Detox your makeup bag!

I am not sure I have ever mentioned it here but we don't use 'nasty' chemicals in the house. From cleaning to skin care, everything is as natural as possible (although I have an emergency bleach for poo on the floor incidents, thankfully they don't happen often:) ). We chose to do this when I was pregnant with Big E and I started reading about the chemicals in deodorant getting into your milk and from there is snowballed!

Changing from chemicals to natural for everything has involved hours of research and lots of label reading so I thought I would do a wee series of posts about what I avoid and what I use to try and help those wanting to make a change.

Today is make-up! Before I go any further I should say I am no make-up expert or Chemist, in fact I wear it about once a week when I can be bothered, but the contents of my make up bag are carefully researched before I buy them (oh what a geek!).

There are some main chemicals I avoid when choosing make up:

Parabens - these mimic oestrogen and can cause hormone disruption. They are are in so many things it is scary!

Oxybenzone - This can cause cell changes.

Anything with illuminating particles and all non-natural sunscreens as they are normally nanoparticles which are a fairly new invention and not well researched even though they are small enough to be absorbed into the blood stream.

Anything that sounds plasticy ( eg acrilate)!

Formaldehyde (yes the stuff they use to preserve bodies...) - Formaldehyde is a carcinogenic impurity released by a number of cosmetic preservatives. Often found in nail products.

There are loads of others to avoid - I use the EWG Skin Deep database to check ingredients if I am unsure although I stick to certain brands now that I know are mostly 'safe'.

After much research I bought these products and have stuck with them:

Bare Minerals -  Foundation which has an SPF, Bisque (concealer), blusher and eyeshadow.

UNE lip sheen, lip gloss and mascara.

That was the total content of my makeup bag until a few days ago when I spent some Christmas money on:

Lavera eyeshadow to, apparently, accentuate my green eyes!!

2 Bare Minerals lipsticks

Lavera Beauty Balm tinted moisturiser

Not very much but the basics are covered!

I normally buy makeup and skincare products from the following sites:

Love Lula: I buy most of my make-up and skin care stuff from Love Lula, a fantastic website who have very high standards about what they supply in terms of chemicals and ethics. They also have a very good points system, I got £15 off my order just from using points I only half realised I had collected :)

Naturismo: A great site with free delivery worldwide. A slightly different range of products to Love Lula and sometimes a bit cheaper.

Ethical Superstore: More for my shampoo etc but sometimes they have makeup

I have also bought the UNE stuff from Boots and the Bare Minerals from Bare Minerals direct.

I hope this has been of interest to some, and I should say that I have not been asked to review any of these things, they are just the products I have bought and have an opinion on. 

If anyone has any other recommendations for natural make-up I would love to hear them!

Linking to some of these fab linky parties!