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 Cream - I 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!
