After twisting and turning our way through the chemical maze these past 5 weeks, you might be left thinking, so where do I go from here?
Are you still confused?
I totally hear ya girl! Even though I have been on the green beauty train for a long time, I am continually learning. The trick for me, was knowing a few key ingredients to look out for and finding the brands I can trust. Brand trust, from a truly authentic and ethical place.
The aim of our series was to give you an insight into a handful of ‘toxic’ ingredients which we found were commonly singled out as the one’s to look out for. This was a process of scouring the internet and reading my way through my favourite text – The Green Beauty Guide.
In case you missed it, the 5 ingredients we signaled out were:
- Sodium Lauryl and Sodium Laureth Sulphate
- Parabens
- Fragrance and Colours
- Petrochemicals (mineral oils)
- DEA and TEA
Our biggest lessons we learned from working through these chemicals was this:
The beauty industry is a big and sometimes ugly world (contradiction, I know) in which the media plays a huge part in determining what beauty is and then sells us products to achieve that dream. This can make it very confusing for many of us to work out where all the good for you products are amongst the thousands in the beauty aisle. So we suggest you follow these few simple rules:
- Consider where the product is manufactured, we always encourage going local where possible. Smaller manufacturers give you the opportunity to easily connect directly with them for feedback or questions.
- Choose manufacturers that stand by quality.
- Ask yourself, can I pronounce the names of the ingredients? and remember, if there is one nasty chemical there are sure to be more. Another thing we often ask ourselves is are these ingredients edible?
- Be mindful of the overuse of words such as ‘organic’ and ‘natural’, look for recognised certification labeling.
- Find brands you trust, and stick to them.
We hope this little green beauty 101 series has shed some light on what to look out for when reading your labels, or better still, help you find products that eliminate them.
If you liked this post, please share the love with your friends, because the more we spread the word, the easier it will be for women to make empowered decisions about their beauty products.
