Ingredients – What I use, and what I don't

Skincare ingredients are a hot topic right now but it can be confusing knowing what to look out for and what to avoid. On top of this, ingredients lists can be so long you need to be dedicated to get through them.

My ingredients lists are short. If you use the finest, most nutritious, natural and organic ingredients specifically chosen for their benefits to the skin – and for no other reason – you don’t need many to create a highly effective product.

Most ingredients lists are long because the formulations made up of highly processed ingredients, emulsifiers, stabilizers and preservatives. None of these have any actual benefit to the skin, and can be potentially toxic and irritating.

All my ingredients are plant or mineral based except for the certified organic beeswax which I use in my cleansers and the lanolin in my Repair Balm, which is a cruelty-free by product of the wool industry.

I only use certified organic ingredients and I am certified with the Leaping Bunny which means we do not test any finished products on animals and we do not use any ingredients that have been tested on animals.

I am also very proud to be certified “clean” by CertClean, Canada’s certifiers for clean and effective skin care.

IN MY SKINCARE YOU WILL FIND:

Certified organic, cold-pressed, unrefined (unprocessed) plant oils, butters and waxes
Certified organic pure therapeutic grade essential oils and plant hydrosols (flower waters)
Certified organic dried botanicals (flowers, leaves, roots, berries, fruits and peels)
Naturally occurring mineral-rich clay
Hyaluronic acid produced by the fermentation of beans and peas
Radish Root Ferment Filtrate (certified organic approved preservative) which is simply fermented radish root!

YOU WILL NEVER FIND:

Mineral oil (petroleum / petrolatum)
Refined (heat processed) plant oils, butters or waxes
Synthetic fragrance oils
Parabens, tetrasodium EDTA, diazoldinyl urea, propylene glycol, cetyl alcohol, cyclomethicone, dimethicone, ethylhexylglycerin, hydroquinone, PEGs, stearyl alcohol or stearic acid.

This is by no means the full list of ingredients I avoid. These are just some of the most commonly found toxic ingredients, some of which are neuro-toxic, irritants, hormone-disrupting and carcinogenic. Remember these are commonly found in everyday skincare today. This is terrifying to me.