Natural Beauty

Last week I visited Utah's brand new shopping mecca in the heart of Downtown Salt Lake City. City Creek Center is a gorgeous new mall with high-end retail shops and restaurants. It is literally one of the most beautiful malls I have ever stepped foot in. There are a lot of stores new to Utah, like; Tiffany and Co., Coach, 77 Kids by American Eagle, Michael Kors, and Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics to name a few. After shopping we had lunch in the food court at Bocata Artisan Sandwiches, which is owned by one of my favorite restaurants, Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana. I had a delicious Caprese Bocata that had fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and sea salt on a hot ciabatta roll that was fresh out of the brick oven (the bread tasted exactly like the pizza dough from Settebello's). It was heaven! 

City Creek Center

Other than seeing this spectacular new mall, I was most looking forward to lunch at Bocata, shopping at Nordstrom, and stepping into Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics for the first time. I had heard a lot about Lush but have never had the pleasure to shop there. Lush makes handmade natural products, they use minimal to no packaging, their bags are made from recycled paper, and they use no to very little chemicals in their products. They have scrubs, bath bombs, soap, shampoo, and much more.

Lush's Ocean Salt

Natural beauty products are more important to me than ever and here's why; 

I recently heard a Doctor on television say "you shouldn't put anything on your skin that isn't safe enough to eat." Your skin is your body's largest organ. What you put on your body, you literally absorb. I never really thought too much about this until lately when I read about chemical ingredients like phthalates and parabens in Crazy Sexy Diet. 

Phthalates: Phthalates are used to make fragrance last longer. It's found in products like shampoo, hair gels, lotions, and deodorants. The scary thing about phthalates is that "a quarter of American woman are already contaminated with high enough levels of phthalates to potentially cause malformations in their male offspring." As of right now, it's not required by law to put phthalates on the label. So until we get better laws it's best to avoid all synthetic fragrance-containing products. Look for natural fragrance or no added fragrance products.

Parabens: "These chemicals, which can act like estrogen in the body are used as preservatives in a wide array of lotions, shaving cream, make-up, and shower products." In 2004 a study was released stating that parabens could lead to breast cancer. 

(To see if your beauty products contain these ingredients, check out safecosmetics.org.)

Even though there are thousands and thousands of products on the shelves with these chemicals and some companies have stated that they are completely safe, I have decided to look into more natural products. I still want effective products - I just want a few less chemicals.

I have discovered that there are so many gorgeous, non-toxic beauty products on the market. Just check the ingredient labels and have an understanding of what's in your products. Look for words that end with paraben, look for added fragrance that isn't natural, and look for added coloring. I have purchased products with more natural ingredients recently from Aveda, Origins, and Lush just to name a few. Most of their products are fairly natural, however, some of their products do have small amounts of parabens to give them longer shelf life. Again, just check the label or their websites for product ingredients. I also switched my baby's shampoo and lotion to Burt's Bees all-natural after reading that most baby products are loaded with formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane - both known carcinogens. 

I love this product - Lush's Buffy Body Butter

This day and age it doesn't make you a hippie to use natural beauty products (unless your going for "hippie" - that's totally cool). Until harmful ingredients are banned from the beauty industry, you just need to do what you feel is right for you and your family.