I am on the hunt for the best non-toxic swaps to live a happier, healthy life. I’ll share some with you when I find them!
This is the first post on my non-toxic section of my blog. I am so excited to share all the information I have learned in the last year about the importance of using clean ingredients. You may have heard people talking about “clean” products, but maybe you don’t know what ingredients are bad and why or maybe you don’t want to go through the trial and error it takes to find products that you love just as much as the ones you have been using for years. Whatever your case may be, I will provide information on harmful ingredients and review products that I have tried and loved.
I will be posting new products every week so make sure you check in or follow me on my socials. They will be posted on there as well, however my website will go more into detail.
The products I am reviewing today is the Ilia Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40. We are going to talk about its amazing ingredients, the difference between chemical and mineral sunscreen, and we are going to talk about some harmful ingredients that are in products similar to this one that you commonly see in stores. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this skin tint. That may sound a little dramatic, but I really was so surprised how amazing this product was. I struggle a lot with make up looking cakey on my face, a lot of it just doesn’t sit right on my skin. This one, however, leaves my skin looking so dewy and adds so much hydration. I truly feel like a glowing goddess the days I wear this. I have one of their foundations as well that I will do another review on!
About this product
This skin tint has 30 shades and is light coverage with a dewy finish. It contains active skincare ingredients, such as niacinamide, plant-based squalane, and hyaluronic acid, that all work to create a natural barrier to help lock in moisture and plump the skin. This barrier helps to increase antioxidant effectiveness by 200%.
It contains mineral SPF made with Non-Nano Zinc Oxide which protects the skin from UVA, UVB, UVC, blue light, and pollution. Some more benefits of this product is that it is silicone free, fragrance free, chemical sunscreen free, oil free, it’s non-comedogenic, and it is safe for sensitive skin. Lastly, 1% of the sales they make on this skin tint goes towards planting trees. How amazing is that! This brand is cruelty-free and vegan and so far I have loved what I have tried from them. This is not a sponsored post, but man do I wish it was.
Skincare ingredients
I want to briefly talk about the specific benefits that each of the active skincare ingredients have. As I said earlier, the niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, and squalane all work to help lock in all of your skin care. It will leave your skin plumped and hydrated. The niacinamide works to smooth skin texture. Plant-based squalane helps balance the skin and improve elasticity. This product contains micro and macro hyaluronic acid. This just means it can penetrate the skin at different levels. Its job is to plump the skin and seal hydration.
Chemical vs Mineral Sunscreen
Chemical
Our skin is our largest organ and absorbs whatever we put on it. This is why it really matters what products we decide to use and do our best to limit the toxins we are exposed to on a daily basis. Chemical sunscreens contain compounds that have endocrine disrupting effects, which means it messes with our hormones. Keeping our hormones balanced can improve just about every aspect of your health and life. It helps you feel your best and increase your longevity. Some common compounds found in chemical sunscreen include oxybenzone, homosalate, octocrylene, octinoxate, avobenzone, and octisalate.
Oxybenzone, octinoxate, homosalate, and avobenzone are all known to be hormone disrupting. All of these compounds are also known to penetrate the skin and absorb into our bodies. Studies, which were published by the FDA, found that these compounds could be detected on the skin and in the blood weeks after you stop using it. Other studies found sunscreen ingredients in breast milk and urine, which tells us it is definitely being absorbed in our body and can be very harmful. The spray sunscreens are especially bad because now the ingredients are able to be inhaled and harm our lungs and other internal organs.
The European Commission published their own opinions on the ingredients oxybenzone, homosalate, and octocrylene saying the concentrations of these are too high to be considered safe. They proposed the concentration limit of 2.2% for oxybenzone and 1.4% for homosalate. It is legal in the United States to have concentrations up to 6% and 15% for each of these, which is obviously way higher. However, the FDA did come out and say some of these compounds can be endocrine disrupting and possibly increase risk of certain cancers and endometriosis. After looking into sunscreens, they only classified two ingredients as safe and effective. Those two ingredients are zinc oxide and titanium dioxide which is found in mineral sunscreen.
Mineral
Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide in mineral sunscreen works by reflecting the UV rays off the skin rather than absorbing into our bodies. These ingredients do not disrupt our hormones and are way better for the environment. Chemical sunscreens can damage our coral reefs! This product uses non-nano zinc oxide which is less likely to absorb into your skin compared to nano zinc oxide because the particles are not as small. While these ingredients are safer for us and our environment, you may have to reapply mineral sunscreen more often than you would apply chemical sunscreen, so keep that in mind. Also, I would not recommend buying spray or powdered sunscreen because we do not want to be inhaling these minerals.
While chemical sunscreens have been shown to reduce the risk of melanoma, they may have harmful side effects like disrupting our hormones. They also harm our environment. This is why I have made the switch to using mineral sunscreen. It is better for our body and the environment, making it an easy decision for me.
Let’s talk about the toxic ingredients this product DOES NOT have and what makes them toxic.
Thankfully this skin tint SPF is fragrance free because fragrance, or parfum, can disrupt our hormones and is linked to reproductive issues. There is not a lot of regulation on beauty products in the U.S., so sometimes the company won’t disclose the formula of chemical ingredients. The fragrance industry has around 3,100 stock chemical ingredients and have what is called phthalates which are also known as forever chemicals.
A reminder that our skin is our biggest organ, so when we use products with this fragrance our skin is absorbing all of that and it is affecting our health. We especially do not want to be inhaling these chemicals, so keep that in mind as well. Other countries have regulated the use of a number of chemicals in cosmetics, however the FDA has only banned 11.
It is important to make an effort towards our health and wellness now, so we don’t have to be forced to deal with our illness later in life. It may take some time to go fully toxin free, I am still on my journey, but with little steps you can eventually achieve that. Of course, everything in moderation. I try to live by the 80/20 rule. If I can live 80% clean and have what I love for the remaining 20%, than I will be living healthy while not restricting myself.
You do not have to throw everything away and buy new things all at once. When I run out of something, I try to replace it with a clean product. Whenever I find something I really like, I will share it will all of you. I have the Ilia Super Serum Skin Tint SPF linked in the text and at the start of this post. Let me know if you try this and love it as much as I do!
References
Avoiding the hidden dangers in cosmetics and fragrance gift sets. Environmental Working Group. (2023, February 1). Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/avoiding-hidden-dangers-cosmetics-and-fragrance-gift-sets
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. (n.d.). Prohibited & restricted ingredients in cosmetics. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics-laws-regulations/prohibited-restricted-ingredients-cosmetics
Ilia skin tint – very light with neutral cool undertones: Ilia Beauty. ILIA. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://iliabeauty.com/products/balos-st3?gclid=Cj0KCQiA2-2eBhClARIsAGLQ2RliGiMelvrmmugtODaI1GfyPAuAuotWu18FJOgBe72t81qDSC_o_vwaAk-_EALw_wcB
Sunscreens, E. W. G. G. to. (n.d.). EWG’s guide to safer sunscreens. EWG. Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/report/the-trouble-with-sunscreen-chemicals/
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