Tag Archive for "natural" | The Organic Beauty

Step Three: Revolutionize Your Beauty Routine

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC Monday, September 20, 2010 Healthy Beauty, Healthy Home, Holistic Health, Lifestyle, Organic Beauty, Product Reviews 4 steps, hair, Healthy Beauty, Lifestyle, makeup Permalink 0

Tossing all your old, chemical-laden makeup, skin- and haircare supplies can be incredibly scarring. Some women use the same mascara for decades… the very prospect of switching brands can be like betraying an old friend. But with all the recent popularity of all things green and organic, there has never been a better time to switch to organic and/or natural products. There are great products for problem skin, aging skin, great makeup, even sunscreen! All without harmful chemicals and carcinogenic additives. Want to browse the options? Future Natural is a great site for organic skin- and haircare, featuring great brands such as Juice Beauty, Mod.Skin Labs, John Masters, and Farmaesthetics. Those of us who are incurable Sephora addicts can get a fix with Sephora’s Natural and Organic section, where you can stock up on all the best organic brands, like Boscia, Bare Escentuals, Josie Maran, Pangea, Korres, and Tarte.

Natural vs. Organic

In selecting your new beauty products, keep the following in mind: “Natural” and “Organic” are not the same thing. Though using products labeled natural is still preferable to the pharmacy-bought, chemical brands, you may still be using products that have dangerous pesticides and repellents in them. Organic ingredients are grown or processed in accordance with strict regulations, without the use of these carcinogenic chemicals. In an ideal world, we would all only put organic products in and on our bodies. However, affordability and availability are issues for some people, but that shouldn’t prevent every one of us from making better choices. Start by eliminating the most dangerous elements (see Step One) and go from there! Or, if you’re ready to dive in 100%, check out The Coming Clean Campaign for a list of USDA certified organic brands.

Great Organic and All-Natural Products to Try:

Hair:

Intelligent Nutrients Haircare is a really great line of products, certified organic by the UK Organic Soil Association. I particularly like the Harmony line, featuring great anti-aging, revitalizing, volumizing shampoos and conditioners chock full of antioxidants. Another good line, though not all organic (despite the name!), is John Masters Organics. My favorite of their products are the Sea Salt and Lavender Hair Mist and Dry Hair Nourishment and Defrizzer, and both happen to be USDA certified organic!
Desert Essence Organics also features mostly certified organic ingredients in a bunch of really great haircare products for all types of hair. I particularly like the Organic Coconut Oil Shampoo and Conditioner.. perfect for dry hair.

Face:

Simply Divine Botanicals has an amazing line of natural skincare products, with some certified organic ingredients. My absolute favorite face wash is called Black Velvet, and it is perfect for all skin types, from acne prone to dry and sensitive. Of the 100% organic brands, Miessence is one of my absolute favorites. I particularly like their Purifying skincare line, which is great for problem skin, and uses ingredients such as organic echinacea and thyme. They also have an organic glycolic peel!

One of my all-time favorite moisturizers is the Sweet Black Tea and Rice Facial Moisterizer from Juara, a natural, Indonesian skincare company. They use great ingredients like Kombucha, avocado, and rice bran oil that make for radiant, amazing skin.

Makeup:

Bare Escentuals makes a great line of pure mineral makeup, that is actually pretty healthy for your skin. I like the mineral foundation (with SPF 15!) and the mineral veil. For slightly heavier coverage, I love Juice Beauty Tinted Moisturizer with SPF. It provides a lovely glow and blended color with tons of nutrients that prevent aging and promote skin health.

There are actually quite a few new organic mascaras coming on the market, and it’s about time! The delicate skin around your eyes is a really easy way for harmful chemicals to get into your bloodstream, so its really important to use quality ingredients on those peepers. One of my favorite mascaras is Organic Wear 100% Natural Origin Mascara from Physician’s Formula. Its a really thick formula with a finely bristled brush that gives a super voluminous look, and the ingredients are mostly organic, and almost ALL natural. Miessence also makes a great mascara, and is 87% organic.

For eyeshadow, blush, and everything else fabulous, I have a few go-to lines. Bare Escentuals, Korres, and Josie Maran are all good places to start. Tarte also makes some amazing natural (though not organic) products; my faves are the Natural Cheek Stain (so good for more dramatic fall looks) and the Lipsurgence Natural Lip Stain, both formulated with plant-based ingredients that are rich with antioxidants, and both are paraben, SLS, pthalate, and mineral oil free! For 100% certified organic ingredients, my favorite lines are Vapour Organics (try their awesome, antioxidant rich Siren Lipstick), with color derived from natural fruit pigments), and Nvey Organics, whose line of vitamin-infused eyeshadows in 24 different colors are formulated with sensitive skin around the eyes in mind.

