Are Your Skin Products Sabotaging Your Beauty? (Plus A Personal Confession...)
I made a social post confessing that I use to be TERRIFIED to ever try face wash, or any sort of body wash that smells good after some bad experiences…The number of questions I received, and messages of “I have skin issues when I use my X too. I wonder if this is why…” led me to expand on it, and give it a spot on my blog.
Here’s my multi-part confession that many people, even my closest friends, have never known…
PART 1:
I haven’t used face wash since my early days of high school. I’ve been blessed with rather blemish-free skin, EXCEPT when I was nearing my period in my yester-years, and when I used face wash...
“Weird” but true. My skin BROKE OUT because of the thing that supposedly was going to make it clean and clear. 🤔
If I had generally nice skin, why did I even want to use face wash anyway? Two main reasons…
Marketing for skincare products does a killer job…Who doesn’t want to be a gorgeous model with perfect hair, perfect teeth, and perfect skin splashing water on their face gracefully. Which can we all admit that we TRIED and that only makes a massive mess in the bathroom…The moment I tried that I should have known that the product itself was a hoax too.
Cleaning your skin is a good idea, and having something specialized to your face (which is more sensitive compared to say your legs or arms) makes total sense. Especially as I began to wear makeup, I felt as though it needed to efficiently be removed before going to bed. Turns out water did the best job for me…
I thought the scents smelled great and the “tingly” or “cooling” ones seemed cool…Gosh if I only had known then what I know now.
PART 2:
I have thrown out any and everyone scented body wash I’ve tried since THIRD grade. Why? They all caused skin irritation since THIRD grade. Even the “natural” and “hypoallergenic” ones...
That’s right...third grade was the first time I noticed skin blemishes from my strawberry shampoo that also doubled as a body wash. The most common places that spots showed up were my poor nose (yes, I got called Rudolph), my armpits (which means no tanks or lifting my arms overhead when that happened...and don’t forget the discomfort from the rubbing of skin-to-skin or shirt-to-skin), or my booty. Weird, but totally true.
Now I know a little more why…
Some of the biggest offenders in skincare products are the things that make them smell good… Various toxic scents could be labeled as:
Fragrance
Perfume
Parfum
Natural Flavoring
What’s kind of fishy is all of those items listed above are protected as a “trade secret” by the federal law. These “secret ingredients” can contain thousands of chemical ingredient concoctions…many of which will not only increase your toxic load, but can cause things like hormonal imbalances, skin irritation, and other allergic reactions. You can read more about this kind of thing on my friend Paulina’s blog, “Going Clean: Top Ingredients To Avoid.”
“Remind me why this is matters…?”
Let’s backup and address one MAJOR thing that is often forgotten…
Our skin is our largest organ, so everything that we put on it gets absorbed into our bloodstream, and floats around to all other systems. For better or for worse. Once absorbed, our body must use it or detox it from our system. So if we are putting something toxic on, and ultimately in it, our sweet bodies’ internal stress increases and our liver has to work overtime.
It may be common sense to not eat something that is toxic to our body, yet we are allowed to put many toxic things ON it, that end up IN it…
Furthermore, over three-fourth’s of the ingredients floating around in the United States skin care marketplace have not even been tested for human safety…
PART 3:
To make a long story short(er), over the past couple of years I’ve learned a lot about why many mainstream products caused various issues for users, like the things previously mentioned...
During that same journey I’ve been introduced to many clean, harm-free brands by makers, sellers, and customers who RAVE about those products. But when I was given a sample of @skinkc’s face wash previously I honestly put it at the back of my cabinet for a bit, and even jokingly told someone they could have it since I don’t even use face wash...
After some self-evaluation, I decided to put my money where my mouth was and try it out. After-all, I fully believed in Skin KC and the products they create and sell…
Once trying it, I asked myself, “WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL THESE YEARS?!”
No breakouts.
No itching.
No irritation.
But what there WAS…a feeling of CLEAN, REFRESHED, and TIGHT. It was amazing!
I have so much gratitude for Skin KC not just because I can finally use a face wash and a body wash that actually smells good, but because they have high-standards, great quality products, and most importantly, so much compassion for humans that I deeply wish other companies had.
If you are thinking about making a switch in your skincare routine, whether your makeup or items from your skincare routine, which I think is a great idea, check out my sweet friend, Paulina’s, blog “Going Clean: Top Ingredients To Avoid.” In this blog she explains a little more about issues with our current beauty/skincare market, and the top ingredients to AVOID.
PS – A great tool for finding clean products is using an app such as Healthy Living or Think Dirty. You can scan the barcodes and see where they fall on a Safe-to-Toxic scale. OR just stick with trusted brands such as Skin KC or BeautyCounter!