I’m not much into makeup and the like. A lot of it comes from my own trust that I look all right with or without, combined with a dislike for using chemicals on myself unnecessarily.

But there are a lot of products out there that claim to be natural or organic. The challenge is figuring out who really means it.

Green Options had a really great post on this topic a while ago, going into the things you want to look out for when you check the ingredients. Many people who want organic or natural products would prefer to avoid parabens, SLS and similar chemicals in their personal care products. But they aren’t too easy to avoid. Cosmetic Database has a Skin Deep section that covers the potential hazards present in a wide variety of products, and looks to be quite useful.

Out of curiosity I checked their listings for Arbonne products, as a friend of mine has recently started selling these, and is quite delighted with them. They come out reasonably well, I suppose, although most of their line are in the middle, yellow range, with a few in the green range and only one, old, formulation in the red zone.

This was better than Neutrogena, which while it had a number of products in the red zone, still had more than 3/4 of its products in the green and yellow zone. So really not as much better as one might hope in terms of what Skin Deep rates them.

This is a great site to check out if you’re wondering about the safety of some of the products you use.

I do have to share one of my favorite natural products – jojoba oil. I have very long hair, and it’s wonderful for that. Just a little on the ends really does wonderfully.

Technorati Tags: natural beauty, makeup, personal care, skin deep, hair care, environment