You may be incredibly in love with your bronzer. Smitten with your powder. Crushin’ on your blush,
But does it love you back? Does it sink into your pores, day after day, nourishing you on a deeper level…
Or does it sneak chemicals and toxins into your system, stored neatly away in fatty tissue or organs such as the liver, kidney, reproductive organs, and brain?!
There is a fairly good chance that you put a lot of care into what you put IN your body.
You probably shop on the outer aisles of the grocery store, skipping passed the processed packets and beeline towards the rainbow of produce.
Now lets talk about the gunk we put ON our bodies, and why a little extra time and money hunting down natural makeup is 100% worth the effort.
1) you are what you eat (and what you put on your skin)
‘On average, women use 12 personal care products a day, exposing themselves to 168 chemical ingredients.’
We expose ourselves to toxic cosmetics ingredients in many ways: breathing in sprays and powders, swallowing chemicals in lip sticks or hand creams or absorbing them through the skin.
Our skin? That rubbery shield protecting us from the outside? —Our body’s largest organ.
Products we smear on our skin actually get a one way ticket to our bloodstream- even faster than actually eating these chemicals.
What’s more, your skin plays a huge role in your body’s detoxification systems, expelling toxins through sweat, tears, and dead skin cells.
Many of the widely available brands of makeup are hampering our skin’s ability to breathe and detoxify; not exactly what we shelled out for in a foundation.
2) it’s kind to our planet
Our bodies, the earth…we are all connected, aren’t we?
Just as choosing organic produce reduces the amount of toxic pesticides burdened upon the Earth, so too does organic makeup production. Whats more, most eco-friendly makeup lines use recycled packaging, greener production methods, and are generally much more conscious about creating sustainable products for our globe.
That larger-than-life watermelon scent coming from your air freshener? Most likely didn’t come even close to the real fruit.
Artificial fragrances are formulated in labs with petroleum or coal tars which degrade in the environment, cause skin irritations, and contribute to allergies. With little concern for your health or the planet, companies save money by using cheap synthetic chemicals to replicate the natural scent of products which already exist in nature.
When shopping for beauty products, do yourself AND Mother Earth a solid and make sure that the scents are coming from 100% natural sources.
3) your skin will stay youthful
We already know how a diet rich in free-radical fighting phytonutrients like blueberries, yams and spinach are our best friend in aging gracefully.
Its the same story with what you put on your face- nourishing, plant derived products with herbal extracts are providing you with antioxidant protection to keep your skin soft and supple. While products with harsh chemicals may claim to provide ‘overnight youth’, its actually quite counterproductive to the quest for holistic beauty.
Looking for a simple way to nourish thirsty skin? Extra virgin coconut oil, jojoba oil, argan oil, are all found in nature and have unique properties to soothe your skin’s needs.
To further your fight on aging skin, try organic skin products with vitamin C which has been shown to help boost healthy collagen production, boost your skin’s defense against UV rays and other free radicals in our environment. (air pollution, car exhaust, etc)
the golden rule: If it is dangerous to eat, it is dangerous to put on your skin.
so what now?
I’m certainly not suggesting you throw your hard earned, department store quality beauty kit out the window. That would be wasteful (and expensive).
What you can do right now is DO the research into what’s in your daily use products.
FIND healthy alternatives you feel safe about consuming and
SHARE knowledge, because like chocolate or hugs, more is always better!
All the best,
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