3 Easy Tips For Transitioning To A Clean Beauty Routine
I hear it all the time – you’re overwhelmed from trying to figure out where to even start when it comes to transitioning to a clean beauty routine. You’re hesitant, maybe even resistant, because you’re wondering if what you put on skin really has that much of an impact on your health? The answer is yes, and the best part about the process is that it doesn’t have to be complicated to start doing better! I’ve got 3 easy tips to help you transition to a clean beauty routine that will not only help your skin to become more radiant and healthy but also help your entire body to be healthier too!
What Is Clean Beauty + Why Should You Care
Clean beauty for me means using skincare, beauty and self-care products that are free of toxins and harmful ingredients known to be carcinogenic, cause respiratory issues, contain phytoestrogens and/or be endocrine disruptors. Your skin is your largest organ and it is absorbent. What you put on it does matter. Everyday, we use products – like our cosmetics, lotions, soaps, deodorants, shampoo, conditioner, etc. – that contain chemicals. While not all chemicals are bad, the toxic ones are, and unfortunately the U.S. beauty industry is one of the most unregulated industries, allowing many toxic chemicals into products we use daily, often not even realizing it.
Having struggled with hormonal imbalances and an autoimmune disease, finding ways to help my body function optimally has become a necessity. Knowledge is power, and when we know better we do better. And if we all did better and demanded safer products, the industry would be forced to do better to create safe, non-toxic products as the norm. How great would that be?! In the meantime though, I hope my tips for transitioning to clean beauty help you to improve your health and skin!
3 Easy Tips To Transition To Clean Beauty
- Start Small – You don’t have to throw away your entire bathroom cabinet, drawers, etc in one day and replace it all at once.
- Start With The Worst Offenders – Get the most bang for your buck (money and health wise) by switching to safer products starting with the ones that are most toxic.
- Find The Brands You Can Trust – find a couple of brands you trust and work for you and go from there. Don’t worry I’ll share a few of my favorites as a starting point.
Start Small
My first tip is to start small. You really don’t have to clean out ALL of your current products and replace them all at once. There are two reasons I don’t recommend this. First, it’s freaking expensive! You already spent a decent amount of money on your current products, and it would be wasteful and expensive to replace them all at once. So financially, this isn’t feasible for most people and that is ok. Second, I don’t recommend switching all your products at once because it can actually be kind of traumatic for skin. In my experience, a gentler approach is more effective and sustainable long-term. If you switch out all your products at once and your skin has a bad reaction, you’re going to be super bummed and upset and then feel like cleaner, safer products don’t work. They do. Your skin just got mad that you went and switched everything all at once, so don’t do it!
Start With The Worst Offenders
Ok, so we’ve established that you don’t want to go wasting money or freaking out your skin. Good. So, where to start then? Start by replacing your current products that contain the worst offenders. What are those you ask? Well, here are the critical ingredients I think you should avoid.
- “Fragrance” – this is a word used to mask icky ingredients. I avoid it.
- Parabens – this is a preservative used in many lotions, deodorants, makeup, body wash, shampoo, etc. that is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer.
- Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) or Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) – ingredients used in many self-care products to make them foam, and have been linked to cancer, neurotoxicity, organ toxicity, skin irritation and endocrine disruption according to the EWG Skin Deep Cosmetics Database.
- Phthalates – used in many hair products and cleaning products and is a known hormone disruptor.
Next Steps
Now you know which ingredients to specifically look for. Go ahead and check out your own products at home. I’d start with the ones you use the most – deodorant, facial lotions, cleansers, makeup, etc. Then, assess which ones are the most likely to be the most toxic. Start there. Replace one or two items if it is in your budget this month. Then, next month replace another one or two. As your current products run out, research and replace them with a safer option. Just rinse and repeat until all of your products are healthier for you! My favorite tool for researching products and ingredients is the EWG Skin Deep Database. You can search for specific brands, and if they don’t have a particular brand you’re looking for, you can search for the individual ingredients to see if they are safe. See….once broken down into a few easy steps it’s not nearly as daunting of a process, and the maintenance is actually quite manageable because you will notice your new products made with healthier, quality ingredients last longer because they require less each use without all the fillers and garbage.
