Friday Favourites – Greener Choices for Bath and Beauty Supplies

Happy Friday everyone! It’s been a long week of battling colds here but the reward at the end of the tunnel is heading out tonight to our friends’ cottage for the Canada Day long weekend.

For this week’s Friday Favourites, I thought I’d share my top five new “green” bath and beauty products. Over the past few years, I have been slowly trying to phase out as many chemical products from our home as I can. At first I started with cleaning supplies, but then I slowly started branching out into our bath and beauty products too. The more research I did, the more I was surprised to learn about the harmful chemicals and contaminants that can be in your regular drug store purchases. I’d found some great natural products along the way, like the beeswax lipbalm and lotion I picked up at the Evergreen Brick Works Farmers Market last month. Here are the latest products that we’ve been using in our bathroom:

1. Live Clean Moisturizing Shampoo and Conditioner

While at my friend Eve’s cottage for our girls weekend, I mentioned my frustration with finding a greener shampoo company. She immediately walked me to the bathroom and showed me these bottles. It’s awesome having like minded friends for things like this. I should have called her right away when I couldn’t find one because she is always in the know with these things.

I’ve been using this Live Clean moisturizing shampoo and conditioner for about 2 weeks now and I love it. The conditioner is lighter than what I used to use, so I find that my hair feels lighter, but is maybe a little more prone to tangles. I’ve solved this by using a little extra argan oil through my hair before I dry my hair.

The shampoo came with a sample of their moisturizer, so I’m going to give that a try for a few days and see what it is like.

2. Dessert Essence Toothpaste

Finding a fluoride-free, sodium laurel sulfate-free toothpaste turned out to be a little more trial and error than I had expected. It took about four tries before we found one that we both liked. The first couple of brands that we tried didn’t create that “foam” that we were used to and kind of reminded me of brushing with baking soda at my grandparents’ house. No thanks. Then we looked at one that contained clay, which came out of the tube BROWN. Even if I could have gotten past the colour, the taste was funky.

Finally, FINALLY, we found Dessert Essence. It has a fresh and minty, but also uses tea tree oil and neem to help fight bacteria. Both the fresh mint and wintergreen flavours are awesome, but I have a friend who swears by the ginger flavour. It’s about twice as much as our usual toothpaste, but it is definitely worth it. Since we’ve started using flouride-free toothpastes, I’ve noticed that my tooth sensitivity has disappeared too!

3. Earth Science Chamomile & Green Tea Eye Makeup Remover

I’ve never been able to find a good eye makeup remover that actually 1) removes all my eye makeup, 2) doesn’t stink my eyes and 3) doesn’t leave it feeling tight and red…..until now. I was picking up some toothpaste at the health food store when I came across the beauty supply aisle and was immediately overwhelmed. There were so many lotions and solutions and serums I didn’t know what to do. Then a lovely lady saw my anguished face and came over to offer some suggestions.

One of those suggestions was this eye makeup remover, which has since become part of my daily routine. It comes out as a gel-like liquid, which you rub on your eyes and then wipe off with a damp cotton pad or face cloth. It removes every spec of makeup and leaves my tender eye area well hydrated.

4. Giddy Yo Yo Body Lotion

With my nut allergies, it is really hard to find a good body lotion that doesn’t contain chemicals AND doesn’t contain any nut products (like shea butter or sweet almond oil). While at a eco-fair with my mother recently, we saw Giddy Yo-Yo had a booth set up. I love their chocolate, but I was surprised when I learned they had a body lotion/oil product as well.

It looks like a cream inside, but melts into an oil on your skin. I’ve started using it on my legs and it has made them so soft for shorts season. It contains cacao butter, coconut oil, olive oil and ground vanilla beans, giving it this super yummy smell and making it totally edible. It also claims to be good for not only nourishing dry, cracked skin, but it can sooth and heal sunburns and is a natural sunscreen – much nicer than the chemicals in traditional sunscreens. I’m going to test it out on my legs this weekend at the cottage and see if it works.

5. Green Beaver Deodorant

While hanging out with a friend, I mentioned that I was trying to find a new deodorant after I learned that the one I used was loaded with aluminium and carcinogens. I had toyed with the idea of making my own, but was hesitant to put all that time into something that might not work.

Right away she suggested Green Beaver, an organic personal care company based here in Ontario. It smells great and doesn’t irritate my skin at all. They also have a yummy smelling daily face wash that I want to try out soon too.

Greener products may cost more money than traditional bath and beauty products, but I feel like this investment in the future of my body and skin is a worthy investment. Switching over to these products isn’t for everyone and my opinions are my own, but I must say that since we’ve made these few simple changes over to healthier products, I’ve noticed that my skin is less irritated, smoother and has fewer outbreaks. If you’re tempted to try some greener products, I would suggest starting with one at a time and taking the time to research what to look for and what to avoid.