Making big lifestyle changes isn’t easy, but it’s almost always worth it. When it comes to switching to green beauty products, it can seem overwhelming, confusing, and expensive. But it doesn’t have to be.

What is Green Beauty?

If you want to switch your products to greener alternatives, it’s important to know what ‘green beauty’ really means.

As a green beauty blogger, I’ve always understood green beauty as a broad term that covers natural products made without toxic ingredients, harmful preservatives, or hormone altering chemicals.

While these products aren’t tested on animals, they can contain animal ingredients like milk or honey. Vegan products will be labeled as such.

Start Small

The most important thing to remember while you’re switching to green beauty is to start small. There’s no need to spend days researching ingredients, and please don’t throw out all of your beauty products and go shopping. Remember that small steps are still steps.

Start Researching

Please don’t let the word research scare you. You don’t have to read studies or dive into textbooks. All you need is your smartphone.

While you can listen to labels like ‘all – natural’, or get your product recommendations solely from bloggers, don’t you want to know what you’re using? Isn’t that why you’re switching to green beauty?

I encourage you to get familiar with the ingredients in your products. Before I buy something, I’ll simply search online for ingredients I’m not familiar with. I’m able to find out where the ingredient is sourced, its chemical composition, uses, and side effects. Instead of blindly trusting labels, I’m able to know for sure if this ingredient is safe for me.

To keep things manageable, I don’t spend hours researching random ingredients. When I need a new product, I’ll search online for potential options. Then I’ll narrow it down by researching the ingredients, eliminating products with anything unsafe.

It won’t be long before you’ll start recognizing ingredients. You won’t need to search for things anymore because you’ll have learned it already.

Find Your Resources

There are resources out there to help you, you just have to find the ones that work for you.

When it comes to searching for ingredients, the Environmental Working Group is my go to. They’ve done the heavy lifting for you and created the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database.

This database allows you to search for products to see if it’s safe, but it also allows you to search for individual ingredients. Products and ingredients are rated on a number scale from 1-10 so you can get a quick snapshot of the safety hazards.

Using data from non-profit and government agencies across North America, the Think Dirty App rates products based on the safety of their ingredients.

We’re here to help you too. Our Well.ca Blog is filled with information on natural wellness, beauty, and skin care to help you get started.

Make the Change One Product at a Time

Once you’ve got your resources together, it’s time to start making some changes. Instead of changing all of your beauty products at once, it’s a lot easier to go one by one.

When you need a new product, look at natural options instead of repurchasing your conventional go to’s. You’ll save time, money, and energy by making things easy on yourself and going one at a time.

This also gives your skin time to adjust to the products so you can see what works and what doesn’t.

With that said, we do recommend starting off with the Top 5 Products – Mascara, Shampoo and Conditioner, Lipstick, Deodorant, and Fragrance. These are the products that most often come in direct contact with your eyes, lips, and skin. Unfortunately, these products also often contain harmful ingredients, which is why it’s important to switch them to natural alternatives.

Switching to green beauty doesn’t have to be exhausting. By taking things slow, do your research, and using your resources, it’ll be a smooth, fun experience.