Non Toxic Personal Care Essentials

Peek at Our Favorite Products

We’re in the middle of a master bathroom renovation, and since we no longer have a medicine cabinet to store our non toxic personal care essentials (yay for learning how to take one out and repair the wall), I thought now would be the perfect time to show you what we used to keep inside the cabinet. Hint: We didn’t use it to store drug store medicine!

I’m still undecided on how I want to display/organize our personal care products, but over the last few weeks, I’ve been enjoying seeing our goods out in the open. I’m thinking an open shelf on each side of the vanity, or alternately, depending on the mirrors we select, perhaps two floating shelves in-between the mirrors.

Safer skin care is totally trending right now. I’ve been researching and learning better options since 2013 when I first realized how much crap was in common personal care products. At the time, only a handful of companies existed that made pure, non toxic products. Back then, I went as far as making my own deodorant and make-up removal wipes! Also guilty of using apple cider vinegar as ‘conditioner’, which I still do from time to time. I’m happy to report that more truly great companies have emerged over the last six years.

As a note before I move on, both the Thrive Market and Amazon links I’ll include below are affiliate links. If you order anything via the links provided, there’s no extra charge to you. I receive a tiny commission as a thanks for directing business their way.

Eye & Teeth Care

• Clear Conscience Multi-Purpose Solution
  • I prefer to order my contact solution from Thrive Market, because it’s the best price ($8.49), but I don’t always remember to order in time. Occasionally I’ll pick up a bottle from Sprouts or Amazon Prime it.
• Desert Essence Dental Floss
  •  I order the dental floss from order from Thrive Market since it’s $2.49 compared to double that on Amazon.
• Himalaya Complete Care Toothpaste – Simply Mint
  • I have this toothpaste on Subscribe & Save from Amazon Prime and we get it for $5.69 per tube.

Trauma Oil and Essential Oils

• Nature’s Gift Trauma Oil <– Not an affiliate link. We just freaking love NG.
  • The trauma oil has been V helpful for joint aches and pains, particularly in A’s fingers. We rock climb 1-2 times a week, and sometimes after climbing, his hands get sore. He was an avid rock climber during his college years and I don’t even know how many times he broke his fingers in various places. At any rate, the trauma oil eases the pain within a days time and he’s fresh as new. I apply the oil to my shattered pinky toe (sadly, it hasn’t miraculously healed the bone fragments) and sore muscles when applicable. I think this product is the ‘dirtiest’ product we own and likely has polysorbate-20 as an ingredient. Do your own research if that’s important to you.
• Nature’s Gift Essential Oils
  • We use lavender and tea tree most frequently of the essential oils we keep on hand, and always dilute essential oils with a carrier oil and never ingest the oils. Tons of under-educated and ill-informed people, and a few essential oil companies, may tell you that EOs are safe to put on the skin undiluted or safe to ingest, but that should only happen in rare cases and under the care of an aromatherapist. We use EOs as medicine. For example, lavender is great for burns and tea tree oil has helped me with an in-grown toenail. I also enjoy adding rose EO to my homemade facial oil cleanser. We use a ratio of 1 teaspoon carrier oil to three drops EOs.
• Sandalwood Essential Oil from MRH
  • This particular bottle is from Mountain Rose Herbs, who I also love and trust as a company. Like Nature’s Gift, they’ve been around for many years and are experts in the field. I like to use sandalwood EO as a natural perfume, as I don’t like any sort of product with ‘fragrance’ as an ingredient in our home.

Body Moisturizers

• Primally Pure Body Butter
  • I adore the Almond + Vanilla Body Butter from Primally Pure! In fact, I adore all products from PP, as you can see from these photos. They offer two additional scents, Citrus + Mint and Eucalyptus + Lavender, which I’ve tried and liked. All three are luscious and indulgent and I feel spoiled every day I apply this body butter. The company offers a Mini Body Butter Collection bundle. That’s where I started. Now, I exclusively order the big jar of Almond + Vanilla.
• Primally Pure Body Oil
  • (edited 2/11) I received the body oil only a few days ago, but I love it so much! I’m going to order the body oil sampler, and keep one pump at each sink throughout the house. The oil is deeply moisturizing and smells like heaven!
• Dr. Bronner’s Lavender and Peppermint Organic Lotions
  • Anthony enjoys this lotion as his daily body moisturizer. I’ll use it in a pinch, or if I shower in the morning and know I’ll be exercising that day and then showering again later (cause I don’t want to waste the body butter!). I tend to have more dry skin than A does, and this lotion doesn’t always work well for me. I love the ease of the pump and use it several times a day for a quick hand lotion. We order this from Thrive Market and it’s about 25% less the cost than if we were to buy it from Sprouts, Whole Foods or even Amazon, though it it is available on Amazon Prime here and here.
• Badger Balm For Hardworking Hands
  • From time to time my hands get ripped up from CrossFitting or rock climbing. I use this on my calluses and its magical. Again, much more affordable to order from Thrive Market, but also available on Amazon. And, I’ve seen it at Sprouts.

