Many makeup and beauty products have toxins in them, such as parabens, which is why it is important to not only read the ingredient labels in your food, but also in your makeup and beauty products.

An excellent site that I recommend to all of my friends and family is Skin Deep.  It is a cosmetic safety database website that allows you to plug in the names of your products and evaluate what ingredients may be harmful to you.  Skin Deep also rates your products on a scale of 0 to 10 (10 being the most toxic, and 0 being the least toxic).  After you evaluate your makeup and beauty products, you will probably decide to switch to organic and natural products because they pose little or no harm to your body and overall health.

I switched to organic and natural products two years ago, and until recently, I was only able to locate organic and natural makeup and beauty products at health food stores, Wegmans, and online.  Products such as lotions, soaps, face cleansers, and lip gloss being the easiest to find.  While products such as mascara, eye liner, lip liner and eye shadow being the hardest to find.  I usually bought all of my organic bath and beauty products at the stores, and ordered all of my natural and organic makeup online.  As you know, ordering makeup online can be a bit of hassle and costly.  If your lip liner breaks and you have a big date, what do you do?  Well, you were kind of stuck, because you had to go online, place an order, pay for shipping, and then wait at least a week for your lip liner to arrive. 

So, I was delighted and surprised the other day when I went into my local CVS, and realized the makeup companies are finally starting to put out organic makeup lines!  Finally, after two years of having to order all of my makeup online and pay shipping charges, etc., I can now go down the block and pick-up healthy and natural makeup with ease.

So, after you go to Skin Deep’s website and realize that your current makeup and beauty products are filled with harmful toxins and parabens, you may want to stop at your local CVS, Target, Ulta, or Wegmans to find healthy and natural alternatives to your current products.

If you read my last article and visited the Skin Deep website, you now know that your makeup, beauty, household, and even baby products probably contain harmful toxins and parabens.  So, now that you had a panic attack, and threw out all of your items, it’s time to go shopping.  The first time you go shopping for natural and organic products, it may be overwhelming to you.  Don’t let it be, to make things easier, a lot of products that don’t contain toxins and parabens state this right on the label.  So, to simplify your shopping, look for products that say free of parabens, etc.

Foundations, Blush, Eye Shadow and Eye Liner.  Physicians Formula now makes a great line of organic makeup called Organic Wear that is free of parabens, and can be found at an affordable price at CVS, Target, Ulta and Wegmans.  I recently bought eyeliner for about $7.99.  Other items I bought from the Organic Wear line are blush and an eye shadow duo.   The eye shadow and eyeliner wear great and stay on all day long.  This is important to me, because I have found that a lot of organic eye shadows and eye liners that I ordered through the internet, smudged easily and didn’t stay on well.  The blush from Organic Wear is ok.  I have really pale skin, so like a darker cheek to put in color in my face.  Therefore, I have to put on about 3 layers for the blush to stand out.  However, if you like a lighter cheek, this is the perfect blush for you.

As for foundation and concealer, I am still using a natural and organic loose powder product that I ordered online.  However, because I was so impressed with Physician Formula’s Organic Wear line, I will probably experiment with their concealer and loose foundation powders, once my current products run out.

Mascara.   Ah mascara, perhaps my favorite beauty product, except for lip gloss.  I use to layer on mascara by the truck loads, and my favorite weapon of choice was L’Oreal Voluminous Mascara.  Only to find out years later, that it really was a weapon of choice, and was loaded with toxins.  For the past two years, I have been wearing an organic mascara that I order from the internet; however, because it is one of the only organic mascaras that stays on, and gives a thick and dark lash, it is usually out of stock.  That is why I was delighted to see that L’Oreal now makes a natural mascara called Bare Naturale, which is free of parabens.  I just bought this mascara in black last week and I love it.  It gives me the same coverage as the Voluminous mascara, except it is healthier for me.

Lip Liner, Chapstick, Lip Stick and Lip Gloss.  I currently order my lip liner from an organic makeup site online and unfortunately, I haven’t come across an organic and natural lip liner in my local stores yet.  I am hoping that either Burt’s Bees or Physicians Formula will add an organic lip liner to their product lines in the near future.  However, I am happy to report, that I am able to find Burt’s Bees chapstick, lip gloss and lip shimmer at all of my favorite local stores, i.e., CVS, Target, Ulta and Wegmans.  I really like the lip products that Burt’s Bees has, as well as the variety of colors.  I am an avid fan of Burt’s Bees products, and use a lot of their bath and beauty products, in addition to their lip products.

Baby Products.  I am sure everyone wants the best for their children, which is why a lot of people will be shocked and upset to know that common baby products, such as lotions, washes and wipes contain harmful toxins and parabens.  Burt’s Bees carries a lot of natural and organic baby products, and Wegmans also has an entire aisle dedicated to natural and organic baby products.  However, even if the product says natural or fragrance free, make sure you still read the label for parabens and other toxins.  I was very upset to find that the Huggies Natural Care and fragrance free baby wipes I purchased to remove my makeup, had parabens in it.  Sometimes, just because a product claims to be natural and/or organic, doesn’t mean it is paraben and toxin free.  Most paraben free products will advertise this on the label and of course, you can read the ingredients label as well.

Household Products.  A lot of common household products contain harmful toxins, especially bleach, and even your dishwashing liquid!  Once again, Wegmans is a great place to find a variety of household products. I usually use organic and natural cleaning products that contain Citrus, because it works well on most surfaces, such as countertops, wood, floors, and even carpet stains.  However, for tougher cleaning jobs, like the bathroom, I use a line of products called Green Works, which can be found at Wegmans and Target.