Saving Face: Doing My Research (Part 1)

I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.

I value my health.  I eat mostly organic, favour holistic medicine, use all natural cleaners in my apartment and believe that healthy living is a key component to leading a happy life.

But for the past ten years I’ve slathered chemicals all over my face, hair and body every day.

I am going to be honest with you.  I have worn a full face of make-up for most of my life and feel more comfortable leaving the house this way.

But the more I learn about the harmful chemicals in my favourite foundation, bronzer, concealer, mascara, eyeshadow, eyeliner, shampoo, hairspray and perfume…the more I know it’s time for a change.

I don’t want to accept that I’m being sold products to make me “beautiful” that are full of cancer-causing, mutagenic, reproductive toxicants, developmental toxicants, neurotoxicants, and hormone disruptors.  Ingredients that are banned in Europe but safely hidden inside of my favourite lipstick.  Not ok.

And thus, the experiment begins.

A month of overhauling my cosmetics bag, my toiletries, and even my haircare.

I tackled it the way I would take on an assignment at work.  With heavy research, interviews and planning before putting it all together to look polished for the final production.

I’m the final production.  Chemical free.

Or, at least the very least, better informed.

Here are some of favourite resources:

Databases:

• Cosmetics Database- Cosmetics Database is a useful tool to help check the toxicity in all of your favourite products.  I went through all of my precious MAC make-up and expensive shampoo and realized I had to make some drastic changes.
• Makeup Alley is a great way to review products before buying them.  It covers all brands of make-up so you will have to look up specific natural beauty brands, but it can save you from making bad choices.  I found this especially useful in finding what natural makeup would work with my oily skin.  You can search by skin type/hair colour/age ect.

Books:

•  No More Dirty Looks: The Truth About Your Beauty Products and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics is written by two young fun, sassy, natural beauty experts.  I love their blog and this book is my new product bible.  They provide great background info as well as no nonsense advice in working towards switching to clean cosmetics, stories about their own hilarious experiments, and their favourite products.
• Another book I enjoyed was The Truth About Beauty: Transform Your Looks And Your Life From the Inside Out by make-up artist Kat James.  The book covers a broad number of topics including her eating disordered past, her beliefs in food and diet, and natural beauty.  It is very well researched and has a great collection of recommended products.

Articles:

• Sally B’s- this article is helpful in telling us how to spot misleading marketing claims.  Because when something’s labeled ‘natural’, that’s not always the case.
• Joy McCarthy, natural beauty guru, shares her products of choice.
• Well+Good‘s top natural makeup choices for Spring.

Blogs:

• Jessa Blades- .  New York City make-up artist Jessa Blades inspires me.  Reading up on her blogs and her favourite products helped me realize that giving up toxic make-up didn’t mean giving up a perfectly painted face!
• Feel Good Style - a blog about style and beauty with a conscience.
• Nature of Beauty shop and blog focusing on natural and organic beauty.  I loved their post on how to use and understand Cosmetic Database.
• Chemical of the Day - great blog that looks into harmful chemicals.

• Saving Face: Cleaning Out My Cosmetic Bag (Part 2)

I save you time and money buy trying a huge array of natural products to find out what works and what doesn’t.  Find out what products I ditch, and which I add to my cosmetic bag.

• Saving Face: Hair and Body Talk (Part 3)

• Saving Face: At the Spa (Part 4)

• Q&A’s with natural beauty experts

*Most importantly – True beauty comes from inside.  If you like beauty products this series is simply to help you make more informed decisions.

**Canadian belles – please take a look at The Just Beautiful Campaign - and take the time to sign their petition to ask Health Canada for safer personal care products and better labelling.

***I’m starting to incorporate a broader range of topics on Battle of the Bites.  I would like this to be a space to share ideas as well as food posts.