As I continue my ongoing quest to detoxify our home, my own beauty routine has become the focus of my detoxification efforts. If you’re also looking for a more natural self-care routine, check out these five ways to add nontoxic personal care products to your daily life!
Read on to learn how natural products can benefit you and to find some of my favorite natural beauty recipes!
(The contents of this post do not constitute medical advice. This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read our disclaimer.)
Why Switch to Nontoxic Personal Care Products?
There are so many reasons that I’ve decided to add more nontoxic personal care products to my beauty routine. More than I could list here, really.
The first is for my own health. I’ve spent the past several years working hard to stabilize my digestive system, paying close attention to everything I eat and put in my body. Since skin is the biggest organ, and it absorbs whatever I put on it, the good and bad things in my hygiene products end up in my body too.
Being careful about what goes on my skin has become even more important to me during my pregnancy. I know that anything I come into contact with could potentially be passed to my baby, so eliminating toxic beauty products from my routine is a priority.
Related: Why to Go Nontoxic During Pregnancy
I’ve also started thinking more about my environmental impact and the changes I can make in my life to lessen it. The chemicals in cosmetics do horrible things to the environment, and packaging tends to build up in landfills. This has also inspired me to begin making as many of my beauty products as possible.
An added benefit of buying or making my own natural beauty products is that it has played into my desire to simplify my life in an unexpected way. My skin has cleared up quite a bit since I started this beauty routine. This has made me feel more comfortable with wearing less makeup, which has allowed me to downsize the number of products I use each day.
Just a note – I am in no way a beauty expert, and these ideas may not work for everyone. Instead, I hope that they provide inspiration and information to help you make your own choices concerning nontoxic products.
5 Ways to Add Nontoxic Personal Care Products to Your Routine
Here are the 5 ways you can add natural personal care products to your routine:
1. Wash your face with honey in the morning.
Before reading this article from Well + Good, I had used honey in DIY face masks but had never considered washing my face with it every day.
But apparently, honey is both antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, which is great for the acne I’ve been unsuccessful at evicting from my chin for the past year or so.
It’s also super moisturizing, which has been great for my dry winter skin. When my nose was red and flaky from using 100+ tissues a day when I had a cold, continuing to wash my face with honey in the morning wasn’t a problem at all.
If you’re convinced, make sure to buy a bottle of high-quality, raw, unfiltered honey. You’re putting this stuff on your face, so you want to make sure that it’s the best.
To keep the mess to a minimum, I usually wash my face with honey only when I shower. I slather a dollop of honey onto my face right at the beginning of my shower and leave it there while I wash my hair and the rest of my body.
At the end of the shower, the honey washes off easily with water and my hands. The trick is being super thorough to ensure I don’t find a sticky spot under my ear halfway through the workday.
I’m not saying that I haven’t seen a single pimple since I started washing my face with honey, but I have noticed a difference in the clarity and suppleness of my skin.
Related: DIY Non-Toxic All-Purpose Cleaner – Get the Recipe
2. Use an oil-based cleanser in the evening.
In the evening, to wash off my makeup and any buildup from the day, I use an oil-based cleanser.
I stopped using oil-free cleansers a while ago because I hadn’t found one that was effective for me, and they tended to dry out my skin.
But oil-based cleansers remove impurities without eliminating your skin’s natural oils, allowing skin to naturally balance itself.
If you want to keep it simple, coconut oil is a great way to go. Make sure to use organic, unrefined coconut oil – again, this is going on your face, so it should be the best.
In the shower or over the sink, rinse your face with water, grab about a half tablespoon of coconut oil out of the jar, and rub it all over your face. With your fingertips, rub your face in circular motions for 60 seconds. Then, rinse the oil off your face with warm water.
If you like to exfoliate, once a week, mix a small amount of baking soda into the coconut oil and follow the same process.
