From detoxing my diet to switching all of my personal care products, my health has been improving across the board and I’m really excited to let you know what’s been happening with my skin as a result of overhauling my entire life.
Me and my face, we got issues
Like many young ladies I started using commercial skincare and makeup the second I hit puberty, for a few reasons:
- My once perfectly smooth, pale, freckly forehead began to erupt with spots
- As a shy, introverted little nerd I used to blush at everything and ended up covering it with makeup so that my “friends” wouldn’t tease me further
- I was just your typical teenager wanting to use makeup and grownup stuff and feel beautiful
- ALL THEM BOYS
So between the ages of 13-27 I used all your typical stuff: cleanser, toner, moisturiser, foundation, concealer, powders, eye makeup - the lot, all in a bid to cover up my imperfections and fit in.
During those 14 years I wouldn’t say I suffered from any major skin complaints like uncontrollable acne or eczema so I count myself very lucky, but I would get a lot of breakouts, patches of dry or oily skin, and even after I’d come out of my shell a bit and didn’t blush so easily I still wore makeup to cover up red blotchiness and uneven skin tone (which I now realise was very light rosacea).
This was how my skin looked underneath makeup, most of the time:
Unsurprisingly, I was stuck feeling like I needed to wear makeup to cover my imperfect skin and then using cleansers full of harsh chemicals to make sure my makeup wasn’t clogging my pores at night.
That’s all changed in the last two years, and by making a few simple switches some really amazing things have happened to my skin.
Besides completely overhauling my diet, I started by changing all the products I used from “conventional” to “green and clean”.
I discovered this great list of green retailers by Amber (her green beauty newbie series is a gem!) which I used as a starting point. Most of the stores she lists let you buy sample products with any order so I started with a few mini cleansers whenever I ordered cheap staple stuff like natural shower gel or toothpaste.
A few products immediately stood out to me and I ordered full-size versions - I’ll talk about my favourite products later on.
I also stopped wearing any makeup, simply because I wanted to let my skin “breathe” and get a true idea of whether this natural malarky was healing my skin.
By doing all this I’ve noticed some pretty amazing things:
Green skincare made my eyes stop burning
The first thing I noticed was that non-chemical cleansers didn’t burn my eyes.
I’m not saying all chemical cleansers make my eyes burn, and in fact one 100% organic cleanser I tried made my eyes really burn.
But it’s great being able to slather cleanser around my eyes without worrying about it stinging.
Going green made me more aware of how my diet affects my skin
Going green certainly helps calm your skin, but diet (and hormones) play a huge part in it.
For example, I was soon able to pinpoint the fact that eating any refined sugar/carb, dairy and even most natural sugars was making my skin break out and was the cause of my red, blotchy skin.
So those have all been ditched, and so far my skin has cleared up and plumped up dramatically.
It’s been a long while since any huge, sore bumps have popped up and my blackheads have dramatically shrunk, so I’m absolutely thrilled.
My skin has become less oily since switching to green products
I used to hate the dewy look and would always favour a matte finish, piling on the powder in an effort to soak up any extra sebum (natural oil) or moisturiser sitting on my skin.
However, stripping our skin of its natural oils makes it overproduce them to compensate, and just like when I went no ‘poo, my sebum production has calmed down and my skin is now much less shiny.
I now use facial oils to moisturise my skin, which never make my skin greasy. For realsies. Something something like-dissolves-like science is awesome.
My skin has become silky smooth thanks to my diet and green skincare products
Literally. Honestly. I can’t stop touching my own face, it’s so unhygienic but I DON’T CARE my face is soft, soft, soft.
No more dry patches, no flaky nose, no more drying out the skin around my spots with harsh “miracle” products like Mario Badescu and the like.
This is a real combination of diet and “green”, “clean” skincare products - while some products have been fantastic for my skin they can only do so much, so I don’t eat any sugar at all (not even fruit), and the lower in carbs I eat (even vegetables), the softer my skin gets.
Sounds counterintuitive I know, but if you’re still fat-phobic you might want to check out the hundreds of news articles that are now exposing how the sugar industry blamed all our health problems on fat many years ago. Sugar and carbs be the devil.
Changing my diet has evened out my skin tone
Where I used to have red blotchy skin around my nose, cheeks and mouth, I now have a much more even skin tone so I finally have the confidence to wear no makeup day-to-day and just save it for special occasions.
Diet is probably the biggest factor in avoiding blotchy skin for me. Ditching sugar, carbs and high-lactose dairy (“-ose” of course meaning sugar) clears up the last remaining red patches within a day or two.
