The Life-Changing App That'll Make You Throw All Your Makeup Out
I love makeup. But I also love my face.
I don’t want some weird cosmetic item I order from God knows where sending me into anaphylactic shock. Its about more than just reading ingredients nowadays…you really have to get savvy about chemicals and the derivatives you’re using or else suffer the consequences.
Makeup often contains numerous toxic chemicals.
When covering bleeding, open wounds or cuts, whatever you put on top needs to also be healthy enough to go into your bloodstream. How many chemicals do women actually ingest from their lipstick, lip gloss or lip liner? Ingestion is nothing when you’re literally rubbing (hopefully) top 8-free makeup into open rashes.
When I cover my rashes with soy-free nut-free makeup, my skin either stings, itches or is neutral. I aim for the neutral but at the same time, I want to feel better. Knowing that there are chemicals going into my blood doesn’t help my mind from going on tirades about what that’s doing to my body in the long run. But finding clean makeup and clean products that are chemical-free and allergen-free is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Cleaning Up With Yuka
Fortunately (or unfortunately for my wallet) I found out about the Yuka app for Android or Iphone. The Yuka app is your secret weapon to add a few years (or more) to your life. It tells you on a scale of 1-100 whether your item or food is poor, good, bad or excellent. Then it tells you which ingredients are the reason for the ratings and why. For example, mineral oils – potential carcinogen or steareth-20 which is labeled as an irritant (is usually a soy derivative since stearates and stearic acids come from soy. Go ahead. Download it and start scanning stuff in your bathroom. I dare you.
Think of the chemicals going down the drain and how much healthier you’ll be!
C’mon, now, you know I’m not going to leave you with a trash bag full of ‘poor’ rated items and not give you a hint on how to shop for healthier products.
Here’s my advice for finding better products with a good or excellent rating on Yuka for you and your loved ones.
Start with the baby aisle.
Babies and children tend to be treated better than adults. This tends to mean less toxins in their products and foods. Scanning with Yuka can also prevent baby eczema caused by chemical derivatives. Always start your scan in the baby aisle. If you are searching for soaps, shampoos, conditioners and body wash, you are likely to find more excellent ratings in this section than anywhere else in the store.
Of course, most of us don’t have time to turn into Betty Crocker to make Clinique copycats or fake Oil of Olay creams from scratch. But if you do, power to you. You can also follow my DIY Board on Pinterest. There I post recipes for soy-free bath and body products as well as numerous other DIY skincare products.
If you look hard enough using the Yuka app, you will find chemical-free excellent rated ‘clean’ makeup and clean skincare products such as some by Neutrogena, Joah, Gabriel or Honest Company. Many of their products still contain soy derivatives so sometimes it is trial and error to see what products you react to and which ones you don’t. For example, this Gabriel powder is one of my favorite powders but does contain lecithin and tocopherol acetate, both usually derived from soy..yet I’m still able to use it without a problem. If you have anaphylaxis to soy derivatives like those, you might want to try this Simply Ageless powder by Cover Girl, but unfortunately there are ingredients like talc and silicone to deal with so don’t breathe it in!
Now that we have the right tools like Yuka and the EWG Skin Deep website, you can choose healthier products and be a wise consumer from now on!
Maya's Happy Place 
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