When I started to research truly gluten free products I found a lot of indie companies and brands. Most of the brands were natural. I started to find out about parabens and toxic ingredients. I was shocked to see that there was formaldehyde in nail polish and cancer causing ingredients in my and my family's soaps and lotions. I decided there needed to be a change. I could not afford to throw everything out so I first replaced my sons products right away and then once one of my products got finished up I replaced it with something natural. I'm still in the process of replacing everything. If you have been wanting go natural here are four tips that can help you.
Research: You have to do some research. Just because a brand says it's natural doesn't mean it really is. Lots of big companies and brands have noticed that people are buying healthier products and they want to cash in on it. You have to look at the ingredients. One website that I love and helped me immensely is www.skindeep.com Skin deep is amazing. They have the latest articles on ingredients and products, helps you to learn about ingredients to avoid in certain products, and even has a large database (over 69,000 products!) that scores your products. The database is amazing. You put in the name of your product natural or not and it will score your product from 0-10. 0 being the less hazardous and 10 being the most. It also shows you the products ingredients and what that individual ingredient scores and what the ingredients are and why they are scored that way. Familiarize yourself with natural brands and see what they stand for. Do their beliefs match yours? Since I also use gluten and cruelty free products I will only use products that are also cruelty free and gluten free. It's great to have a list of companies that I trust and can do a quick check to see if one of their products is right for me.
Set Your Standards: Now that you researched you should set your standards. Make a list of ingredients that you absolutely will not use. Is there some ingredients you would use but with caution or only occasionally? Will you change your house hold products also? It's really up to you what you are willing to use or not use. Making a list will come in handy when you are shopping and will help you to get familiar with ingredients to help the process go faster.
Look for bargains: Yes there are a lot of green and natural products that are pricey but that is not the case for everything. Look for coupons, sales and shop on line. www.iherb.com and www.vitacost.com will have a lot of sales and cheaper items than the store. I also found a lot of brands cost the same my old favorite brands. I use to use Dawn but I switched to Seventh Generation dish soap and it roughly cost the same. I have also found it at Vons on sale.
Don't be afraid to try new things: It can be overwhelming to switch some of your favorite products. I have always used dove soap because my skin is sensitive and dry. I was really worried that nothing else would compare to the dove soap that I have used all my life but I knew I had to replace it. I found Kiss my Face Olive Oil Bar. It is amazing. It does not irate my skin, is gluten free, cruelty free and natural. It is very moisturizing and has three ingredients! I don't see myself using anything else. It's around $3.99 on their site www.kissmyface.com but check discount websites because sometimes it can be cheaper. Also, sometimes make up companies will have products similar to big brand companies but with clean and healthy ingredients. Like www.silknaturals.com has eye shadows that are dupes for the urban decay pallets. I plan on doing different reviews and holy grail product reviews soon on household products so stay tuned for that.
So, there you have it those are my tips on going natural. Don't forget to subscribe :) Have a wonderful day.
*All opinions are my own. I was not paid to mention/review any products. All products were bought on my own.
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