Skincare Cleanout!

Hey y'all! Does your dad ever send you emails with subject lines like "read this" or "look at this" with just a single link to some random article he ran across on facebook? Oh, that's just my dad? ;) Well, one of those articles he sent me I finally clicked on when cleaning out my inbox and it piqued my interest. It was on skincare ingredients and hormone imbalances and it listed 10 common skincare ingredients to avoid due to their toxic nature.

 I've had the tab open for a few days and then yesterday my sister cleaned out our medicine cabinet and put all of my random bath+body products into a box.

So, I figured now would be a good time to go through the products I've collected over the years and evaluate them based on their ingredients, tossing the ones that could be inhibiting my overall health in any way. Click here to read the article and see the ingredients. Or, google "skincare products to avoid" and you'll get lists of 20+. 

Here's the box. Cleansers, lotions, self-tanner, etc. 

 Yes, self-tanner. I didn't have time last summer to tan and I just felt better about myself with some summer glow... but would oddly get a stomach ache after I applied. Now I know why... this stuff is full of parabens, petroleum products, and stuff I can't even pronounce.

This is a handcream I got for Christmas. I love the smell, but its full of alcohols, butylcarbamate, and urea, which can release formaldehyde. O_o

Ah, something in this box is truly natural! This cleanser isn't actually mine, my sister bought it from the doctor's office, but it's so healthy and I think she's not using it, so I may steal it. ;) 

This BeautyCounter Every Day cream has SAVED my face this year in both the drying winter weather and now this summer with sunburn. The ingredients are trustworthy and a little goes a long way. 

Now, here's an interesting item. It's an acne treatment gel in an eco-box with "nature's" in the brand's name, yet the last four ingredients are parabens. 

This Suds By The Sea handmade lotion passes the test! 

Ah, this hand recovery cream. When I was 15, I was hospitalized with pneumonia for a few days and a friend's mother mailed me this as a get-well-soon gesture. I have savored it ever since as the world's most effective, most luxurious hand product. The ingredients weren't on the bottle, but I googled them and found the list on Cosmetic-ingredients.net. Sadly, this stuff is full of chemicals. 

 Heh, my deodorant! Super duper bad for me since it's full of aluminum. But I haven't found a healthy effective alternative yet. Yes, I've tried making my own.

 These are just little hotel samples of this cleanser. The ingredients aren't too terrible (I looked the bad-sounding ones up) so I decided I'd keep em.

Believe it or not, even Burt's Bees isn't completely natural. This bath oil I've had for over 7 years, though, so healthy or not, it's time to throw it out. 

Your grandmother's expensive perfume samples? So toxic. 

My favorite lotion through my teenage years. Sadly FULL of nasty ingredients. 

 My costume glitter from Claire's in 2004? Sadly probably full of bacteria by now. 

So, even though these products have served some purpose in my life in the past, it's time to say goodbye in favor of something good for me. There are about 65 glands per inch of your skin that are the entry point for chemical compounds to enter your body. The skin really is the largest organ and not one to ignore.

Here's what I ended up keeping from that box. Some Frizz-Ease, a homemade make-up setting spray, my hand repair cream I'm too attached to, my amazing smelling Summer lotion that's chemical filled, the cleansers, the lavender lotion, the Every Day cream, the nasty deodorant, and an Aveeno lotion that, although not perfect, is much healthier and more convenient than anything else I have, so I'll keep using it.

I hope this has inspired you to maybe go through your bottles and examine their effect on your health. Here's another (more concise, and with a video) article on toxic skincare products (click here). Let's stop spreading carcinogens on our bodies, ladies. :)