Facial Moisturizers

I’ve been using oil to moisturize for years. It’s always felt better for my skin than creams or lotions. In the past I’ve used straight oils like argan, sweet almond, jojoba, coconut, olive and avocado. I also love butters (more for my body rather than face) like cocoa and shea. I still DIY body and facial moisturizers from time to time using the ingredients listed above, ’cause I find it fun. However, these are my favorite facial products to purchase, and that I use every single day.

• cocokind Chia Seed Face Oil
  • This stuff is legit! It’s affordable, ethically sourced, fair trade certified, organic and cruelty free. I used to use this before I was able to afford the Primally Pure Fancy Face Serum. Now, I use this as my morning moisturizer (because again, I usually sweat each day and take a second shower and don’t want to “waste” the more expensive oil). We order this through Thrive Market, but I’ve also seen it at Sprouts, Whole Foods, boutique health food stores and of course, Amazon. cocokind is hands down the company I’d get all my facial products from if Primally Pure wasn’t in my budget.
• Primally Pure Fancy Face Serum
  • I was lucky enough to receive two bottles over the holiday season. Anthony and I both use this, at least once per day, and we still have about 1/3 of the first bottle left after using it for six weeks. If I could only chose one face product, this would be the one.
• Primally Pure Blue Tansy Beauty Cream & Palmarosa + Mint Beauty Creams
  • Not only do these smell divine, they also deeply hydrate my skin. Sometimes I use a cream on its own, and other times I apply it after applying the serum. Blue tansy is great for inflammation.  Palmarosa EO has many good-for-you properties. A tiny bit of either of these creams is enough for my face and neck.

Mists & Toners

• Primally Pure Everything Spray
  • This stuff can be sprayed on everything. It’s been successful for me in the following situations: soothed irritation after getting waxed, reduced redness on my arms (redness due to KP), soothed itchiness on my dog’s paws, made me smile while using as a facial toner.
• Primally Pure Complexion Mist
  • This step in skin care is so important! Toning the face prepares it to absorb the moisture it’s about to receive. After cleansing, I apply this first. The mist is offered in three scents: lavender, geranium and neroli. Each scent has specific properties. I love all three, but my favorite based solely on smell alone is neroli.

Hair Pomade & Dry Shampoo

• Badger Hair Pomade
  • I ordered this for A about a month ago. The hair cream he’d been using had ‘fragrance’ as an ingredient, and I’m really trying to get any and all products with ‘fragrance’ in them out of our house. (That may be the last item, actually.) The verdict: he doesn’t love it. Says it’s too greasy for his liking. He has been using it still. I’m on the search for something else to try.
• Primally Pure Dry Shampoo
  • This works exactly as it’s supposed to! I generally use it once a week. It smells like cocoa. 🙂

Deodorant, Chapstick, Soap and Other Essentials

• Primally Pure Charcoal Deodorant
  • I’m gunna need to do a separate blog post on the 96,000,000 natural deodorants that I’ve tried, and how all but this particular one have failed. In a nutshell: I have hypohidrosis (excessive sweating). I used to get Botox in my pits. It was that bad. I was skeptical, but thought what the hell do I have to lose other than a bit of money. So glad I made that gamble. This is actually the first product I purchased from PP, and what made me want to try their other products.
• Primally Pure Chapstick
  • I’ve tried all the ‘flavors’. Peppermint is my favorite. Also A’s favorite. Lavender is nice. I thought I’d love the cocoa, but the texture was weird for me. I’m not a grapefruit girl, but it’s okay as far as chapstick is concerned. I apply chapstick like 10 times a day out of habit, and this does the trick each time. 😉 Also worth mentioning, I have a separate tube for the pugs noses! Seriously! Pugs can get weird noses. I apply this a couple times a week and it keeps their sniffers looking cute.
• Dr. Harvey’s Herbal Ear Wash
  • I first ordered this ear wash from Mountain Rose Herbs, though I don’t think they carry it any more, so now I order it through Thrive Market. Our pugs get ear infections with some regularity (despite being fed a raw diet). This seems to help if I’m consistent with using it.
• Burt’s Bees Herbal Blemish Stick
  • My sister introduced this product to me a couple years ago after I was complaining about in-grown hairs. It works surprisingly well! (A great esthetician also works well for combating in-growns.) I’ve also dabbed it on zits and it seems to minimize the amount of redness. I get this product wherever it’s most convenient at the time. It’s slightly (<$1) cheaper on Thrive Market, but not enough that I cringe when I need to purchase it from Rite Aid, Target or Sprouts. Most expensive on Amazon (though perhaps most convenient at times).

I’d love to hear of any truly non toxic personal care products that you know of and have used!

xo

Jess