Science of Skincare (S.O.S. #4): Cleaning Up Your Skincare Routine

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I'm going to warn you in advance that this post is going to be longer than normal. I am cleaning out my skincare and getting rid of the chemicals. This has been something that I have been thinking about doing for a long time. In the last few months I have been thinking about health, fitness, my diet, and more in a different way and that is what prompted me to think about the products I was using on my skin on a daily basis. I have always considered health to be a vital part of my skincare so I felt like this was a natural progression for me. 

With any big changes like this, you have to start small because it's too expensive to do every product I use right now at once. I didn't want to empty my entire medicine cabinet and skincare shelf into the trash so in this post I am going to share my process with cleaning up my skincare routine and my thoughts behind my decisions. If the thought of this is something you have been toying with, I highly suggest you grab a drink and snack and read this post thoroughly. I personally am starting with skincare because I use it twice a day, every day. Next I will move to hair products, and then my every day makeup routine. I say every day because I am not as concerned about a lipstick I wear once a year. I am the most concerned about the products I am applying to my skin every day so I will be focusing there first! So let's dive right in.

Let me start by giving you a little background on the ingredients that are used in skincare products. If you know me, you know that I am a huge label reader and recommend products based on their ingredients, not their brand names or claims. The reason you see such a large margin between high end and low end products, is because most ingredients can be synthetically made. Some skincare companies pay the money to source ingredients naturally, which you see reflected in the price tag. I feel like there is this misconception that you need chemicals in order to see results with skincare but this is not the case. There are so many naturally occurring acids, enzymes, antioxidants, and more that can be used to create amazing products that will be healthier for you and still give you great results. 

When I decided to embark on this journey I first turned to my favorite app called Think Dirty. You can also visit the EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetic Database here, if you want to do it on your computer. I had had the Think Dirty app on my phone for a long time, but was terrified to see just how bad the products I was using were, so I hadn't done much with it. In a nutshell, the app allows you to search or scan the bar code of almost 1 million different products and they rate them on a scale of 0 to 10; 0-3 being healthy for your skin, 4-7 being moderately bad for your skin, and 8-10 being the worst for you skin. Not only does it rate them, it allows you to look at why they get the rating they do. Each ingredient in the product is also rated so if it has a high rating it will show you the ingredients that are causing it to rate so high. It will then tell you the purpose of the ingredient and if it's linked to being carcinogenic, causing developmental & reproductive toxicity, or causing allergies & immunotoxicities. 

If a product wasn't listed in the app, which seems to be the case for a lot of newer products and brands, I would first submit the product to the app (a feature I love) and then I would hop on my computer and search ingredient by ingredient on the Skin Deep Database I mentioned above. Now I want to list some of the ingredients I am trying to stay away from and how I decide if I'm ok with keeping a moderately bad product in my skincare routine. 

Ingredients to Avoid (All information on ingredients is either from my brain from years of skincare training or the EWG Skin Deep Cosmetic Database):

  • Mineral Oil: MIneral oil is a cheap oil made from petroleum that traps moisture in skin, but doesn't actually hydrate the skin. It simply doesn't do anything for us and can even trap bacteria in the skin and pores. There is belief that it could be a possible human immune system toxicant and since it doesn't actually do anything for the skin and comes from petroleum I say, DO WITHOUT IT!
  • Parabens: If you are familiar with skincare, you probably know that a lot of companies are straying away from the use of parabens as preservatives because of it's possible link to cancer and how it can mimic estrogen in the body. For this reason, it's going on my DIRTY list.
  • Phenoxyethanol: This is an ingredient that I think will be one of the hardest to stay away from, because it seems to be in everything!! haha Again this is a fragrance or preservative ingredient and is restricted in Japan in cosmetics in certain quantities. I've noticed it often in cleaners and toners, but can be in moisturizers as well.
  • Propylene Glycol: This one is a humectant and skin conditioning ingredient that has been associated with skin irritations and dermatitis. After reading about how it is a probably carcinogen, I've decided it's on my DIRTY list. 
  • Synthetic Colors (Yellow 5, Red 40, etc.): In my opinion, there is no reason that a skincare product needs to be colored a certain way. If there is naturally occurring pigment in the ingredients that is fine, but do not add synthetic colors that are made from petroleum just so the mask is orange. To me this is an easy one to get rid of so welcome to the DIRTY list!
  • Benzalkonium Chloride: A surfactant found is many household cleaning supplies, I have no use for it in my cleansers! It has been shown to be a skin, respiratory, and eye irritant. 
  • Triethanolamine: This is a relative of Nitrosamines, which are a very likely carcinogen, which means that it is a very possible health hazard. It is used as a buffering and emulsifying agent and will no longer be irritating my skin.
  • Polysorbate 20/PEG Sorbitan Laurate : These are similar in that they are derivatives of Lauric Acid, and they have an extremely high contamination of Ethylene Oxide and 1,4 Dioxane which are very highly likely to be carcinogens. Lauric Acid is the fatty acid found in coconut oil that is totally fine and healthy for your skin. However, these forms of it, are very much a toxicant and welcomed on the DIRTY list. 

Ok this list could probably go on and on, but I will stop now and encourage to use this website and app to go through your own collection. If I come across more research and more ingredients that I will be omitting for sure, I will made sure to write new posts updating those who want the info! For now I will be for sure eliminating those above.

Now let me describe some of my decisions regarding ingredients and how I read labels. First off, it's important for you to know that the order that ingredients are listed shows which are in higher quantities. The first listed ingredient makes up the most of that product, the second being the second most, and so on until the last ingredient has the least concentration within. This is important to note because it can help you decide if that product is good for you or not. My biggest concern is usually the first half of the ingredients. I do not want a single chemical in those. Ideally, there wouldn't be a chemical in the whole label, but if I have a product that I love and works well for my skin and the second to last ingredient is a chemical, I might consider using it occasionally because I know the concentration is lower. 

Next, I look for the purpose of the ingredient. Sometimes products will be rated higher because they contain an ingredient like Glycolic Acid which exfoliates the skin. That glycolic acid could be listed as a potential skin irritant for this, which is fine with me because that's the reason I'm using it. I want it to break down the skin and exfoliate the dead cells off. As long as that Glycolic Acid is coming from a more natural source like maybe sugar cane, I am fine with it and don't consider that product to be a hazard. 

Now if you are thinking about making this transition with me into cleaning up your skincare, your next question is probably about how to make that transition. My recommendation is to do it slowly and phase out products as you use them up and purchase only healthy alternatives. If you have brand new bottles or back ups on hand, try returning them or giving them away to friends that don't necessarily care about the chemicals in their skincare (to each their own!).

So what does this mean for Andrea Fontana Beauty? I am a firm believer in putting your money into the health of you skin first so from here on out, I will not be recommending skin care products that are not clean for your skin. I will include you on this journey and plan on doing a follow up post asap, as to what products I've had to get rid of and what I've replaced them with. When I move on to hair care and every day makeup products I will do the same. For makeup however, I will continue to recommend, try and use all brands of products because I do not use the same things every day and still need high performance products for wedding day and special event makeup. For me this isn't an all or nothing process. As long as I'm converting 75% of what is going on my face and body every day, I will consider that a win. 

Again, I'm not encouraging you to throw out everything you own, but rather look where you can make some healthier changes in your every day routines. As always send all questions my way and let me know how you feel about this topic in a comment below!

Have a beautiful week,

Andrea