Natural Beauty — Your Ultimate Guide To Choosing The Best Natural Beauty Products

In order to understand the context, here’s some clean beauty 101: The personal care industry (meaning things like lipstick, shampoo, lotion, deodorant, toothpaste) is completely unregulated in the United States. In layman’s terms, this means there is no third party, like the FDA, monitoring the safety of the products most of us use multiple times a day.

As if that weren’t troubling enough, the United States hasn’t passed a major federal law to regulate the safety of these personal care products’ ingredients since 1938. To date, the United States has "partially banned" the use of only 30 ingredients in personal care products, and when it comes to chemicals of concern, they can do and say whatever they want, without regulation or repercussion. Comparatively, the European Union has more rules and has banned more than 1,300 chemical ingredients for use in personal care products, in addition to restricting the allowable concentrations of over 250 additional ingredients.

Commonly listed as petroleum jelly, paraffin oil, or mineral oil, this is common in many beauty and personal care products. It is a by-product of the oil-refining process and definitely not a sustainable or eco-friendly ingredient choice. Petrolatum is odorless and colorless, it has an inherently long shelf life, and is a cheap ingredient, which makes it a popular one, but it is a possible carcinogen.

For oily skin, choose a lighter oil like argan and for dryer skin a jojoba and avocado are a great choice. Have sensitive skin that tends toward redness? A face oil with rose in it is a great choice to calm the skin.

When choosing a daytime product for your face, it is good to keep in mind some general knowledge about essential oils, especially in the case of photosensitive essential oils.

Because you use deodorant every day, leave it on for a long period of time, and apply directly to your lymph nodes, it’s important to choose a natural deodorant without toxins. When choosing a natural deodorant make sure that it is not an antiperspirant. Allowing the body to sweat is an important, natural, and healthy mechanism of the body and our natural form of detox, but antiperspirant blocks this process. Don’t worry, a normal deodorant will still make you smell better.

Aluminum is one of the most common antiperspirants on the market today. Avoiding aluminum is important because it prevents us from sweating by temporarily plugging our sweat glands.

And like in many other skin-care products, choose a natural deodorant that is free from fragrance because they generally contain hormone-disrupting phthalates, and choose one that is unscented or a formula that is made with only 100 percent natural essential oils.

In addition, avoid the ingredient triclosan. This antibacterial agent is found in many deodorants, toothpastes, and hand sanitizers and has been linked to liver and inhalation toxicity, and even low levels of triclosan may disrupt thyroid function. Many deodorants contain parabens (preservatives that mimic estrogen5) and artificial colors6, which may be neurotoxic7.

If you’re trying natural deodorant and feel like it’s not working right away, be patient. Give yourself a full month to see if your natural deodorant is working, as it can take that long for you to "detox" from the products you’ve been using. Your armpit may have been blocked for years if you used antiperspirant daily, and there will be a lot of buildup that needs to be flushed out before you begin sweating normally again. You may smell worse before you smell better, but that is totally natural and just your body adjusting.

Some of my favorites include Meow Meow Tweet’s Grapefruit Citrus Baking-Soda-Free Deodorant Stick, Ursa Major’s Hoppin’ Fresh, and Soapwalla’s Deodorant Cream.

Washing the hair is a major topic of conversation when it comes to natural products. Sodium lauryl and laureth sulfate are harsh detergents and important to avoid. Skip shampoos that work up a super lather, as they can overstrip the hair and remove the hair’s beneficial natural oils. No-poo shampoos are popular for this reason, as are apple cider vinegar rinsing (recipe below) and coconut oil hair treatments.

Another ingredient to avoid? Parabens, as they are used to prolong shelf life of an average hair care product. Parabens2 like methylparaben and propylparaben are chemicals known for their toxic nature. Parabens not only irritate the skin—which can make your scalp unhealthy—they can also affect your hormonal balance.

Synthetic fragrance or "parfum" is common in conventional shampoo and usually is a complex mixture of many chemicals. According to chemists and brand representatives, sometimes up to 3,000 chemicals are used in just one fragrance blend. Many fragrances are irritants and can cause the scalp to become irritated too.

Propylene glycol is another one to look out for. It’s a key ingredient in antifreeze—yes, the kind you put in your car—and it is a common addition to shampoos and other personal care products to keep the product from freezing during shipping and storage. It can irritate skin, causing allergic reactions, and it alters skin structure.

Something else to keep in mind when swapping your generic, conventional products for natural ones is to have appropriate expectations for them. You can’t expect the products will cost the same as the cheap products you are used to buying at the local drugstore. Building product formulas from the ground up without the help of chemical preservatives is time-consuming, and sourcing natural, better-for-you ingredients is often more expensive than the contents of drugstore cosmetics.

Natural products also have a different shelf life compared to normal products, similar to healthy, unprocessed food. Using high-quality, nontoxic products can require a shift in expectations, but it is an important and beneficial shift to make for the sake of your personal health and the longevity of Mother Earth. The natural-beauty category is growing rapidly, and there is a range in price from very affordable to very expensive, but the truth is, well-sourced, high-quality ingredients cost more but are worth the price.

Don’t forget about the DIY, as that is a great way to cut costs—for instance, use apple cider vinegar as a clarifying rinse (recipe below) and save money on buying a clarifying shampoo. Or use raw, organic coconut oil as your body moisturizer and save money on buying an expensive lotion and a foot cream.

Most importantly, it is an exciting time in which we have the opportunity to support brands making good and healthy products versus the ones who are using cheaper ingredients that don't support our bodies or the planet, and really vote with our dollars. Things are definitely changing for the better, and companies are being called out for unsafe or toxic ingredients. An updated Personal Care Products Safety Act has been in the works for a few years; however, it could be a while before changes are made in legislation. Plus, we’re always finding out more about specific ingredients—peer-reviewed studies testing ingredients and the way they interact with one another are being done more often than ever before.

After shampooing apply the vinegar rinse. Pour the rinse onto wet hair. Massage into hair and scalp and pay special attention to the ends. Be sure to avoid your eyes and allow it to sit on the hair for a few minutes.

Next, rinse it with a bit of water and conditioner if you still feel like you need it. As the hair dries you may still smell the vinegar, but the smell will dissipate as it dries.

Since no two heads are the same, you will need to play around a bit to see how much of a vinegar dilution you need. Start out doing this once or twice a week and see how it works for you. Good luck experimenting!