Safer Skincare: Beautycounter Review
Given my interest and affinity for all things “good health”, I guess you could say I was a little late to the game when it comes to one thing health-related: what you put on your skin. You’d think it’d be a no-brainer given how much attention I pay to what I put in my body, but it never occurred to me to consider what I put on my body. Part of that has to do with the fact that I don’t have much of a beauty routine to start with, but mostly it was just do to ignorance. Like they say, “you don’t know what you don’t know”.
It wasn’t until I was pregnant the first time around that even considered what I was putting on my body was necessarily safe. My little tiny skin-care world was rocked when I learned that the sunscreen I thought I was protecting myself with was potentially as damaging as the sunburn I was trying to prevent in the first place.
Thus began the seemingly never ending search for skincare/beauty products that were not only not hazardous, but worked and didn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Luckily, companies are starting to catch on to the health conscious public’s need and it’s getting easier to find such things. I’ve actually been able to slather sunscreen on myself and my three year old this summer without having us walking around looking like white-slathered snowmen, which keeps both of us happy.
Now that I’m pregnant again, it’s time to start paying even more attention again to what I’m putting in and on my body. A friend of mine, Laura, {a fellow Pure Barre-er that I copied religiously during my first class when I was utterly clueless} let me borrow some of her safe beauty products from Beautycounter to test out. {Editorial note: this is not sponsored and I don’t make money from Beautycounter, just sharing with you!}
I’d heard about Beautycounter and thought the company philosophy sounded great, but never paid much more attention to it and hadn’t gone as far as trying it. This was the perfect time to check it out.
For those that aren’t familiar with Beautycounter, here’s the deal in a nutshell: they have list “NO” ingredients that aren’t included in any of their products. {They’ve banned over 1,500 ingredients and just for comparison’s sake, our often better-at-regulating friends in Europe have banned 1,300. The U.S., by the way, has banned 11 and hasn’t updated this since 1938. Lame.} They also print their ingredients on the package labels, which is not a beauty industry standard. That means everything is transparent and you don’t have to go hunting for a list of ingredients and try to remember what’s dangerous and what’s not. {Honestly, I can usually remember parabens are bad and that’s as far as I get.}
It’s frustrating trying to remember what’s safe and what’s not, and especially what’s safe for pregnancy and what’s not. Beautycounter made it super easy by making all of their products pregnancy safe. {Especially rare with anti-aging products!} They even have a line specifically for kids, which is nice because honestly most of the time I care more about what I’m putting on my kid than on myself.
On to what I tried:
The Essentials line, including a cream cleanser, exfoliator polishing cream, and day and night moisturizers.
Lustro Oil #2 {Jasmine}
Lustro Body Oil {Rosemary + Citrus}
Countertime Eye Cream {from the anti-aging line}
What I thought:
Honestly I pretty much thought I’d be able to tell you a little bit about my experience but obviously not share any results after just a few days of use. But my skin really did look and feel better even after a use or two.
The best part was how hydrating everything was – while I used the whole line, my face felt more moisturized even just after using the cleanser, which is unusual {usually it dries you out and then you have to counteract the soap with lotion}. The moisturizer only added to the hydration and didn’t make my skin feel greasy or suffocated at all, even with adding in the Lustro oil {a blend of essential oils} for extra oomph. The same goes for the eye cream – moisturizing but not heavy. The exfoliator felt effective without being too harsh and abrasive, which is extra nice for my sensitive skin.
The rose water smelled delicious and was a nice refresher and I feel in love with the body oil. I’ve always been a fan of oil-based moisturizes verses lotions, and this one was no exception. It felt good and soaked in quickly, and was super-soothing on my rapidly-expanding belly.
My token kid-tester gave the kid bath line a shot. He hates bathing but put up with me to be a good sport. I loved that it smelled good without having toxic or artificial fragrances in it. {We skipped the conditioner because his curls are cut short for the summer, but we both liked the shampoo and body wash.}
So I’d say the products get two thumbs up and super extra bonus points for being safe and natural but still effective.
Some notes from Laura:
Favorite Beautycounter products:
Routine Clean Face Cleanser, The Vibrant Eye Perfector, The Hydrate body lotion, Nude Lip Sheer and Peony lip gloss.
Why she uses Beautycounter:
I became interested in the company when I was searching for safer products for my sons. My four-year old was having reactions to California baby and some of the other more natural brands that I was buying and he was experiencing eczema. I had always tried to watch what we ate and tried to eat as clean as possible but never really thought too much about all of the ingredients in the body products we were using. I was just trusting the labels. After I learned more about Beautycounter and it’s mission and learned about their extensive “Never List” I became passionate about sharing this information with others. It helped that the products performed well and were beautiful. Then after using them for 6 months or so I decided to become a consultant. I always walk away after meetings and socials feeling better that those people are more aware and can help spread the word and hopefully help makes some changes in the laws in the U.S.
If you’re interested in trying them out do so here: Beautycounter Safer Skincare <– psst Laura will throw in a free canvas beauty bag for any orders $150+.
If you have questions about the company or different products feel free to leave them below and Laura can answer them for you!
Try it:
