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I get a lot of skin care and beauty questions daily and I thought I should start a new series where you all can ask the questions and I’ll do my best to give you the answers!  Some of you may not know but I began my career as an aesthetician.  I specialized in facials but also did waxing and makeup.  I worked for 10 years in spas cultivating a loyal clientele.  I loved working in the beauty industry.   Some skin care lines I’ve worked with are Murad, Guinot, Aveda, and Dermalogica.  I did microdermabrasion, oxygen facials, pumpkin peels, vitamin C treatments and glycolic peels just to name a few!  A lot has changed since then and I am definitely more selective when choosing skin care.

So for my first topic of discussion let’s discuss where to start when trying to reduce harmful chemicals from your beauty and skin care products.  Many people come to my blog excited and ready to make some changes.  I think once reality hits, things can get really overwhelming.  Especially if you’re on a budget.  I hear questions all the time like, “should I diy my skin care or buy it?”.  “If I buy it, how do I know which lines are safe?”.  If I diy what should I make?”  I’m going to try to clear the air today and shed some light on your starting point.

First off, ask yourself what your needs are.  Do you simply want to clean up your skin care or does your skin need work?  What results are you looking for?  What is your budget?

Some of you might be shocked by this next statement but bare with me-DIY skin care is not for everyone and not all skin care products should be DIY’d.  I have made loads of products using common sense and research.  I’ve hit lots of walls-lots of bad batches that had a weird texture, didn’t foam enough or clogged my pores.  While I love making my own skin care, I have gained a respect for the science that goes behind it and realized that there is a lot I don’t know.

Making salves and balms is awesome-you don’t have to worry about bacteria and mold because there is no water in the product.  When adding essential oils, herbs and carrier oils, balms and salves can be quite effective when moisturizing and healing.  Making facial oils is a highly effective moisturizer.  The possibilities are endless with infusing herbs and adding essential oils and by cutting out the middle man, water (you mix oil, water and an emulsifier to make cream), you will have a much more potent product.

You can actually make a cleanser from a balm.  Go HERE for my oil cleansing cleanser recipe.

I also LOVE making toners.  Thayer’s is an amazing brand of witch hazel.  They offer loads of options and by adding your own essential oils to them, you can customize it exactly to what your skin needs.

As far as water based cleansers and moisturizers go, at this point I stick to the professionals.  While I have made and sold many creams, there is so much I don’t know.  So many things that chemist can add to boost a products efficiency.  Cleansers often have a really high pH and need chemicals to bring the pH down or else they will dry out your skin.  There are a lot of factors that go into making any product that contains water.  Bacteria is always a fear and it is next to impossible to determine bacteria and mold amounts from home.  Sending your homemade cream to a lab for testing will actually set you back thousands of dollars!

So that being said, where do we go from here?

This is the fun part.  Despite what you may think, there are a lot of amazing natural/organic skin care and makeup companies popping up.  Now I can go to Target and find a bag full of safe yet effective beauty products!  Organic skin care is no longer outrageously expensive and hard to find.

My Favorite Natural Beauty Brands:

• Eminence and find at Amazon
• Juice Beauty and find at Ulta and Amazon
• Pacifica
• Yes to Carrots, Cucumbers, Blueberries, Tomatoes and Coconuts
• 100 Percent Pure
• LaVanila (non toxic perfume)
• Alba
• Jason
• Earth Mama, Angel Baby
• Lily Lolo
• Shea Moisture

I have linked each brand to the store with the best price based on shipping and product price.  A few like Eminence and Juice Beauty can sometimes be found on Amazon at a cheaper price and as a prime product.  I hope this makes finding these products a bit easier!  And by all means, head to your local Target and check out all the organic/natural beauty you can find in the store!

Skin Care:

I love my own skin care line, J. Raincloud Organics-no brainer right-No, I really do.  My skin has dramatically changed since I’ve incorporated my line into my beauty routine.  I offer a 3-piece kit which is a great place to start.  I also love Eminence and Juice Beauty.  They are both very effective skin care lines.

Eminence is more luxurious.  They have tons to choose from and I’ve never had an Eminence product I didn’t love.  Results come fast.  Once I finish a bottle of something I always move on to another product because skin gets used to the same thing used day in and day out.  You’ll never run out of products with Eminence, but if you do, you’ll be excited to start over!

If you are looking for a more affordable line, I would check out Yes to…..  This is a fun line that is at Target.  They offer lots of affordable products that are free of harmful chemicals!  I am currently testing out a few of their products, including their eye makeup remover wipes.

Make Up:

I love my DIY mineral makeup-it works really well and is very comparable to any mineral makeup on the market.

As for buying makeup-100 Percent Pure is my absolute favorite!  At this point, everything in my makeup bag is 100% Pure.

Body:

I am currently using Pacifica for body wash and body cream.  I love this line so much!  Not only do they have the most gorgeous packaging, they also have great body products.  They carry perfume as well, but I haven’t found a smell I would wear as a perfume so far.

A new product from Pacifica to look out for are their lotion wipes!  They actually work!

In Conclusion:

Basically I DIY lip balms, skin salves and toners.  I like to use certain skin salves as a heavy night moisturizer, make up remover and even a mask.  I’m head over heals in love with my Anti Wrinkle Eye Stick so I have not tried out other eye treatments at the moment.  When it comes to water based cleansers, moisturizers and exfoliators, I prefer to buy mine from a natural skin care company.

If you are willing to spend the money to buy what you need to make your own mineral makeup, you will love what you’ve made.  My recipe works great and many people have preferred it over Bare Minerals.  When it comes to blush, shadow, lipstick/gloss and mascara, I prefer to buy mine.

I hope this post has helped clear up any confusion about where to start with finding the natural products that work for you.  Below I will link the products I have been using lately and that check all the boxes!

Please comment below with your skin care and beauty questions for the next post in this series!  I would love to help!

xx, Jenni

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