No doubt you are catching on to the fact that the “beauty industry” is actually code for “toxic crap you don’t need”. Never in a million years would you think women would willingly line up to slather noxious chemicals all over their face but guess what? They do! But we can green up our beauty routines and make them more natural and safe too. Here are some tips for greening up your beauty regime.

1. Read the ingredients. Look closely at the ingredients in your cleanser, shampoo, hair gel, make-up, and so forth. Look them up in the cosmetics database and read first hand about what you are actually putting on your skin. If you find a lot of suspicious chemical names, look for alternatives. All sorts of toxic substances have been identified in conventional makeup and other beauty aids but there are companies making alternative products. The more people that purchase better products the louder our collective voice becomes against toxics.

2. Keep it simple. It’s amazing what you can accomplish with just lemon juice, for example. You don’t need an abundance of elaborate, complicated beauty aids.

3. Use natural products, such as lemons, honey, oatmeal, avocado, and yogurt on your hair or skin. The beauty tricks of long ago still work! For more info on that check out Beauty Secrets of the Bible. Its not a religious book is just gives us insight into Biblical women and what they used for beauty. They were just as concerned about it as modern women can be.

4. Use baking soda instead of shampoo. It makes a wonderful cleanser for your hair. Mix about a teaspoon of baking soda per cup of warm water, and pour over your head while in the shower. Work it in to your scalp and rinse.

5. Use an apple cider vinegar (ACV) solution as a rinse following the baking soda wash. Mix a tablespoon of ACV into 2 cups of warm water and pour over your head and hair. Rinse with as cool a water temperature as you can handle.

6. Look for natural make-up. Many top cosmetic manufacturers specialize in more natural formulations. Avoid make-up that has aluminum, phthalates, formaldehyde, fragrance, and parabens.

7. Combine cooked oatmeal with mashed bananas and spread on damp hair to treat dry scalp and dandruff.

8. Cut out beauty products with petroleum-based ingredients. Some ingredients to look for include parraffin, Propylene Glycol, and Isopropyl Alcohol.

9. Look for the “not tested on animals” label to assure you are not supporting the harmful and cruel practice of animal cosmetic testing. Human beauty is NOT worth animal suffering.

10. Use reusable products rather than disposable ones in your beauty routine. Examples of common disposable beauty items are: razors, pre-packaged, single-use hair treatments, and cotton balls.

The two BEST books on this subject happen to be written by the same person, Julie Gabriel. The first is the Green Beauty Guide. That link takes you to my review. The second is fairly new, Green Beauty Recipes, and I have LOVED puring over the recipes. My daughter is ecstatic to make some of these and I feel good about letting her go wild with it because they are safe and natural. Carrot Cake Cleansing Cream, Milk and Olive Facial Toner, Breakfast Yogurt Scrub, Pumpkin Mask, Natural Clay Deodorant… its fun, practical, and informational.

Enjoy!