You have something on your face...

...and it could be doing some damage. The Good Guide recently published a couple really interesting word clouds to illustrate the ingredient exposure of two daily beauty routines that included a list of skin and hair products that were used throughout one day. One routine included standard, national brand products, while the other included a list of Good-Guide-approved products. The differences they found are really interesting. The overall number of ingredients was really about the same, but the kinds of ingredients are what makes this really eye-opening.

Daily Routine #1 (standard national brands)

Seeing as these are word clouds, the words that are displayed more prominently are the ingredients that showed up in the greatest amounts, and therefore the ones this person was exposed to most. You'll notice a few of the more prominent words are a little scary, particularly petrolatum, dmdm hydantoin, parabens, phenoxyethanol, and methylchloroisothiazolinone. They're a mouthful, for sure, but, more importantly, studies of their toxicity have shown some grim results.

Daily Routine #2 (Good Guide approved brands)

Now here is the same daily beauty routine, only the products have been replaced with ones that are recommended or approved by Good Guide. Unfortunately, artificial fragrance is still a big one. However, we'd say you're doing your skin a big favor by replacing petroleum bi-products and harsh chemicals with things like sunflower seed oil, vegetable glycerin, and hydrolized milk protein.

Rainbow to the Rescue!

Lucky for you, we have a huge selection of natural skin, body, and hair care products, along with a full line of vegan make-up. Start off clean with Wild Carrot Herbals' utterly lovely smelling Cardamom Facial Cleanser. Then, gently moisturize with some Weleda Almond Moisture Cream. Give your hair that fresh from the beach look with John Master's Organics Sea Mist hair spray, made from a whopping 3 ingredients: water, sea salt, and lavender oil. And if you're feeling fancy, we've got a whole line of natural, vegan cosmetics from Zuzu.

To read the full article from Good Guide, including a full product list from this experiment, go HERE. The Good Guide is a great resource for product ratings, as is the Environmental Working Group's Cosmetics Database. And, for a really fun approach to natural beauty care, check out this super fun blog about items you can find right in your kitchen, appropriately named You Have Food on Your Face.