When I started my journey into “wholefoods” and “natural living”, I started obsessively reading labels. It worked well for me – I quickly learned what food products to go for and which to avoid. As a result of this habit I had developed, however, I started noticing something worrying. It wasn’t just food that was stuffed full of unpronounceable ingredients with unknown reactions. Some of the worst culprits in my shopping basket were beauty and household products.
Have you ever tried reading the ingredients on the back of an expensive moisturizer? Even the brands of toiletries labelled as “organic” or “natural” contain a lot of unrecognizable ingredients, as the laws around percentages and ingredients for toiletries are very lax.
My interest piqued, I started my usual routine of research and reading. I found that a lot of my favourite blogs on wholefoods living also included sections on natural beauty and cleaning products – obviously I was not the only one concerned!
Now, I have to be honest with you, this is an area I am still fairly new to. I have worked hard to get my kitchen as natural as possible, and on the whole, I feel I am getting there. But my bathroom is still a work in progress.
Having said that, over the last year or so, I have done a bit of trying out and refining the toiletries we use. Some of the experiments have worked wonderfully – others, not so much. I tried the whole ‘bicarbonate of soda and water’ replacement for shampoo, and although I didn’t give it the fairest trial (as it takes a while for your hair to get used to it), I found that my hair being long and thick made it just not as effective (a problem many with similar hair have discovered). My husband, on the other hand, with his short hair, has found that just rinsing his hair, or using bar soap at most, has worked perfectly well for him!
Although I am still experimenting with natural product recipes, I have found that the greatest advantage of this process has been what I have realized I simply do not need! My budget for anything ‘beauty’ or toiletry related is now very small, and I don’t miss it at all. Nor does my skin. In fact, it’s breathing a sigh of relief! My bathroom cabinet now contains a small selection of essential oils and natural medicine products, some plasters and paracetemol, a bottle of witch hazel, some Vitamin E capsules, and a tub of coconut oil (100% my best and most used natural beauty product). A flannel, skin brush (one of my greatest discoveries – I never thought I would look most toned while pregnant!) and hairbrush lie beside it. A bottle of shampoo (currently my main concession) and a bar of natural soap stand in the shower.
And my body is happy and healthy. It lacks nothing.
There are a few things, though, that I would like to replace, beauty recipes I would like to try, methods and products I would love to experiment with.
So I thought what I would do is, over the coming weeks, I will finally try out some of the key products I have been dying to try out, experiment with what works best for me, and post the recipes here for you guys to try too, if you so wish! 🙂
**If you are interested in reading more about natural beauty products from people who have researched it far more thoroughly than me, please see some links below.
Natural Medicine:
Stacy Makes Cents – Home Remedies Notebook
Intentional By Grace – How I Stock My Natural Medicine Cabinet
Intentional By Grace – How to Naturally Fight the Flu
Nature Mom’s Blog – How to Make a Natural First Aid Kit
Young Wife’s Guide – Stocking a Natural Medicine Cabinet
Natural Beauty:
Natural Wellness – Natural Skin Care Options and Recipes
Mama Natural – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Beauty
Mama Natural – 10 Doable Resolutions for a Healthier New Year (number 2 is skin brushing!)
Whole New Mom – Natural Lip Scrub
Free People – Staying Natural: 10 Ingredients to Avoid in Beauty Products
Pinterest is also a great resource – check out my “Natural Beauty Products” board here.
