Non-Toxic Beauty Care: Your skin is your largest organ. It offers direct access to the bloodstream through the millions of pores all over your body. The majority of beauty care products on the mainstream market are filled with harmful chemicals that overwhelm the body with toxicity over time. To avoid a host of possible health problems related to toxicity, make the switch to natural, non-toxic beauty products today!

Non-Toxic Beauty: Your Skin is A Gateway

Adults have on average five million pores on their body and over 20,000 on the face alone. These pores are microscopic gateways inside the body, and depending on the size of the particle they come in contact with, they can offer direct entrance into the bloodstream. This becomes a major problem in today’s modern world because of an increasing amount of beauty and body care products that are full of toxic chemicals. These toxins should not make their way into the circulatory system, and yet the lack of awareness around the issue results in people unknowingly adding to their toxic load with every application.

The majority of beauty care products on the shelves are not suitable for human consumption and therefore aren’t safe to apply to the skin either. A long list of toxins applied regularly to the skin will quickly begin to accumulate in the body, increasing your toxic load, and can eventually lead to a host of health problems.

Toxic Beauty Products and Your Health

Non-Toxic Beauty: Since your excretory system (that naturally detoxifies the body) is truly a whole-body system, it puts immense pressure on organs like the liver, kidneys, and of course the skin. As toxins accumulate in the body, these organs can no longer keep up with the natural process of elimination, and toxins begin to get stored in your fat cells, tissues, and organs.

Over-time this can lead to a wide range of health problems. The symptoms of body toxicity include:

• Chronically tired
• Slow digestion
• Bloating
• Chronically ill
• Skin inflammation/ irritation
• Allergies
• Brain fog
• Painful or irregular menstruation
• Unexplained weight gain
• Weight loss resistance

One of the biggest ironies with the mainstream beauty care industry is that many of these products are marketed to promote youthfulness and the appearance of health, but are actually having the opposite effect. In the short term, your face of makeup might hide dark under eyes of mask wrinkles and your perfume might make you smell nice– but in the long run, these toxins are aging you and your body odor is oftentimes your skin trying to purge out the toxins you’ve taken in.

Natural Non-Toxic Beauty: The Worst Offenders

The list of ingredients used in mainstream body care and beauty products range on a scale of less to extremely toxic, but essentially you want to avoid any ingredients that are not an edible grade. To get a toxicity score ranting on individual ingredients and on a wide range of products you can visit the EWG Skin Deep Cosmetics Database.

Non-toxic beauty: Some of the most toxic ingredients that should be avoided at all cost include:

• Sodium Lauryl/ Laureth Sulfate (SLS and SLES)
• Petroleum/ Paraffin/ Mineral Oil
• Formaldehyde (also called quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, Diazolidinyl urea, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate, 2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1,3 diol (Bronopol), glyoxal, and oxaldehyde)
• Synthetic fragrances/ Parfum (these are often labeled as ‘natural fragrances’)
• Parabens
• Mercury (also called Thimerosal, and Merthiolate)
• Phalates (also called BDP, DEHP, and DEP)
• Hydroquinone
• Propylene Glycol
• Triclosan

These ingredients are found in a wide range of body care products. These range from shampoos and conditioners to body cream, body oils, deodorant, shaving gel, perfumes, sunscreens, hairsprays and gels, body wash, face wash, and makeup.

The Solution: Natural Non-Toxic Beauty Care

The modern beauty care world is full of harmful toxins. However, we’re not suggesting you ditch all deodorant and stop wearing makeup. Every harmful product on the market has a more natural version, and by making the switch to natural beauty care you can achieve your aesthetic goals while actually helping your body maintain good health.

Natural beauty products such as jojoba oil contain ingredients that can double as food. Believe it or not, there are incredible innovations that include not only natural body creams and oils, but also bronzer, blush, mascara, and eyeshadow. You don’t have to compromise your inner health to feel good on the outside.

Natural Non-Toxic Beauty: Invest in Brands That You Can Trust

Unfortunately, the popularity of the health movement has led companies to make deceiving claims regarding the natural nature of their products. This marketing tactic is known as ‘greenwashing.’ Greenwashing can be seen across the beauty care aisles of any major department store. Statements like ‘all-natural’ and ‘natural scents’ are paired with earthy tones and images of lemons. This tricks the consumer into thinking that the product itself is 100% natural.

This greenwashing is not limited to cheap products and cosmetics. It’s is being used by major, high-end brand names as well. Unless the companies are transparent about being 100% natural, their products should not be applied to your skin.

Natural Non-Toxic Beauty: Read the Label

The ultimate way to empower your beauty care product choices is to always read the label. If you see an ingredient you don’t recognize as safe, look it up online. With time, you will start to recognize ingredients and know exactly when to put a product back on the shelf.

There are also incredible brands selling high-quality, organic and wildcrafted beauty care products that you can trust.

Our favorite go-to brand is AnnMarie Skincare.

THE ANNMARIE PROCESS:

STEP 1: SELECT: Carefully select organic and wildcrafted ingredients—including herbs and plant extracts—to meet the highest standards of quality and effectiveness for your skin and body. Sources are carefully audited to ensure that they continue to meet standards of purity and sustainability.

STEP 2: INFUSE: Infuse selected herbs into aloe vera and into skin nutritive oils for up to 30 days at low heat (never over 95°). These infusions are used as a potent base for all our products.

STEP 3: CRAFT: Add additional, selected natural plant extracts, high antioxidant plant and seed oils, skin-supporting nutrients and aromatherapy to make the most active and effective natural products available.