Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Skincare: My Newest Crunchy Obsession

As I am really giving 40 the side-eye, I've started focusing more and more on my skin health. I have mixed feelings - On one hand, I want to do ANYTHING to not have wrinkles and age spots or look old. On the other hand, I don't want to do anything that can give me cancer, ha. 

Right now I have a mix of clean and dirty products and am working my way to more and more clean products with the hope that I can really take care of my skin and always look 10 years younger than my age, ha, with the cleanest products possible.

Bodywash - I currently use either Young Living or Dr. Bronner's bar soaps. I'm happy with the clean factor of these products but they definitely aren't anti-aging or anything. Not sure if I care if my elbows look old or not? BUT I do know age spots will start on my hands and my decolletage {romance novels for the win here} so maybe I should care more?



Shampoo/Conditioner - I rotate between different versions of Young Living. They are 2- and 3-rated on EWG, so it's not the top rating {which you'll see below in some other products}, but I'm happy with that.

Facewash - This is where I get a big, fat F. I have oily-skin and even at 39, I'm prone to acne. I use a Neutrogena face wash that is a 10 on Think Dirty {an app that tracks how clean, 1, or dirty, 10, your products are}. SO BAD.



BUT there is hope here! I just bought a Beautycounter charcoal cleansing bar that is for oily skin. [Beautycounter are insanely clean products, like everything is EWG verified, and I'm really excited to trying out their skincare and make-up. The problem is...they aren't cheap. So I can't just do a 180 and get everything from them, which is what I'd like to do.] I'm starting out slowly here and using it just at night. If I don't break out, I'll increase to mornings too!



Lotion - Our whole family uses a Young Living body lotion, but we don't use lotion too often as it's got a higher rating for a YL product [4]. A lot of times I also use coconut oil for the kids mixed with an essential oil - for example coconut oil mixed with lavender oil is great for Trent's winter eczema.

Wrinkle Cream/Eye CreamI currently use a couple of Young Living products - one is a daytime lotion and one is a wrinkle cream that is a little thicker so I use it at night. As far as I can tell, they both fall in the 'good not great' range, so I will be slowly moving these over to Beautycounter as well. I just got 1 Beautycounter product in their Countertime line {their anti-aging line}, so it's too soon to tell what I think, but my BFF has the whole line and LOVES it.


Deodorant - Another one from Young Living [2 rating on EWG], but I have others I want to try with the top pick being Native. I think this is something you just need to switch around ever so often, and I'm excited to have several clean options. Years ago I used to sweat SO bad, I have a really funny story that I might share here one day that highlights how bad my sweating was in college. Well, a friend of mine told me about Certain Dri and how amazing it was. I tried it and sure enough, it COMPLETELY stopped me from sweating. I used it a couple of times a week and it was magic. You know why? It's CHOCK FULL OF ALUMINUM. I seriously used this for probably a DECADE. Now I don't sweat to the same degree I did in college - and I'm hoping it's not because I've somehow poisoned myself so badly my body can't recover - but I'll gladly take some pit funkiness over...you know...cancer.

Makeup:
Foundation - This is where I majorly struggle! I love using a mineral powder but my 2 favorites - Bare Minerals and a Neutrogena one from Target - both rate a 7 on Think Dirty sooo...not great. I switched to a Young Living version, rated a 1 on EWG, but I don't love it. It seems to need twice as much to provide decent coverage, which I'm not crazy about. I've heard good things at W3LL PEOPLE, so I want to try it soon. Beautycounter doesn't have a mineral foundation currently, but I'm hopeful they might someday!
Lipgloss - I use Burt's Bees Wax constantly, I am 100% addicted to it. Luckily it's super clean. When I want some color, I add Jane Iredale lipgloss which is also super clean. I bought some at my annual Lake Austin Spa trip with my mother-in-law 2 years ago and then this year I bought another color and also tried their mineral foundation - I figured if the lip gloss was super clean the powder would be too...nope, ugh.
Blush/Eyeshadow - I found ones I REALLY like from Young Living that are a mineral powder, yay! And rated 2s on EWG!
Mascara/Eyeliner - Is it bad that I don't care about these 2 at all? Any grocery store or pharmacy brand works for me, ha.


I might do a post after I've been using Beautycounter for a while {or other products I try that are known for being 'clean} to see how they stack up. I know Young Living and Beautycounter have representatives and are MLM companies, but I just want to use clean products!

Was this interesting or terribly boring? I find this stuff fascinating and love learning about clean products, so hopefully I didn't bore anyone...and if you made it to through this long and rambly post, I owe you a prize!

3 comments:

Kathryn Bagley said...

I loved this post! I'm all about my skin and I use Mary Kay currently. But I was going to tell you to look into Norwex. I've used them also and they have these body wash cloths that I will clean my face with at night. It's just a cloth and water. The silver fibers are what attracts the dirt and I can use the cloth for almost a week before I need to wash it. I've also used their face stuff. I'd be curious what it rates on the EWG. I've used Rodan and Fields also..not sure how clean they are! For make up I use Mary Kay and Younique (again not sure about the clean factor) but I'm majorly worried about looking old..ugh

Emily said...

So happy to read your crunchy journey! I love Dr Bronners as body wash (I use the liquid). For oily skin, id highly recommend Ursa Major face wash. It’s not too expensive and you can try a travel sample from follain.com. I have sensitive skin so it was too harsh for me but it’s fantastic for oily. I’m also on the hunt for foundation. I use Vapour in the dry winter but it’s way too glow-y for sweaty summers. I’m with you on mascara and eyeliner; I use it so infrequently that I don’t care about it being clean.

Ruthie Hart said...

Girl I wish I could use Yl products, I have had the worst time with reactions and using their skincare products. Ugh!