Skincare Spotlight: Charcoal Cleansing Bar

One of my favorite Beautycounter products- the charcoal cleansing bar. I bought mine back in May 2018 and it's still going strong with at least 1/3 of a bar left. This is easily one of Beautycounter’s most beloved staples, and a fan favorite.  What do you do with it? It's a facial cleansing bar, but it has so many other uses, just the other day I made a lather and used it to rinse my makeup brushes.  I keep my charcoal bar in the shower, and when I’m feeling lazy and the whole nightly face washing routine feels like too much, I lather up with this and feel refreshed and clean.

Made with charcoal powder, green tea extract, coconut oil, and witch hazel, it washes away impurities and clears pores without leaving skin feeling tight afterward. And fun fact- did you know, Jackie O swore by a charcoal bar - it was her #1 beauty secret. 

A Little Video

Why do I love Beautycounter?  It's not just the discount or the products.  It's the mission, the direction, the dedication to research and efforts invested into bringing safer beauty to the masses.  This is a three minute video by Beautycounter's founder Gregg Renfrew, which speaks to the mission, science, and process which makes this company a Certified B Corporation.  If you have three minutes, I encourage you to watch.

Bath Bombs: Do or Don't?

Do you use bath bombs?  The bath bomb trend kind of exploded a few years ago with brick and mortar store fronts like Lush toting their brightly colored bath bombs available in all the colors of the rainbow.  While I don't take baths often, I do enjoy a leisurely soak after a hard workout or a long, exhausting day.  But then I wondered...what's actually in a bath bomb?  

Typically, it's a mix of fizzy ingredients, colorants, salts, sometimes essential oils, or surprises like bits of rose petals or glitter.  The reason it breaks down in water is the sodium bicarbonate in the bath bomb reacts with citric acid releasing carbon dioxide gas.  Very similar to what happens when you drop an Alka-Seltzer tablet in water.  Though it does make sense to be wary of bath bombs with colors you don't see in nature, or foreign items like glitter, sprinkles, or shimmer.  Colorants and these "surprises" can serve as skin irritants, especially if your skin is sensitive.

My go-to bath products are usually Dr. Teal's foaming bath with epsom salts in lavender or Young Living bath bombs in stress away (an essential oil blend that's a pleasing scent of lime, vanilla, and copaiba).  These products are both clean, fragrance-free, and straightforward with their ingredient lists - no additives, colorants, or artificial fragrances allowed.

Happy soaking!

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Stink Documentary

Check your labels.  If you see the word "fragrance" listed as an ingredient on your shampoo, conditioner, lotion, detergent, and cleaning product labels - beware!  This is the loophole that companies can use to hide chemicals in your products.  "Fragrance" could mean 5 chemicals, it could mean 10.  It could mean 100.  And often, it really is 100.  People think there's a safety net, an FDA or similar unit to prevent this from happening.  The truth - there are currently NO rules or regulations to prevent this from happening.  Beautycounter is trying to change that.

For more information, check out this 2015 documentary, Stink, by Jon Whelan, a single dad who made it his mission to expose this fragrance loophole after purchasing pajamas for his young daughters online, that when opened, reeked of chemicals.  This prompted him to investigate what chemicals companies would put on children's pajamas and what he found is rather frightening.  You deserve to know what you're putting in and on your body.