Where cold winds in winter made my skin lobster-red just walking from the car to the office, I now look *almost* completely normal, even without makeup.
I don’t have any spots left to pick at
My breakouts would really stress me out and I would spend ages picking at my spots and obviously I was just making them worse.
But having so few spots now has been pretty life changing for me - not only do I feel really happy about my natural appearance, I seek out more productive ways of dealing with stress like cooking, cleaning or actually talking it through with people.
That’s a little bit healthier and a little less gross, isn’t it?
My green, clean beauty routine for soft and clear skin
My beauty routine is so simple now that it borders on mundane - which is what I really love about it.
I just wash my face in the morning with plain water or maybe a cleansing oil which I wash off with a muslin cloth.
(Besides it being great for the environment and my bank balance not to be using disposable cotton pads anymore, muslin cloths don’t disintegrate halfway through using them, bonus.)
After I wash my face I pop on some moisturising oil, give my eyebrows a quick brush then go.
Then in the evening I do the same sans the eyebrow brush and go to bed.
That’s it, and then once or twice a week I might use a clay mask and once a fortnight I might use an all-natural, oil-based exfoliator.
My favourite green beauty skincare products
*Drum roll, please*
These are my absolute favourite skincare products out of everything I’ve tried so far.
But please, before you go rushing off to buy any of these and coming back to scream at me because they don’t work for you, take note:
Not only does everyone have different skin needs, I believe that my own success in healing my skin has come from radically changing my diet.
For me this meant cutting out all processed foods, refined sugars and carbs like rice/pasta/bread/white potatoes.
This may sound odd, but I even avoid most vegetables, I drink only water and I eat a lot of fat and protein from animal sources like grass-fed butter, tallow and fatty cuts of meat, particularly beef.
Not only has this way of eating dramatically improved my skin, it’s eliminated all of my IBS symptoms. I’m working on a post that goes into much greater detail on this - feel free to message me on Instagram if you’d like to know when that goes live.
I’m a firm believer that health starts in your gut, so without at least tinkering with your own diet until you see some improvements to your skin, I can’t say with any confidence that you’ll feel the same benefits from these products that I have.
Another cool way to know if your diet is right for you is through your nails, like I found out:
Who knows, though - our bodies are such different and unpredictable ecosystems!
Anyway, here we go:
Green, clean face cleansers
1. Stripped’s Lavender Eye Makeup Remover
A few months ago I won the entire line from 100% natural skincare brand Stripped, and their lavender cleanser has become my absolute favourite.
Stripped are an oil-based brand, so none of their products need any preservatives in them. This is a massive plus for me as I often find it’s not the ingredients of a food or skincare product that disagree with me, but the preservatives and other additives.
This particular cleansing oil is made up of only four ingredients - grape seed oil, jojoba oil, castor oil and lavender essential oil, all organic and known for skin health. Sure, you could just buy all those ingredients and make it yourself - but lazy.
It doesn’t burn my eyes, and even more excitingly, my skin has been a lot softer than normal lately.
At £8 for 50ml, this bottle is good value, is lasting me ages and I will most definitely be repurchasing it once it runs out.
2. Clean Living Collection’s Hemp and Green Tea Cleansing “Cold” Cream
I’ve spoken about Ariel’s beautiful all-natural lip balms, deodorants and tooth powders before in posts talking about the ailments that disappeared when I stopped using their toxic, conventional counterparts, and her cleansing cream is also one of my favourite products.
I love using this cream when I’ve got a full face of makeup as it contains oils like sweet almond, macadamia and hemp seed, and oils are great for dissolving makeup quickly and gently.
Made using all natural, mostly certified organic ingredients, Ariel handmakes these cleansing creams fresh in small batches as the only thing she uses to extend its shelf life is rosemary antioxidant CO2, and she recommends keeping it in the fridge to help keep it fresh.
Because of this, I also like using it in the summer months when I’m feeling a bit warm and in need of refreshment!
At $26 for 4oz. (about £21 for 114ml I think?), it’s a gorgeous treat that I’ve repurchased and would do so again.
Green, clean clay face masks
Clean Living Collection’s Clay and Charcoal Mask
Another one of my favourites by Ariel, this one is a face mask made with some really gentle but effective ingredients for dealing with spots.
There’s French green and kaolin clays which I used in my early no ‘poo days - while kaolin is great for an all-natural emergency alternative to dry shampoo, the clays are both too soft for me to cleanse my hair with which gives you an idea of how gentle they are on the skin.
