The rosemary smells delicious, even though I know that this is lotion, which you can't eat.
So sorry.
Hi, I'm Nicole and I'm here with Refinery29 for three days of clean and vegan beauty.
I've always had really sensitive and dry skin due to eczema.
And I wanted to try in this episode switching up my beauty routine and seeing if clean and vegan beauty products
help it get better.
I'm not an expert by any means, and I hardly know much about beauty, but
I've heard the clean beauty trend and I want to know what it's all about.
Over the next three days, I'm going to be making a DIY eczema mask,
interviewing a cosmetic scientist,
and trying new beauty products.
But before we get started, don't forget to subscribe below.
I did a lot of research on clean and vegan beauty products and I noticed that they were all pretty pricey.
So I wanted to make a DIY eczema cream that you can do at home for less than twenty dollars.
All you need for this is a little pot so that you can melt three fourths of a cup virgin coconut oil.
We're gonna cook the coconut oil on medium heat and
then we're gonna add the other ingredients.
Ten drops of rosemary oil,
one fourth cup of old fashioned oats.
And we're going to grind these up.
And one tablespoon olive oil.
And it smells so good in here.
And then I thought it would be really cute if you put in a little mason jar and then you can use it every day.
Put the lid on, and put it in the fridge.
Alright, so my cream has been in the refrigerator for an hour and
we're going to take it out and see how it works.
Alright, let's open this guy up.
I'm gonna try it on my hands.
Wow, that actually feels so nice because it's cold.
Mmm, smells so good.
My first reaction is I don't feel itchy yet.
I'm sure my skin will soak it up in about five minutes.
So I think the oat part was a little bit of a fail at the bottom
because it's definitely not on my skin.
It's at the bottom of this jar.
I reached out to a cosmetic scientist, Dr. D, to find out more information on clean and vegan beauty.
Hi, nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you as well.
I'm Dr. D.
So when I'm going shopping and I look at a label and it says clean on it,
what does that actually mean?
So clean is really just a term, a marketing term.
That claim is not really substantiated.
So it's really important when you read your labels to look a little bit deeper,
look into the company, look at their website.
I can tell you that most of the fragrance companies that are out there are very, very large.
Do have a lot of toxicologists and regulatory people.
So my hope would be that most of the brands are using these reputable fragrance houses
and that they're, you know, using ingredients that are safe.
And if they are not safe, then we're probably going to hear about it.
What harmful ingredients would you say we should be looking out for in our beauty products?
Well, most brands have pretty consistently eliminated things like sulfates, parabens.
Toxins like 1,4-Dioxane are in sulfates and things that are cancer causing.
So prop 65 ingredients, which is big in California.
And then there's several allergens that are also listed by the European Union.
So consumers have so much to look at when they're trying to decide what beauty products to buy.
Can you give us some tips on how to make that process easier?
Most brands, there is a way to get information if something is not understandable.
But if you kind of feel good about the mission of who you're buying it from and you can see what they're doing,
I think that's really the first step.
It's really interesting to watch as these, as clean beauty grows and as
brands sort of take a stand to educate consumers and be transparent on their labeling.
Good to know.
I decided to do some research on my own based on the information that Dr. D provided for me.
There's so many products on the market now, and as a consumer, it's
honestly really overwhelming.
It's day three and I have found some beauty products that are clean and vegan
that I would love to try with you guys.
Let's get started.
The Follain moisturizer.
Follain was founded by a female CEO who developed a strict list of harmful ingredients
with environmental health and chemistry experts.
The Follain toning mist.
Wow, that's really strong.
And now I'm going to test out some clean makeup.
The Exa primer and then foundation.
And then I'm going to be using this Elate bamboo brush.
A little bit of concealer, this is Kosas concealer.
You do not need a lot of this because it really spreads.
For bronzer, I'm going to use the Tower 28 Bronzino.
Seems pretty liquidy.
I might just spread it on with my fingers and then blend it after.
Let's blend this up.
I really wanted to try this Kosas one.
And it's a liquid eyeshadow, which I've never used before.
Guess I'll just spread with my fingers.
Finishing up, I'm going to use the Thrive Liquid Lash extensions.
So for brows, I'm going to use the Elate Cosmetics brow kit.
All of their products come in this little bamboo packaging.
And then you can just order refills and then they'll send you refills without the package.
So you're essentially saving a lot of plastic.
Love that.
Alright, lipstick and we are all done.
I'm excited to see what these products do to my skin over time.
These products feel great so far,
and it's nice to know that they're taking steps towards being vegan and clean.
Hey, it's been two weeks since I started using all clean and vegan beauty products,
and my skin feels really good.
I didn't have any allergic reactions.
What I've taken away from this experience is that you're listening
and you understand what your body needs and you make adjustments based on that.
Thank you for watching Refinery29.
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