Nails:

The products we use on our nails are perhaps the most toxic aspects of our beauty regiments. Almost all commercial nail polish brands have heaping amounts of terrifying chemicals in them (formaldehyde, toluene, DBP) which cause a whole mess of health problems, including (but not limited to!) respiratory problems, reproductive complications, liver and kidney toxicity, headaches, fatigue, and yes, even cancer. There’s a reason why manicurists wear surgical masks! The good news is that we now have options… Priti NYC is my absolute favorite. They have pretty much every color under the sun, have NONE of the carcinogenic toxins listed above, and even have some organic ingredients! They even make a completely non-toxic, soy based nail polish remover, which actually works (believe it or not!).

See?? No need to panic about throwing away your trusted Maybelline’s and Neutrogena’s, there are much better, healthier, and even more effective products out there that won’t harm your body! If you have some favorite organic or natural products, feel free to comment and share them!

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Make your own DIY natural cleaning products!

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC Monday, August 23, 2010 Healthy Baby, Healthy Home, Healthy Pets, Lifestyle cleaning, diy cleaning products, healthy home, home remedies, natural Permalink 0

We’ve gone over some of the more natural and non-toxic cleaning products to use instead of the silent killers (extreme? I think not…) currently hanging out in our broom closets, but there is actually one further step hardcore Organic Beauties can take in naturalizing their homes… Make your own cleaning solutions, that are so safe you could eat them (well, maybe not ALL of them…)! Naturally! From ingredients you probably already have in your home! This is some super exciting stuff….

Organic Makeup: Wave of the Future or Marketing Ploy?

By: Natasha Uspensky, CHHC Saturday, December 26, 2009 Healthy Beauty, Organic Beauty, Product Reviews Healthy Beauty, makeup, natural, Organic Beauty Permalink 0

The organic craze has long since reached the world of beauty, with all-natural and organic skin- and hair-care lines being touted by celebrities and naturalists alike as the next big thing. There is no doubt that plant extracts and natural bases are far healthier for the body–as well as the environment–than chemicals and artificial additives, but can organic really do the trick with makeup? Will all-natural foundations, eye shadows and lipsticks ever be able to compete with industry standbys such as L’Oreal and M.A.C.? And are they really all that different?

Mineral makeup brands such as Bare Escentuals and Sheer Cover have become omnipresent as alternatives to pore-clogging foundations, and it was only a matter of time before mainstream drugstore brands such as Neutrogena and Almay came out with their own takes on the concept. But is their mineral makeup really natural? Whereas the ingredients of Bare Escentuals mineral makeup are simple and legitimately all-natural (Mica, Bismuth Oxychloride, Iron Oxide), a close look at the contents of Neutrogena’s mineral powder reveals a slew of chemical and synthetic ingredients (including, but unfortunately not limited to, Titanium Dioxide, Polymethyl Methacrylate, and Methylparaben) that have been linked to various cancers. In fact, comparing Neutrogena’s mineral powder with its regular powder makeup reveals that the products are really not that different at all.

As is the case with all products claiming to be organic or all-natural, one must proceed with caution. Always look for the words “Certified Organic,” and if all else fails, examine the list of ingredients. Anything that sounds like a chemical most likely is; a great rule of thumb is the shorter the ingredient list, the better. Take for example Boots Botanics, a British-based company that recently hit the shelves of Target and other box stores. Despite their name and their claim of using “90% Organic Ingredients,” a look at what goes into their makeup makes even Neutrogena’s ingredients seem natural.

Despite their potentially harmful long-term effects, chemical and synthetic ingredients are added to makeup for a reason. Synthetic products have a longer shelf life, can eliminate the need for frequent reapplication, and can have brighter, shinier colors. But at what cost? It comes down to a choice everyone must make for themselves. Organic makeup is still more expensive and less long-lasting than its chemical counterpart. Until big cosmetic companies allocate as much research and funding into organic and all-natural products as they do their chemical ones, there will remain some conveniences that organic makeup just won’t be able to supply. On the other hand, organic makeup might give us healthier skin and a healthier body. Once the demand for all-natural makeup is as great as the demand for, say, “All-Day Lip Color,” we can expect the market to deliver products that rival the convenience of chemicals and synthetics without the harm to ourselves and our environment.

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Some organic makeups to try: Physician’s Formula Organic Wear (stay tuned for a review of their makeup), Miessence Makeup, and Burts Bees.