Going Natural : Why Bother?

One of my projects for the year is to move towards natural skincare, body, and beauty products. As I'm beginning the process, I admit I'm a bit overwhelmed by the new knowledge to acquire and the different way of thinking I need to adopt in order to make the transition. I've been finding it helpful to ask myself why I'm going natural-- why it matters to me-- so that I can face this process with intention and purpose. If I remember the reasons I want to do this, I'll be much more likely to make good choices when I'm at the store.

Honestly, I've never spent much time or brain power thinking about makeup in the past. It serves a very utilitarian purpose to me-- I wear it when I want to feel more put together, but I often go barefaced at home. I only experiment with makeup and skincare to the extent that I am looking for the routine that works best for me so I don't have to think about it much. But after watching far too many YouTube beauty videos, I often found myself jotting down products and brands into my iPhone Wunderlist to check out at the store-- brands I knew weren't the cleanest, even if I didn't know exactly why.

There wasn't one moment that acted as a wake up call to go natural; it was more like a skeptical voice that questioned if I was really doing what was best for me. I felt shallow ignoring my health for the sake of aesthetics. I'm not a total anti-corporate angry hippie, but I should explain that I come from a journalism background with an emphasis on strategic communication and advertising. Thanks to grad school seminars that forced me to look at advertising/marketing with a critical eye and the behind-the-scenes experience of working at an agency, I am incredibly sensitive to buzzword-filled product claims. I tend to believe that mega-brands have their bottom line as their primary concern, and health and safety fall below that; it's widely known that these companies employ powerful industry lobbies to ensure that the laws work in their economic favor (and ensure that federal regulation do not get in the way). It all leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

This is exactly what happened with my eating habits several years ago. Fast Food Nation, Supersize Me, and Food, Inc. all helped me come to the conclusion that the more whole and natural my food was, the better (and-- surprise!-- I felt so much better eating this way). I learned to avoid the faux healthy packaged products that claim things like, "Contains whole grains" because even with a little whole grain, a box of crackers still isn't as nutritionally beneficial as eating straight-up quinoa or brown rice. But packaged, branded products make a company a heck of a lot more money than eating foods in their (literal) natural state, so of course they'll continue to market these products.

These days, I've noticed more and more makeup and personal care brands labeling products as "paraben free," "sodium lauryl sulfate free," "fragrance free," etc. Again, this is a positive move to make, but it doesn't mean those products are now suddenly good for you. There are still lots of other scary chemicals in the same products; in fact, as I'm learning in the book "No More Dirty Looks," some companies just replace one chemical that the public is reacting negatively to with another that is a chemical equivalent and just as bad for you. Other companies have very good branding that makes them appear more natural than they are-- think Aveeno, Tarte, LUSH, Kiehl's, etc. It's just greenwashing (though these companies do fall on a spectrum, and it's up to each individual consumer to determine which ingredients are deemed acceptable to them and which pose too much of a risk).

Now I'm at the point where I need to learn more about the chemicals in beauty products so that I can react with scientific knowledge and not just corporate skepticism. "No More Dirty Looks" and the Environmental Working Group's cosmetic database have been good starting points, and I have printed out this "Toxins to Avoid" list. Many of the toxins listed have been found to be high-risk ingredients in studies, linked with various cancers, or shown to mimic estrogen or be hormone disruptors. The latter two issues are of particular concern to me as I'm trying to manage my Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome; it's concerning to think that the drugstore products I've put on my body have likely been absorbed and have altered my hormones. Another scary finding: Babies are being born with a growing number of toxins present in their body at birth. I don't know about you, but that shows me there's some definite truth to the concern that our bodies absorb chemicals from our environment. And I know I'd want to reduce that risk for my future kiddos.

As I'll talk about in my full review of "No More Dirty Looks," it is hard to assess exactly how harmful some of these ingredients are because studies do not test for issues like bio-accumulation (how these chemicals build up in our bodies over time) nor do they look at how one chemical might react with another. When an ingredient is deemed safe in small doses, it is usually ignored that women often use an average of 20 personal care products per day and therefore are likely getting doses much higher than what is deemed safe. Furthermore, product fragrances is a tricky issue because fragrance is considered a trade secret and therefore companies do not have to divulge any of the hundreds of ingredients/chemicals that may use to create their signature scents. I've always been highly sensitive to fragrance in everything from perfumes to cleaning products, to the point where I develop immediate headaches or my throat starts to close. That's a huge red flag for me that something in there is not good for me.

Over time, I'm hoping to come up with a list of brands that I personally trust and test out products from their lines as I use up and replace the old stuff. I'll go as natural as possible when I can (for example, trying out alcohol-free, plant derived witch hazel as a toner, which many natural beauty fans use) but-- call me crazy-- I admit that I like shampoo, deodorant, and foundation and want to keep using it. I want to find suitable natural versions of my regular products and not turn into a stinky, greasy version of my former self.

In upcoming Going Natural posts, I will review "No More Dirty Looks," take a survey of my current makeup and skin care routine to see what does and doesn't need changing, and I'll share what sites and brands I'm interesting in trying. Then, at some point later in the year, I'll review the natural products I've tried and give an update about how they're working for me. It'll be a challenge, but certainly possible with a little intention and education.

Note: The photo above shows my first few "going natural" purchases. No reviews yet, but I bought Physician's Formula Organic Wear Mascara, Ilia Lip Conditioner in Arabian Knights, and RMS Beauty certified organic Lipshine in Sublime (the last two are significantly pricier than I'd normally spend on makeup, but I had a decent BeautySage coupon and considered them early birthday presents). They sure are pretty, and I'm happy to see that I'll be able to find some natural beauty products with nice packaging (because, yes, I still do care about shallow things like that).