The mask also contains activated charcoal, which I’ve never tried chewing on for teeth whitening, but it does also feature in Ariel’s tooth powders which I use daily.
There are also essential oils of ylang ylang, rose geranium, and roman chamomile, which are soothing, acne fighting and all-around smell really lovely.
I really love this mask, it goes all shiny and silky when you add liquid and my skin feels soft and clean after I use it (a little redness is normal) - just be warned, it gets ERRWHERE when you rinse it off, so maybe save it for shower day like I do:
As some of you may have noticed, I really like to mix dry products like clays and herbs with liquids fresh myself.
I find that many pre-made blends tend to require preservatives, emulsifiers and the like to keep them a desirable consistency for long periods of time without spoiling the ingredients, and my skin no likey.
So, if you have them lying around, have a play with making your own masks - c’mon, who’s telling me they haven’t fallen for the marketing hype of powdered spirulina and don’t still have unfinished packets lying around their kitchen?
Green, clean face moisturisers and facial oils
1. Pai’s Rosehip BioRegenerate Oil
I had a sample of this knocking around and again I went on to buy the full-size product.
Suitable for all skin types, it’s really rich in skin-loving Omegas so it kind of smells like cod liver oil when you first put it on, which made me laugh!
But it’s not unpleasant and honestly, this oil makes my skin so soft, my skin feels fuller and firmer and I’m not one for noticing little details like that.
Suitable for vegans and not tested on animals, it’s certified organic and contains only four ingredients (rosehip seed extract, rosehip fruit extract, natural vitamin E and rosemary extract).
At £22 for 30ml, for its effectiveness I have to say this one is my absolute favourite for my skin. I use it every night mixed with cheaper oils like pure organic jojoba oil to help make it go further.
2. Indie Lee’s Squalane Facial Oil
I got a free sample of this when I made an order from Reina Organics (no longer listed but available from many online retailers) and instantly fell in love, going on to buy a full-size bottle.
Squalane oil is derived from olives, it’s scentless (which took me by surprise), and the biggest plus point for me is that it leaves your skin feeling soft and never greasy.
At £29.95 for 30ml, it’s not the most expensive but it’s not as life-changing as the Pai oil above.
Personally I like to mix it with other cheaper oils like jojoba first thing in the morning for a light treatment that doesn’t need long to sink in.
3. Bodhi and Birch’s Neroli Lucé Revitalising Facial Oil
I actually won this as well! Bodhi and Birch is a brand I’d had my eye on when I saw they were running a competition with the gorgeous Georgie from Greens of the Stone Age, and I could not believe it when I won the bundle worth RRP £84.
I’ll no doubt mention the other products in the set at some point, but for now I’ll say that the oil was a firm part of my rotation.
It has a really spicy kick to it which might be a bit too potent for some, but Graeme and I both loved the smell and the oil itself is fantastic.
It doesn’t leave my skin feeling greasy and I felt like my skin looks more radiant and I dunno, alive! when I used it.
At £32 for 15ml it’s definitely one of the more expensive oils I’ve used and I haven’t repurchased it yet, but I do kind of miss the lovely glow it gave my skin so I’ll perhaps spring for some more in the future.
Green, clean targeted oils for skin concerns
Odacite’s range of oils, which I got from Naturisimo here, are presented in a kind of Periodic Table of skin complaints which is adorable.
I got a combination of the ones for oily skin, blemishes and clogged pores, but there is pretty much an oil for every concern you could have.
I won’t bombard you with details but I will say this: they work. Really well. Like, insanely well.
Hella expensive for such tiny bottles, like £25-£45 for 5ml, but I just used a few drops twice a day when I’d overindulged on junk food and they dried up my spots without making my skin flaky like other products had in the past.
Needless to say, now that I’ve got my diet more under control I don’t have skin complaints so I don’t need these kinds of oils anymore, which saves me a ton of money, but they’re amazing for a quick fix.
There you go, the whowhatwherewhyandhow I’ve gone green with my skincare.
I really hope I’ve inspired some of you to make the switch and see how you get on.
Just beware of greenwashing, poor diet and toxic chemicals in the rest of your personal care arsenal which might be holding you back from feeling the full benefits - I really can’t give green skincare all the credit as diet is the main reason my skin has improved, but it’s definitely helped.
Lemme know how you get on - my parting and bestest tip is to start following green brands and retailers on Twitter; their competitors will flock to you and do half the work of finding new brands for you!
Disclaimer
• Your life and health are your own responsibility.
• Your decisions to act (or not act) based on information or advice anyone provides you—including me—are your own responsibility.
