Natural Skin Care

I've always wondered why there were separate products marketed towards "face care" as opposed to all-over body care.  Shouldn't all products be safe for the face's "sensitive skin?" It's the same concept as separate "baby" products.  Why are we okay using less-than-stellar products on our body, but not on our face or children?

Unfortunately, even some "baby care" products don't seem all that safe to me.  As I stated in a previous post, tear-free shampoos for babies have a chemical in them which numbs the eyes so kids/babies don't feel the sting from the soap and chemicals in the shampoo.  How is that better?  In my opinion, ALL skin care products should be safe for babies, faces, and bodies.

Needless to say, after I started switching out our food products and cleaning products, I naturally turned to the toiletries in our home as the next big step.  Especially when I started looking at ingredients and realizing that artificial food dyes were being added to things like shampoo and feminine wash! What in the world!?!

Here are the current skin care products I use:

The Honest company products on left, face wash in the middle, and homemade skin care in the little jars on the right.

 1. Face Wash: Avalon Organics CoQ12 Repair Facial Cleansing Milk

    -This smells and feels SO GOOD! Even Bryan comments on how nice it is to use.  The last time I checked the EWG's Skin Deep website, this had a rating of 3, but it uses 70% organic ingredients and has been very good for my skin.

*You can find it on Amazon here.

2. Moisturizer: The Honest Company Face and Body Lotion

    - Like I said, skin care products should work on all parts of the body.  This lotion is terrific for my facial moisturizer and as our general body lotion.  Look, Ma! No dragonhands!

3. Sunscreen: The Honest Company Sunscreen

    - Before my diagnosis, I wasn't a stickler for putting on sunscreen, myself.  I was just satisfied if my liquid foundation had some sort of skin protection.  The medication I take, however, makes my skin much more sensitive to the suns rays, so I use this daily between moisturizer and foundation (or mixed with my foundation for a homemade tinted moisturizer)

4. Face Scrub: I made this homemade recipe and use it on my face once a week. The face scrub version is just coconut oil and sugar (I use organic for both)

5. Body Scrub: I made this homemade recipe and use it whenever I feel like pampering myself.  :) It's the same recipe as above, but with essential oils added.

6. Deodorant: This one was quite the transition.  As I stated in an earlier post, I got giant, walnut-sized cysts from antiperspirants, before, but I always just thought I'd have to deal with it since I was such a big sweater.  Turns out, that's not true.  I first bought some Tom's of Maine deodorant, but it was right during my Couch to 5K training and man was I stinky!  I thought "there is no way I can stop wearing normal antiperspirant!" I was sweating a lot and it smelled worse than normal.  I then found a homemade recipe here and made up a batch, using my normal (presumable GMO) corn starch. I found it much more effective at preventing the moisture, but I still could smell sweat more than usual.  I persevered, while using my old deodorant for special occasions where I didn't want people to smell me, although my homemade stuff did make me itch sometimes.  Then one day, a few weeks ago, I was reading through the comments on a blog post about homemade deodorant where people were expressing that once you make the switch off of traditional deodorants to more natural or even homemade deodorants your body (and obviously sweat glands) go through a detox where you sweat and smell worse for a little while until eventually you even out and you actually sweat and smell less than before. And bingo! I realized that I passed through that transition and didn't even realize that I've come out on the other end! I didn't even realize that my body had detoxed from all the crap in antiperspirants and I wasn't sweating that much, anymore.  Once that first batch of homemade deodorant was done, I made a second batch using non-GMO corn starch I found, and magically the itchiness was gone. Coincidence? I think not.  I hate GMOs.  But I love homemade deodorant!

*Again, the recipe is here.*

7. The Honest Company Body Oil and Healing Balm are also used regularly in this house for an added boost of moisture in this desert climate.

8. Body Wash: The Honest Company Shampoo and Body Wash (not pictured). We use this for ourselves and the boys.  I also buy hand-made soap bars from Good Earth to keep in the bath and shower for another body wash option. 

Homemade stuff: deodorant on bottom, body scrub upper left, face scrub upper right.

I have also heard fantastic things about Bella Organics. I REALLY want to try their Dead Sea Mineral Mud Mask but haven't ordered one, yet.  I will let you know what I think about it when I do!