Let’s dive in…
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So you’ve recently had an allergic reaction to something in your skincare cream and you notice that your skin is becoming more sensitive to skin care ingredients.
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You head to your local drugstore to find a new skincare product to help moisturize your skin. You want something that is moisturizing, but doesn’t have anything irritating in it. You flip over a bottle of lotion that you find to read the ingredients and you see things like Disodium EDTA, Tocopherol, BHT, & Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, just to name a few.
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Really confused as to what you just read, you begin to look for a hand soap with cleaner ingredients only to find things in the ingredients list like tetrasodium glutamate, triethylene glycol, & ammonium lauryl sulfate.
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What does it all mean?? & Are they good for me?
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My general rule of thumb for skincare ingredients is that if it’s really difficult to pronounce, it most likely has no business being in your skincare product. What I’ve found is that the more simple the ingredients, the healthier they are for your skin.
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The FDA has not been much help when it comes to regulating what goes into our skincare products. People may argue that, “it’s only a small amount”, but it certainly adds up over time.
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So what do you do and how do you avoid all of the parabens, preservatives, and the irritants in your skincare products?
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Thankfully, we live in a time where we have options and there are many brands out there (including Truly Whipped) that have made it their business to create products free of toxins, hormone disruptors, and preservatives.
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Some common ingredients that you should avoid are parabens, aluminum compounds, Polyethylene Glycol, phthalates, and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. Not only are these ingredients not good for your skin, but they also may have damaging long term effects to your health.
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“But isn’t that a bold claim to make?!?”
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Well, ask yourself this…why have we accepted this as the norm? When there are plenty of other healthier and beneficial ingredients that can be used in our skincare products. When we’ve become complacent with the ingredients that are put into our skincare products in the name of convenience because “it was a great buy”, that’s a dangerous place to be. More importantly, where does it end?
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Although these ingredients may be “safe to use” in smaller quantities according to the FDA, it definitely can add up over time. Also, have you thought about the other ingredients that you may use that are also absorbed by your skin…conditioners, shampoos, antiperspirants, hand washing soaps, etc.
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Sometimes coming into this knowledge can be a bit overwhelming at first, which is why making your own skincare products is another option. I personally prefer body butters as they leave my skin feeling moisturized for longer periods of time.
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There’s no shame in using the skincare products that you currently own. The key is, once you come into this knowledge, making a slow transition into healthier choices will make all the difference.
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Be patient with yourself as this is a process that turns into a more health conscious lifestyle.