Natural Mama Beauty

HEY Y'ALL! It's me! I know, I know, I've been the all-time worst blogger. I know it's not an excuse, because most of you have this + more, but I've been baby wrangling, working, house keeping, etc., and I just...haven't found the time. Sigh. Lame, I know.

My girls are so big. Eileen Marie will be two-and-a-half at the end of this month, and Charlotte ("Kiki" for short) will be fourteen months old soon! Time is flying in the best way. These girls keep me moving, laughing, and smiling all the time (okay, MOST of the time!).

Hard to resist those faces, eh?

So, anyway. I've been working on something for awhile now, and I decided that I needed to share all of this research that I've done. I know that moms all around the country are googling this right now, and while there are many articles and resources available on this topic, I've actually had a lot of trouble finding information that specifically applied to ME. What am I talking about? Natural beauty products, that's what.

You see, I stopped nursing little beauty at around 14 months. But poor Kiki has had eczema off and on since about month six, and at around that time I began trying to figure out if anything I do/use/etc. was affecting her little body. This led me to my grand search and, therefore, my grand purge of all things chemicaly and nasty. And lemme tell ya...once I started taking a closer look at things, there was a LOT OF GARBAGE in my shower and make up bag.

So let's back it up.

I have combination skin and I am prone to hormonal/seasonal break-outs. Because of this, my old skin care routine consisted of the following:

*Neutrogena exfoliator 

*Neutrogena cleansing cream

*Trader Joe's Citrus Body Wash

*Say yes to carrots moisturizer

Sounds fine, yes. But there were all sorts of icky things in those products that I didn't know about until I began researching. The prime offender, of course, was PARABENS, which are basically in everything. Seriously guys, check yo products. They are hiding in there somewhere, I bet.

Parabens often start with methyl, propyl, ethyl, and butyl. They can be sneaky. But they are yucky when they get in your system. 

Phthalates...also bad. 

A few other bad guys...

Hydroquinone.

Formaldehyde.

Toluene.

Ammonia.

Dihydroxyacetone.

Basically, the longer the list of ingredients, the more likely there are bad things hiding in there. So, here is what I have switch to, and what I have had great success with thus far! These products are quite clean and leave my skin feeling lovely.

*Angels on Bare Skin LUSH cleanser

*Burt's Bees Exfoliating Peach & Willow Bark Deep Pore Scrub

*Burt's Bees Soap Bark and Chamomile Deep Cleanser

*Figs and Leaves bar soap (LUSH)

*Coal face bar soap for body (LUSH)

*Oz Naturals Facial Moisturizer

And a bonus! Because I'm slowly but surely getting older, I wanted to try out an all natural anti-aging serum. Right now, I'm using OZ Naturals Vitamin C + AHA serum. It's only been a few days, but I LOVE it so far. My skin feels hydrated and plump. Pretty stellar results to date.

I'm also starting an orange blossom toner this week. Updates to follow.

So. On to make-up. My previous routine consisted of the following:

*Almay concealer

*Neutrogena pressed powder compact

*Physicians formula powder

*Rimmel bronzer

*Jordana eyeliner and brow pencil ($1.29 from Walgreens)

*Maybelleine define-a-lash mascara

*E.L.F. blush and eye shadow

I am still in the process of paring down this routine to more natural products, BUT, the main piece that I was concerned about...foundation...has been solved.

I'm now using Mineral Fusion pressed powder compact, and I love it! I was previously using the lightest shade of Neutrogena's pressed powder, and I am a Neutral 1 in Mineral Fusion's color palette. The coverage is light and pretty, and doesn't get cakey throughout the day. I tend to reapply once mid-day and that is usually enough for me (I get oily as the day goes on). 

I have also switched my concealer to the Bare Minerals brand, and I am loving it so far. I like it much better than the Almay version, in fact! Great coverage and not as streaky as Almay. WIN WIN.

I will keep using the PF powder because it is paraben free, but I am in the process of switching over my blushes/bronzers/eye make up...suggestions welcome, y'all!

Is this helpful to anyone in the universe? I have seriously spent hours researching this lately and while it would be too tricky to condense everything I've read into one post, if you have any questions (I AM NO SCIENTIST, SELF-TAUGHT ONLY, HAHA!) I would be happy to try and answer them in comments/emails. 

And if I'm being totally honest, I guess there's one more reason I've been doing all of this research...

Due February 2018.

I'll be back at week 12. Until then, happy beauty product researching...