The advent of online beauty shopping and offline stores like Whole Foods is creating a new era of natural beauty products, and it’s exciting. Reports of toxic ingredients, ingredients that harm people or the environment, and other issues in traditional beauty products have many consumers now flocking to natural options. The combination is driving new companies and innovations in natural beauty, with products that feel as luxurious as traditional options — and are often better for you as well as less expensive.
Some consumers are making a full conversion to natural beauty brands. Others are mixing in some natural while using other traditional. Any formula can work for your needs, style and budget.
If you’re newly embarking on natural beauty, here are a few shopping tips:
- Consider what products you want or need to replace in your beauty routine. Take a minute to explore where and what you’d like to change to natural. For many, it’s soap or hair care (shampoo/conditioner). If you’re having a specific issue, such as breakouts, hair loss, or a skin rash, talk with a doctor or expert before you make any purchases (natural or otherwise).
- Take an hour or so to explore, try samples, and ask questions in the store. You’ll find a lot of information online about great natural products. But you’ll still want to go into the store and give a try, read labels and explore what’s available in person. Treat this adventure as you would a visit to any other beauty store or counter — take your time, test products, scents, etc. You won’t usually find takeaway samples, but you can give products a try in store and return to buy if you like how they perform before making a purchase. This can give you time to read online reviews of products you’ve tried as well. Be sure to ask the store about their return policy for items you buy and do not like.
- Expect products to feel different. A lot of the ingredients in traditional products are designed to give feel and texture — and not necessarily have anything to do with how the product performs, or how well it does its job in your beauty routine. For example, a lot of natural soaps won’t give you a very sudsy or thick suds experience entirely because the chemicals or synthetic ingredients that create suds are not included in the product. We might think a good sudsy product is working better, but it’s generally not true. What you’ll want to watch for isn’t how the product feels or looks so much as how your hair, skin, nails, etc. respond to it. If your hair is limp or greasy, or your skin feels dry, it may not be the right product for you. Note that you may want to try the item for a few days.
Keep in mind that some beauty ingredients make traditional products last longer, similar to additives and preservatives that keep food from spoiling. It doesn’t always mean that’s a good thing. You may find that your natural beauty brands last longer, or not. Everybody’s skin, hair, and nails are very different. Our bodies are different. So what can work well for one individual or another may not be ideal for the rest of us. Give the change to natural a little bit of a learning curve and room for adjustment until you’ve locked down the brands and items you find most effective. The great news about natural beauty products is that they’re almost always cruelty-free/not tested on animals. Beauty products aren’t required by law to be tested on animals in the U.S. as well many other countries, and all raw and finished products in the market have been extensively tested to date. It’s awesome that more beauty options (including traditional brands) give consumers options.
There are hundreds of natural mainstream beauty brands today and as you shop natural beauty you’ll get to know the key players and who makes what. We feature a lot of natural (and traditional) products in every edition of Condiment Magazine. You can see the latest edition here.