Read your labels!

Do you remember when you were a child that your mother told you, "don't trust strangers"? The same thing  applies to most beauty products. Beauty brands are capitalizing on consumers desire for organic and natural makeup and skin care by using catch phrases in their product descriptions. Be leery and wary of language on the side of the products you are choosing.

Such as:

• All natural
• Earth friendly
• Environmentally safe
• Cruelty Free
• Vegan
• Contains organic ingredients

Words like 100% natural and made with organic essential oils seem legitimate, the reality is that the US FDA only regulates organic food products. That means that plant-derived ingredients are not certified organic by the USDA and may have been grown with chemical fertilizers, toxic pesticides and other harsh chemicals.
Also words like "natural", "earth friendly" and "non toxic" are also not regulated and companies are able to use these terms at will. It's up to consumers to differentiate marketing from reality by refusing to buy products that use misleading claims.

Just because a product has the word "vegan" in the product description doesn't mean it is free from harsh chemicals.
Always check the ingredient list. A lot of times a product saying "contains organic ingredients" has only one certified organic ingredient. But you are lead to believe "all" the ingredients are organic. Also the "100% natural products" can still contain preservatives and parabans.

The point of this post is to hopefully bring some awareness to how company's advertise their products. You have to do your homework when you are purchasing skin care and cosmetics. Really take the time to investigate and study the labels . This is your skin you are applying these products to, the largest organ you posses. What goes on your skin is just as important as what foods go in your body.
Here are 5 Beauty product ingredients to avoid:

• Petrochemicals-Examples include, petroleum jelly, isopropyl alcohol, or isopropanol, methyl alcohol or methanol, butyl alcohol or buanol, ethyl alcohol or ethanol, ( often used in skin astringents and perfumes)
• Sodium laureth/lauryl sulfates and other sulfate-based detergents-examples include sodium lauryl ether sulfate, sodium laureth sulphate, sodium lauryl ether sulphate ( most commonly in shampoos and shower gels)
• Propylene glycol and plyethylene glycol, examples of these include ethylene glycol (found in everything from deodorant, and mascara)
• Formaldehyde and paraben preservatives-examples include butylapraben, ethylparaben, methyparaben, propylparaben (found in sunscreen, shampoos, toothpaste and more)
• Synthetic dyes which include anything with F&DC preceding it. Usually followed by a color and a number.

Check your products and see if any of these are in the list of ingredients.
My rule of thumb, if I can't pronounce it, it's not going on my skin!!

I can assure you that the oils that go into Real Raw Beauty products are REAL 100% organic, unrefined, unfiltered oils. The oils that go into my products are purchased from some of the most reputable and reliable companies out there supplying organic oils to the public. The difference in the organic oils I use is in the extraction process of the oil from the nut or the fruit. Most oils that say organic are grown organic, but are extracted with chemicals like petroleum and other chemicals. They can extract them cheaper that way. They have been infused with chemicals even though they were grown organic. My oils are unfiltered and unrefined, which means that they have never had any chemicals used in the growing or the extracting. And all the oils are virgin organic oils, not just one or a couple of them.

Know what you are buying, and care about what goes on your skin.

Until next time,
Jan

Feel free to email me with any questions...jan@realrawbeauty.com