use on our car, not something I put on my face let alone my eyes! Especially since I have super sensitive and dry eyes, Mascara was one of the first things I changed immediately.

• Shampoo and Conditioner : Powerful fragrances and sulfates, disruptive preservatives, and potentially carcinogenic plasticizers and dyes are some common ingredients. We work them into our scalp (and hair follicles) and end up with them all over our whole body while in the shower! Clean shampoos are far less stripping and Conditioners are full of natural oils so the shine we end up with is because our hair is actually healthy.

• Foundation/Concealer : Foundation and concealer is being blended into areas like under your eyes and around your mouth, disturbing when you think of how many chemical ingredients are lurking on most cosmetics. Did you know that 1,300 chemicals are banned from cosmetics in Europe while only 11 are in the us, shocking isn’t it! Starting with your makeup base (foundation/concealer/ tinted moisturizer) would be a great first step on detoxing your makeup routine.

Honourable Mentions: Other Products worth swapping right away…

• Lipstick/chaptick :
• Facial Exfoliator
• Body wash/exfoliator
• Body moisturizer

Can’t wait to jump into my most loved and used Clean makeup products for you guys next. This post came a little later than I wanted because I wanted to fact check all the information, products and ingredients for you guys to be sure I was including some of the very best. Again, most of these recommendations are because I have tried them and find they worked amazing while providing all the benefits I want out of my clean beauty. While others, are highly recommended. And makeup is no exception. I’m still on my “beauty detoxing ” journey, but am excited to share it all with you guys. I really hope this helped shine a little light on what the ugly side of beauty is and what it looks like to make the slow but worthy switch to clean everything!

Is there any products you guys are using and loving that are clean? Or maybe all this seems daunting and you have questions about the brands or products!? Whatever it may be, if you have any questions – I’m happy to chat so don’t be shy!

Stay clean lovelies! xx

With Love,

Michelle xo