The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances (12 page)

If you can’t help but snatch a bit of a celebrity style here and there, try using famous women as role models. If you have pale skin, steal some of Nicole Kidman’s beauty secrets, such as her complete avoidance of sun and choosing tasteful, pastel hues of makeup. If you have an olive complexion, look at Halle Berry and master the art of wearing foundation that doesn’t look ashy or shiny. And even when celebrity endorsement sounds just right, don’t forget to scrupulously examine the product, starting at the ingredients list. Only ingredients matter when it comes to taking care of your skin or hair. Remember, bottles and boxes with celebrity pictures on them end up in a trash can. Chemicals and plant extracts end up on your skin and inside your body.

Lesson 4: Become Immune to Advertising

When a cosmetic company launches a new product, we seem to see it everywhere: on billboards and TV, in every magazine, and on store displays. Very soon, we start to suspect that we are hugely missing out on something if we do not buy this very promising bottle. Even the most critically minded individuals cave under pressure and run to buy a cleanser that will rejuvenate, tone, exfoliate, rebuild, and sing Christmas carols in between.

Open any glossy magazine. What’s in the first beauty ad you see? It’s the face of a very young girl, often a teenager who stood at the end of the queue when pimples were handed out. She smiles mischievously as if picturing a romantic date she’s going to have tonight. We cannot help but think that if we buy the same concealer or lip-gloss she is using, we will also have her skin, hair, and playfulness. Romantic dates will inevitably follow. We see this model every day, on every page, in every commercial break. We suspect that not all of these mediums can be wrong. We are constantly reminded that this product will solve all of our skin dilemmas, and “repetition, repetition, repetition,” as every Madison Avenue intern knows, is the most powerful tool at an advertiser’s disposal.

Apart from riding high on the image of youth and sexual attractiveness, cosmetic companies are busy maintaining the elitist image of their products. Let’s take a look at Estée Lauder ads. All of them feature a model with fine bone structure pictured in the lavish garden of a spacious old mansion. She sends us a subconscious message: Look at me; I swim in old money; I wear only silks and tweeds; I am born for refined living; I have ponies and Labradors; I golf, sail, dine on silver, and sleep on white linen. And we believe and open our wallets.

Just buying a blush in a pretty, blue monogrammed box won’t instantly transport you to a summer house in the Hamptons. If you look at the ingredients in Estée Lauder blush, you will soon realize that it is not much different from the Clinique blush that is sold across the department store aisle. The color selection may be slightly different, and Clinique doesn’t put its blush in a velvet pouch as if it’s some sort of precious piece of jewelry, but the staying power, ease of blending, FD&C colors, and pore-clogging abilities will be pretty much the same.

If you are reading this book, something tells me you are over logo obsession and status purchases. Green beauty has a status of its own. Its value comes not from logos gracing the bottle but from rare herbs, juices, and lack of cancer-causing chemicals inside. Choose effectiveness and safety, not a status statement that will be forgotten in seconds.

Hmmm. Look who’s talking now. I spent years raving over holiday collections of makeup, grieving when Chanel discontinued Rouge Noir polish, and declaring those extremely cute Swarovski crystal–adorned lipstick cases as must-haves. Whenever I was feeling down, I headed to the nearest boutique or department store to spend a week’s wages on some gorgeous makeup palette. It would come in an awesome box, sometimes with a satin ribbon, in a logo-bearing paper bag and a handful of plastic-packaged samples. Only when I got home would I realize that I had spent fifty dollars on something that I would use twice—and, most likely, would’ve gotten for free from the manufacturer. The trash bin was full of cardboard and tissue paper, and something deep inside would tell me that fifty dollars could buy me a basketful of organic fruit, wine, and cheese. I would have been much, much happier. And probably healthier.

Lesson 5: Forget About Brand Loyalty

A very popular and foolproof sales pitch stipulates that to get the very best results, use a cleanser, toner, and moisturizer from the same skin care line. “These products are scientifically formulated in the laboratory to work synergistically,” salespeople all over the world chant in unison. “When used together, these products normalize your skin’s pH balance, hydrate your skin, erase wrinkles, and fight acne. If you skip just one product, the whole system will be useless.” This way, smart salespeople ensure multiple purchases, and nothing is praised more in the sales world than the ability to sell a customer $500 worth of antiwrinkle products when she came for a black eye pencil.

Let me remind you: everyone in the cosmetic business is after your money. This is why it’s called business, not charity. The scientist wants to sell his research skills. The advertising agency wants to push its ability to cast bestselling magic on products. The manufacturer and retailer want to sell as much product as possible. The salesgirl lives on commission, so naturally, she wants you to buy a cleanser, toner, moisturizer, and then probably a couple of masks. You want to buy a magic potion that will make you look younger and more attractive. When you are buying a synthetic dream, you end up with the reality of prematurely aging, imbalanced, and fragile skin. When you are buying the reality and judge the product by its formulation, not a bottle, you will end up with healthier, younger skin.

When it comes to natural skin care products, feel free to purchase products from any line. Be creative and don’t feel restrained. Many men borrow women’s products. Many pregnant moms switch to baby lotions and oils long before the baby is due.

You don’t need to be faithful to a skin care line just because you love one product. Jurlique makes a gorgeous antiaging product called Herbal Recovery Gel, but it also makes quite average cleansers and very basic toners. If you feel that your skin could use a mild exfoliation every day, why don’t you invest in Dr. Hauschka’s Cleansing Cream or prepare one yourself?

You don’t need to be faithful to a skin care line just because you love one product.

