Whole Foods Meets Sephora | Safer Beauty Products

I was at happy hour with some of my wellness friends and at one point, I whipped out my Rosebud Salve and dabbed some on my lips. My friend Blair said “You know there’s petroleum oil in that right? It’s not really a good product to be using.”

Ughhhhhhh what else!? I can’t do anything! I can’t eat, use or do ANYTHING anymore — I thought.

What I actually said was “I know. I’m just not as into all that as you are. I can’t think about everything that’s going to lead to my inevitable demise.”

She shrugged.

That’s how it feels sometimes though, doesn’t it?

It’s like every week, we hear about something new we’ve been eating, drinking, or rubbing on our lips that’s going to kill us. We’d have to live in a bubble to avoid all the harmful substances lurking about.

And I was fully aware that a lot of the products I used every day weren’t all that great for me. My shampoo, for starters. But like, ever tried to use natural shampoo? Gross.

If you think about it though — body wash, face wash, make up, hand soap, moisturizers, toothpaste and deodorant — we use so many products on our bodies every day for weeks, years, decades of our lives.

And intellectually, I think we all know that these harmful products probably add up in our bodies, and that we could be doing better by our health. But it’s tough you know?

It’s tough to know what’s safe.

It’s hard to read and decipher the labels.

It’s even harder to find natural products that actually work.

And it sucks because Sephora is just so much more fun. It feels chic and modern. The beauty aisle at Whole Foods feels crunchy and granola and Patchouli-scented. Ya know? And I don’t even know if any of that crap is safe anyway.

Gimme something a little Whole Foods meets Sephora, throw in a little Madewell branding. You’ll have me at hello.

But I could never find that. I couldn’t find something I knew was safe and effective, but that also allowed me to feel that same sense of feminine indulgence.

Anyway, so I’d been going along in my ignorant bliss for quite some time. But recently, my intuition has been tugging at my shirt like a little kid, telling me to start paying better attention.

Then one night, while looking at my products in front of the mirror in my bright, blue bathrobe that Joel hates, I read a label I hadn’t read before.

It said I shouldn’t get the product on my clothes because it would bleach them. And it would also bleach my pillow cases and towels. So that’s what was happening to my towels back in the day when I was using Proactiv! My brother and I could never figure out why all of our towels looked like failed, DIY, hyper-color experiments from the early 90s.

My heart sunk. Sure, I wanted to control my acne, but at what cost? If something is going to bleach my clothes I shouldn’t be lathering it all over my skin, right? I knew better. It was time to make a change.

Because what we rub on our skin gets absorbed into our bloodstream. And that’s not just some bullshit, wellness jargon. Think about the nicotine patch…

So what the hell was I doing? I’m a health coach and wellness blogger, for f’s sake. Why have I been procrastinating in this very important part of my holistic wellness? Why have I been ignoring it? Why are we all ignoring this?

Why are we satisfied being sold harmful chemicals that are potentially disrupting our health?

Why do we drink smoothies, exercise, buy organic and eat our vegetables only to start and end each day by rubbing toxic substances all over our face and body? Around our eyes? On our lips? On our kids!?

No!

Something finally snapped in me that night, standing in my sublimely comfortable yet hideously, unattractive bathrobe.

When I read that label it made me angry. And so I began my research. And I started curating a skincare shop with my findings for you. I wanted to share some safer alternatives, in hopes of educating and inspiring you to make better choices as well.

And like in everything else in life, when the student was ready, the teacher appeared.

Wouldn’t you know it, the very next day, not one, but two friends mentioned Beautycounter to me. Isn’t the Universe funny like that? Just as I was starting to research and curate our shop of the safest, natural beauty products we could find for you — the best of them fell in my lap.

I could NOT believe I hadn’t heard about them before. I had finally found my Whole Foods meets Sephora brand of safe, natural and effective beauty products that we can all feel good about using.

I told Joel, I’m literally so excited I feel like I might have an anxiety attack.

If you haven’t heard of Beautycounter you can check them out here. We’re proud to partner with them in providing you with safer options, in spreading awareness about the industry, and in championing change in Washington.

It’s time for us, as consumers, to wake up, make better choices and demand that our government do it’s part to protect us from harmful substances in our personal care products — like other countries around the world are already doing.

If you’d like more information about any of this, feel free to shoot us an email at hello@croptopsandkale.com.

And if you’d like to a FREE guide to safer, more natural beauty products, enter your name and email below. We’ll send you some info to get you started. It includes a list of all the ingredients to start avoiding immediately!

Originally published at Crop Tops & Kale.