We know making the jump to clean beauty [1] can feel daunting and also be a pretty expensive task. It's just not possible for most of us to throw out one makeup bag stuffed to the brim with conventional products and repurchase another full of natural alternatives [2]. But there are so many benefits to a clean beauty regime — for you and the environment. So our advice is start small, change out the things that might be most harmful to your health and your body first, and work on the rest when you can. It's a slow process, so don't judge yourself if you've not got a perfect nontoxic [3] top shelf overnight.
Here is our guide to helping you transition to clean beauty, one step at a time.
Educate Yourself
The Environmental Working Group [4] (EWG) is a lifeline when you start to delve into the clean beauty world. It is a nonprofit organisation comprised of scientists, policy experts, lawyers, communication experts, and programmers who all want to make the world a safer place for us. It researches, studies, and tests food and cosmetics to check for toxic ingredients and then shares the results online and in its app. The skin-deep section of the website is dedicated to all things beauty. It has a database of over 80,000 products currently in its system. The team rates each product solely based on ingredients and breaks down what every chemical in all the products mean. Use EWG to go through all the beauty items you own — you can check what rating they get and choose whether you feel comfortable or not using them after learning about what they consist of. You want to aim for most of your products to score between 1 and 2.
Think Dirty [5] is another resource similar to EWG. It's an app and really simple to work — you can even scan products with it when you're out shopping to check ingredients before you buy them.
Getting Started
Our advice for choosing which products to swap out first is to choose the ones that touch your skin on a daily basis. These are entering your system more often and might be doing more harm to your body. First swap out your aluminium-based antiperspirant and change to an all-natural deodorant, like Schmidt's sensitive range [6]. Second up is moisturiser and cleanser — they are used daily on your face, sometimes even twice a day, so they should always be a priority. Try Neighbourhood Botanicals Cleanser [7] and then a simple few drops of an oil like jojoba or marula as a moisturiser.
Next is your body wash and body lotion. Again, both of these are used often and should be helping your skin, not harming it. Try the Weleda [8] range: it's affordable and smells great. Lastly, your lip balm and lipstick should be the first things to go in your makeup bag. We ingest these products more often than we realise and they can have some of the highest levels of toxic ingredients in them. Hurraw [9] is a brilliant natural lip balm, and the brand also makes a tinted lip colour that's a great alternative to lipstick too.
Where to Buy
Now you know what to buy, but you need to know where. Content Beauty [10] has a brick and mortar store as well as an online emporium full to the brim with all-natural and nontoxic products. The site offers some of the biggest names in the green beauty industry as well as a great customer service team who is more than happy to answer any questions you have regarding products, ingredients, or foundation shades. Another favourite is Naturisimo [11]. This online site offers a vast array of beauty products including makeup, skin care, and hair care.
Read, Read, Read
We can't stress enough that changing to clean beauty involves you becoming your own teacher and advocate. A lot of information to do with ingredients and chemicals in our products is hard to find and research. More mainstream brands may try and "greenwash" their goods and mislead you into thinking you're buying something clean when you're not. So it's important to learn as much as possible to make the transition easier for you.
The Nature of Beauty [12] by Imelda Burke is a good place to start: it's easy to understand and gives you the power of choice in what you're buying and putting on your skin. Whole Beauty [13] by Shiva Rose is also a great read — it's full of simple DIY beauty recipes [14], information on products, and helpful tips and tricks from Shiva, all packed into a beautiful book.
Just Go For It
Sometimes, the hardest thing is to make the first move. We say go for it. Dive headfirst into nontoxic beauty. There is an abundance of choice and a community of people in the clean beauty world just waiting to give you a hand. The bloggers, brands, makeup artists, and businesses in natural beauty are often willing to give you any help they can. So reach out and ask for it if you need it. Start small, change just one or two products at a time, and keep costs low. Don't overwhelm yourself by setting goals or timelines for when your transition has to be done. Don't punish yourself for still using that nonclean eyebrow pencil if you can't afford a clean version [15] yet. It will all happen; it just doesn't need to be overnight. Read, learn, listen, and then take action. In the words of Kris Jenner, "You're doing great, sweetie".