The desire to begin a natural beauty regime is becoming particularly more common in these turbulent times.
Our readers regularly send in questions about how to get started with natural, clean beauty products.
A common refrain from Whole People community members is that it is easy to fall back into old routines without a structured guide to assist in navigating the world of ethical, sustainable skincare, make-up, cosmetics and personal care products such as shampoos.
To address that need we’ve put together a simple guide to kickstarting your natural beauty routine and ensuring you continue with it.
Plus, we take a look at some of the big natural beauty trends for the rest of the year!
How To Make An Effective Transition To A Natural Beauty Routine
This is a multi-step process but a simple one.
It allows you to move at your own pace and to become comfortable with small changes before making major changes.
Be Clear About Why Natural Beauty Matters
We couldn’t possibly list all the issues with chemically based makeup and beauty products here but take a look at this study reported by the University of Berkley.
They showed that even the shortest of breaks from certain brands of shampoo, lotion or makeup can lead to a significant reduction in hormone-disrupting chemicals in a woman’s body.
Yes, hormone-disrupting chemicals. That’s every bit as bad as it sounds. Unfortunately, beauty products are poorly regulated in most countries.
So, if you want to avoid this kind of interference with you body – you need to know about it.
Do your research and decide what chemicals you wish to get rid of from your beauty routines. This is one of the most important natural beauty tips of all.
Reinforce Your Decision By Writing Down Your Reasons For Change
Reading natural beauty tips and then aspiring to change is not enough.
Scientists have proven time and again that goal setting is not enough to make effective changes in life.
What does work, however, is when you write down your goals and the reasons you have for choosing the goal.
So, grab a pen and paper during your research and make notes.
Stuff like “I’d like to see my hormones in balance as nature intended them” alongside, “I will change my shampoo and lipstick brands to make this happen.”
If you do change your lipstick brand make sure to look at the sustainable options.
This will dramatically increase your chances of succeeding with your new routine.
Go Through Your Current Beauty Products
Fortunately, it’s easy to work out what’s what in your current products and no, you won’t need a chemistry degree.
Natural beauty tips like this one, won’t work if you need a degree. Instead, you can use an app.
Mobile users can install the thinkdirty app to get a rundown on things, and everyone with a net connection can use EWG’s skindeep database.
Whether you have dry skin, oily skin, radiant skin, naturally glowing skin, combination skin. etc. they can give you all the information you need to have healthy skin and youthful skin.
Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help
One of the first things we did when we switched out to a natural regime was to consult a specialist about it.
If you want glowing skin to replace the dead skin cells then one of our favorite natural beauty tips is to get an expert’s opinion and, if you can get away with it, get it for free.
Bodyshop, for example, will be happy to provide a free consultation and recommendations on products that might improve your health and beauty regime.
There are also professional beauty consultants that can offer a broader range of services designed to help you tailor your natural routine.
Realize That Change Doesn’t All Need To Come At Once
This is the moment that many people become completely overwhelmed. You’ve read a ton of natural beauty tips and now?
You’ve got a bag full of makeup which isn’t natural, and which might impact on your health. You don’t have the budget to swap it all out – what should you do?!
Breathe. The answer is to take it one step at a time.
Change one thing a week and by the end of the year, everything will be natural.
Swap out the products that you use the most (like deodorant or shower gel) first and leave the occasional use products until last.
So, if dry skin, for example, is your priority then get your glowing skin by buying some shea butter or coconut oil and leave other things until later. Say goodbye to dead skin cells and let the collagen production wait for another day.
Try Things Before You Commit: Natural Beauty Free Samples
You can get free samples of cosmetics and for other products, you can buy trial size packages or even travel size ones. Try asking for some from your favorite natural or organic skincare brands.
Before you commit to a product, give it a small-scale trial first. Do you like it? Does it deliver the benefits that you were looking for?
Vitamin C serums, for example, can be very expensive, if they work for you, great, but if not? You don’t want to make the beauty industry richer at your own expense, do you?
Brand loyalty is understandable but build that loyalty around results rather than marketing materials.
Develop A Care Ritual That Makes Sense And Makes You Feel Great
It won’t happen immediately, but you should be looking to develop a routine that makes you feel amazing.
It’s like switching from junk food to whole foods. The first few days are a little strange and then, suddenly, you’re full of energy and joy.
Deep changes in the way we live are positively impactful, but they can take time to bed in.
Be patient, don’t expect miracles but do expect to feel better and happier over time.
Once you rid your body of toxins – it can begin to heal.
Keep Going
You should make a little time to renew your commitment to natural beauty every now and again.
It’s easy to slide back into old habits over time if you don’t remind yourself as to why you began, it’s even easier.
And don’t forget that it may take a while to get used to a new way of doing things too (think switching from a spray deodorant to a cream-based one) and it’s worth persevering.
Make It Fun
One thing we’ve found really helps people stick to a new routine is to involve other people. Get your closest girlfriends together, explain the journey that you want to take, see if they’d like to get involved too.
Swap tips and products, get together for natural beauty treatments or a massage, the more you share your enthusiasm, the more enthusiastic they will become, and their enthusiasm will boost you even more. It’s a virtuous circle and it’s a lot of fun.
Natural Beauty Trends For 2022
Now that you’ve got an idea of how to create a beauty routine what’s the next step? What should you be looking to include in that routine?
Well, there are an infinite amount of natural products out there but the big hitters this year include these following interesting devolopments.
Bakuchiol Based Products
Retinol is the miracle anti-ageing drug to remove wrinkles. It’s also dangerous to use on a regular basis and can react very badly with sunlight.
The good news is that there’s a natural alternative – bakuchiol. It’s also an anti-inflammatory agent which can help you feel even better than Retinol ever could.
It puts your face into repair mode while you sleep and it feels amazing!
Microbead-Free Products
The United Kingdom has already been forward thinking enough to ban microbeads (tiny pieces of plastic) in women’s beauty products, sadly, the rest of the world has not caught up.
Microbeads are insidious in that they may be drawn into your body and build up over time to cause problems. They’re certainly building up in the world’s oceans. Getting rid of these contaminants isn’t just good for you, it’s good for the world.
CBD Oil Beauty Products
If you’re dealing with chronic pain, you’ve probably heard of CBD oil which is an extract from hemp which offers similar pain relief properties to marijuana but without the high.
Well, it also offers real benefits in beauty products and we think this year is the year that every woman will start buying CBD products of some description.
CBD oil can help cure acne, reduce eczema and when used topically it can even help with depression and anxiety. Nothing removes redness in a more soothing and effective way. We’re in love with it.
DIY Home Spa Facials
We all love going to the spa for a pampering session but most of us don’t love the huge bill that we’re presented with when we leave.
One of the challenges of spas when you’re trying to go all natural is it’s hard to know what products they’re using.
There is, however, an alternative and that’s to create spa treatments at home out of 100% natural ingredients. It’s cheaper, more fun and you can be certain that the ingredients you use are the ones that work best for your body.
We can’t run through the whole process of creating such treatments in detail here but WikiHow has a great guide that can help.
Packaging Changes: Recycled, Refilled, Refreshed
One thing we expect to see a lot of throughout this year is changes to the way that beauty products are packaged.
There’s so much unnecessary waste created by the industry.
Expect to see discounts for refillable and recyclable choices when it comes to packaging.
This won’t change your beauty routine but it will save you money.