If this sounds too messy to you, or if you’d like some other ingredients in your cleanser, there are a lot of oil-based cleansers out there. I use this one, which includes willow bark extract to help with acne. Burt’s Bees describes it as 99.9% natural.
Related: Nontoxic Dryer Sheet Alternative – Detox Your Laundry with Dryer Balls
3. Simplify your facial toner with apple cider vinegar.
There are a ton of benefits to using a facial toner, including removing impurities and smoothing the skin’s surface. I use a toner twice a day, after washing my face in the morning and evening.
You can always buy a toner, but you can also easily and inexpensively make one using two ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen: water and apple cider vinegar.
Apple cider vinegar can benefit the skin by helping to control acne, reducing red spots, balancing pH, and softening skin.
DIY Facial Toner Recipe
To make an ACV toner, mix one part organic, raw, and unfiltered apple cider vinegar with two parts water. After cleansing your face, shake the bottle and pour a few drops of toner onto a cotton ball or pad. Wipe the toner all over your face, avoiding your eyes.
Related: DIY Nontoxic Fabric Softener & Laundry Scent Booster
4. Make your own facial serum.
Serums are meant to be applied between cleansing and moisturizing to allow your skin to derive as many of its benefits as possible, from clearing up acne to preventing wrinkles to reducing the appearance of dark spots.
But guys, they’re so, so expensive, which is one reason that I decided to make my own with essential oils. I love how glowy it makes my skin look and feel!
Almond oil is great for sensitive skin and reduces acne. Rosehip oil removes redness, boosts collagen production, and reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. And ylang ylang oil soothes skin irritation and has a relaxing scent.
DIY Facial Serum Recipe
- 4-oz glass bottle with dropper
- 4 tablespoons sweet almond oil
- 100 drops rosehip essential oil
- 20 drops ylang ylang essential oil
Add the rosehip and ylang ylang oils to the bottle first, then fill almost to the top with sweet almond oil. Screw the dropper top on and shake to combine the oils. Between cleansing and moisturizing, put a dime-sized amount of serum into your palm and gently and thoroughly rub it into your skin.
Related: DIY Pregnancy Belly Oil to Prevent Stretch Marks
5. Switch out your feminine hygiene products.
If you have a period, you probably use a lot of feminine hygiene products, and you may not have considered what is in them.
This is probably because the manufacturers of pads and tampons don’t actually have to disclose what is in the feminine hygiene products they make.
But the pads and tampons that we use have been found to include rayon, polyester, adhesives, dioxins, synthetic fibers, and petrochemical additives. To achieve that clean, white look, most feminine hygiene products are bleached.
I don’t have to tell you that these are not great things for your skin to absorb, especially at one of the most sensitive parts of your body.
Fortunately, there are companies creating natural feminine hygiene products from 100 percent organic cotton that meet FDA absorption guidelines. Personally, I use Seventh Generation’s Certified Organic Cotton Tampons, which also use much less packaging than other products I’ve used in the past.
I’ve also used a June cup, which I love. It’s a reusable menstrual cup made exclusively with 100% medical-grade silicone that does not contain BPA, Latex, or any dyes or pigments. I’ve found it easy to insert and remove, and I love that it’s reusable, so I’m not contributing more waste when I use it.
What is your daily self-care routine? Have you made the switch to any natural products? Share your knowledge in the comments below!
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find nontoxic skincare products?
My favorite way to find nontoxic products is to make my own with natural ingredients! This way, I know exactly what’s in them and where the ingredients came from. Making my own clean beauty products also cuts down on packaging waste. If you’d like to purchase natural skincare products, you can use EWG’s Skin Deep Database to find clean beauty brands.
What toxic chemicals are in personal care products?
Personal care products can include toxic chemicals, such as phthalates, parabens, PFAS, and triclosan. These are endocrine disruptors that can interfere with your hormones and even cause cancer. It’s much safer to seek out personal care products with nontoxic, organic ingredients.
