Test Drive: Ingredient Conscious Beauty

My Product Audit

With the help of the Birchbox Ingredient Conscious category, I decided to challenge myself to only use products that meet that criteria for a full week. The category was created as a response to our customers voicing that there were certain ingredients they had concerns about and wanted the option to avoid. So, we listened to your feedback, made a list, and created a way to shop that excludes products that contain those ingredients, including parabens, phthalates, sulfates, and petrochemicals.

First things first, I went through my vanity and medicine cabinet and checked every single product against the Ingredient Conscious category. What I realized is that I was doing a pretty good job in the skincare category: a few of my staple brandsTata Harper and Derma Eare natural, and I was already using moisturizers, washes, serums, and masks from them regularly. I made a few switches in the acne treatment category (including Juice Beauty Blemish Be Gone) but otherwise I was pretty good here.

Hair was another story. I was using only one product that was ingredient conscious, luckily it's a super important one because dry shampoo is a staple in my beauty routine: Lulu Organics Dry Shampoo powder. But when it came to shampoo, conditioner, blow out spraysI was in trouble, and desperately needed some new products.

Finally, makeup. If you follow me you know I swear by my W3LL PEOPLE Narcissist Foundation Stick and use it every day, so that I was feeling pretty good about that. I had a few eye shadows, one mascara, and one lip product but definitely needed a natural makeup infusion in order to really do this experiment right.

My All-Natural Discoveries

The most fun part of this experiment was discovering new natural products that I'd never tried. After the audit I told the Birchbox merchandising team about it and they brought me some of their Ingredient Conscious picks. Here are a few of my new faves:

W3LL PEOPLE Elitist Eyeshadow Powder in Gold Twinkle: Obsessed! Loose powder eye shadow I apply with my finger. I wore a light layer of this day-to-day for work and layered it on for New Year's Eve for a super glittery gold eye.

Dear Clark, Resurrecting Wash and Rinse: Haven't used a single other shampoo or conditioner since first trying these. I LOVE the scent. When I use it I try not to blow dry my hair so that my hair will still smell like it in the morning.

rms beauty un cover-up: Our social media manager Juliette had been raving about this for a long time and I finally got around to trying as part of this challengethis stuff is awesome! Really covers dark circles. Tons of shades.

100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Mascara in Blueberry: I am a huge fan of navy blue mascara, and I like to layer my mascaras so I've been using the W3LL PEOPLE Expressionist Mascara and then layering this on top. Plus it really smells like blueberries!

My Ingredient-Conscious Advice

Here's my advice if you want to start exploring natural beauty products:

1. There are so many fun/effective/beautiful natural beauty products and now that I dove in, I'm hooked. If the products are good, and good for me, why wouldn't I use them?

2. Don't be freaked. Do a little audit, You might have more products than you think you do! Then, just make changes in phases. Don't be too hard on yourself. Every change you make is for the better, don't feel pressure to jump off the deep end. Start by swapping the products you use the most often.

3. We're here to help. Use the Ingredient Conscious category, reach out to our discovery specialist team, ask me questions on Instagram!