It's been about about two months since I switched over to fully organic and natural face products. I thought I had been using them in the past, but as Vincent discovered when creating
OrganicallyHappy.com, most of those products actually had lots of chemicals too. I love the database offered by the Environmental Work Group at
www.cosmeticsdatabase.com. Actually, I don't love it. I find it frightening and do not enjoy finding out that so many of my beloved, everyday products contain apparently known toxins. Why am I resistant to getting rid of some of these is the real question, I guess.
For the last 2 weeks I have been trying to use one or two things exclusively on my face so I could really see how they worked. The soaps don't lather, which is fine, but it did take a bit to get used to the ones you use without water. That wasn't for me. I'll give you the end of the story first, which is that after a week of challenging breakouts, my skin looks younger and has a pretty glow. Love it! I had read that when switching to chemical-free, I needed to expect the initial breakouts while the gunk and toxic goo left. Not fun, but I did it and now am enjoying the benefits.
I ended up going with
Trevarno's Rose and Jojoba cleansing gel (which is really milky, I have no earthly idea why they call it a gel--there is nothing gelatinous about it). I put it on to my face
when it's dry, then wipe it off with a damp face towel. I have to say that I really like it--my face is settling down from reacting crankily to other things. The oily patches are more normal, dry patches going away and the red areas from my sensitive skin are not so inflamed. I'll definitely keep using this.
For a moisturizer, I've been using two things. I'll tell you about one today. I am absolutely in love with
Sensatia Botanicals' facial hydrates (I use the one for normal skin). It's an oil with a little dropper and it lasts forever. I put it on every night as my moisturizer. I swear this has healed up sunburn, blemishes, scars, everything--plus I wake up and my skin feels so pretty. Not greasy at all, which I do realize is counterintuitive since it's oil, but it works.
I know I need to test other products, and I hope they'll work as well. For now, I'll enjoy all the complements coming my way. Gotta love that.
labels are so pretty--inside the jar is straight-up green clay powder. Nothing else. I expect I would get many masks out of this! A little powder mixed up with water, paint it on and wait for a miracle, right? All kidding aside, this is a nice clay mask that has nothin' but clay. While I happen to also enjoy things that smell pretty, I see that my skin has not gotten itself upset by anything funny, and the mask seemed to suck out a lot of yuck that was stuck (no, I am not the long lost Mrs. Dr. Suess). I finished up with my beloved facial hydrate from Sensatia and am feeling very clean and balanced. What I really like is that since it's just clay, which we all know is great for our skin, there's no insane label spelling out all of the skin types that should or shouldn't use the mask. It's just clay. And it seems to work.
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