I understand this shopping style completely contradicts another well-known myth spread by salespeople: “Don’t use one brand today and another tomorrow. This confuses your skin.” Our skin has no brain of its own. It’s unable to convey emotions or get confused. What happens when skin “becomes confused” is a topical allergic reaction or irritation that occurs from using harsh chemicals, such as strong essential oils or highly concentrated preservatives. With well-formulated, mild products, the skin has no chance of “getting confused.” The same goes for hair that is reportedly “getting used” to certain shampoos so they stop working. Sometimes I feel that my hair lives its own laid-back life, completely unaware of my humble presence, but shampoos are not addictive substances that hair can get used to and then get cranky as the withdrawal begins.

To keep us interested, most cosmetic manufacturers repackage, revamp, and revise their products approximately every three years. They will reissue it under a different name or maybe add “new and improved” to the old name. As a consumer, I feel intimidated. Why did they make me buy a mediocre product that obviously needed additional research and reformulation? If they thought the old product was safe and effective, why did they have to revise and improve it?

Sometimes cosmetic manufacturers revamp entire product lines as new data regarding safety of ingredients emerges. This way, not just one product is improved, but the whole label adopts a new, greener philosophy. Two years ago, Caudalie, the French beauty brand that uses grape pulp, juices, skins, and even crushed grape seeds in its formulations, reformulated their entire skin care line, which now contains no paraben preservatives. Origins has launched Origins Organics, a line of certified organic cleansers, toners, and body products. That’s why it’s important to look behind advertising claims. Be informed and remain skeptical. Only a label with an ingredients list will reveal what’s really inside the bottle with a familiar name on it.

Lesson 6: Become a Ruthless Shopper

Salespeople are trained to sell. This is what they do for a living. They master effective sales techniques. Foolproof tactics are used to play on our insecurity. Seasoned salespeople can quickly guess your annual income by your shoes. Too often a salesgirl has critically eyed my bag, which is often stained by leaky baby bottles, smears of carrot puree, and doodles drawn by an eye pencil, and moved to another customer in pretty shoes and well-pressed pants, abandoning me on the grounds that I do not look wealthy enough. Many women put on their best shoes and clutch their priciest bags when they go shopping, hoping to receive a little bit of the personal touch from salespeople.

Luckily, salespeople who work with organic beauty products are less likely to employ brutal sales techniques. They won’t tell you that a particular color will solve your makeup dilemmas. But when it comes to buying organic beauty products, they will insist that everything is completely natural and that only the best, purest ingredients are used. Don’t take their word for it. Scrutinize, compare, and don’t be afraid to reject.

Now it’s time to apologize to salespeople out there. Most of them earn minimal wages, and their livelihood depends on how many moisturizers and shampoos they sell. While most of them enjoy what they are doing, they rarely get adequate training to give you honest, trustworthy, unbiased information. When I made my living working in an upscale department store, I knew only two salespeople whose educational backgrounds were related to beauty. One of them, a dermatologist with a PhD from Belarus, was a sales consultant with a seminatural, upscale skin care line, and the other was a talented, professional makeup artist who was selling makeup. The rest received a brief training session by a representative of a brand they worked with, and from time to time they were introduced to new products or makeup collections arriving in the store. To make the sale, they would stretch the truth (“These preservatives are safe—that’s why they are called food-grade”), make exaggerated claims (“You can eat this lipstick—it’s good for you because it’s packed with minerals and vitamins!”), point to your skin problems (“You definitely need an intensive treatment for your acne!”), and reinvent human physiology (“It will make your wrinkles disappear instantly!”).

How to withstand the pressure from that side of a store counter? I’ve found that requesting a box of a product so you can read the ingredient list yourself works best. Strong self-esteem and independent information on what works and what doesn’t can save you humiliation and loss of money. Do not let salespeople manipulate you. It’s your skin that you need to take care of.

If you hope to find a magic potion that solves all your skin problems, then be ready to face the lies. Salespeople just sense your desperation. But if you ask informed questions, read the ingredients list, and move on to the next product without glancing at a price tag, your chances of buying something really worthy are high.

Lesson 7: Ask for Samples and Do the Patch Test

Never be shy to request a sample. Of course, most stores don’t always carry sample sizes of shampoos, toners, and cleansers. Many will charge you for a mini version of a product. In several countries, I was charged from two to five dollars for little tubes of Dr. Hauschka moisturizers and shampoos, because many stores have to buy samples from the distributor. I would rather spend a small amount of money than bother myself with returning an item (although I am happy to say I have never had to return a single organic skin care product!). Thanks to samples, you are less likely to waste time returning products, airplanes will pollute the air for something more valuable, and the skin care line will save money, too—hopefully for something important, like developing a new, safe preservative.

Many private pharmacies will decant a small amount of a cleanser or a moisturizer in a clear jar. In Sephora, you can also get a product decanted into cute little jars that you can reuse for traveling. Many products reviewed in this book were obtained as samples in stores. Many more were purchased at full price. Not a single product was obtained free of charge for reviewing purposes.

Now that you have your sample, it’s time for a little science project. It’s called the patch test. Doctors perform patch tests to determine what causes an allergic reaction. They take minute quantities of 25 to 150 materials that commonly cause allergic reactions, make little plastic or aluminum patches, and apply them on your upper back, securing them with special hypoallergenic adhesive tape. Then, after at least forty-eight hours, the patches are removed. Any topical allergic reaction usually indicates that your immune system attacks the substance as hostile. Allergic reactions are so common today that many hair salons in the United States and the United Kingdom now require you to undergo a patch test with their hair dyes two days before your appointment. No patch test, no hair color.