Making the Switch to Cleaner Products

Living the clean lifestyle starts with the food you put into your body but easily expands from there into the products we use on our skin (our largest organ!), the products we use on high traffic surfaces, and what we cook/store our food in!

If you're wanting to get an idea of what the products you currently use would rank on the clean scale, here is a list of my favorite resources to check products clean rating:

EWG website and app

• Skin deep https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ (beauty, cosmetics, sunscreen)
• Living Healthy App https://www.ewg.org/apps/ (food and products!)

ThinkDirty App

• https://thinkdirtyapp.com/ 

Here comes my personal round-up of my favorite clean products!

Skincare & Makeup Products

My recommendation for swapping out your skincare and makeup products would be to think about & prioritize replacing the things that stay on your skin (lotion, makeup, etc) first.

• Mother dirt - moisturizer, probiotic skin spray (great for preventing stinky armpits and also can be used as a facial toner!)
• Ilia - skin tint + SPF 40 🤩🤩🤩
• Pure Haven - makeup remover, hand soap, facial cleanser, household cleaners & baby products
• Jane Iredale-makeup no parabens (I love their powder and eyelash conditioner!)
• Deodorant - Pink Hippo, Roses & Azalea (@rosesandazalea), Native

Other Brands that have cleaner Products:

Beauty Counter,-love their lipsticks (other brands contain lead!!) and overnight peel. And of course, their sunscreen is the #1 best with no ghost effect typical of mineral sunscreen!

Eminence-I’m a face mask junkie so I love all the sample sizes I can use to find new favorites!

I’m obsessed with hibiscus 🌺 eye cream and the Arctic berry peel 😍

Home Care Products

• 9 elements Cleaners (environmental working group rating was good -- low toxic low chemical products) - vinegar based
• White Vinegar + essential oils is also a great option for cleaning solution (lemon, lavender, or even any with antimicrobial features), etc
• 9 Elements Laundry products too
• Clean Republic All-Purpose Cleaner - hypochlorous acid (water + salt + electricity which changes the chemical makeup of the compound) think of this as a safer version of bleach. No scent. Fun fact, they actually use this on cruise ships! You can also use on food and food surfaces.

Cookware

Cookware can get expensive fast, so remember, you don't have to replace everything overnight. My tip for you is to look for highly versatile pans that can be used for multiple things. That way it's the most bang for your buck!

• Le Creuset - ceramic is usually nontoxic - these are great because you can use them in the oven AND on the stove. Make sure it is made in France (the linked one is manufactured in France!), the ones made in other countries could have used other chemical treatments, etc
• Xtrema cookware - another ceramic option - not really nonstick, BUT if you heat it and add oil/butter it works reasonably well. Not the same as Teflon of course, but another option.
• Cast Iron is also a great option
• Stainless Steel - there IS mixed information out there about SS. They CAN leech heavy metals but do your research. Cuisinart is what I have which doesn’t leach nickel, a common contaminant.

With cookware, we tend to gravitate to the nonstick options that most resemble Teflon (keep reading for more on the dangers of Teflon), but with the right care and cooking technique, you'll be able to mimic the non-stick features beautifully.

NOTE: Teflon falls under the category of PFAs - so we want to avoid these as much as possible (read more here). Supposedly they will be phasing Teflon out of production, but it IS still out there.

What will you be replacing first?