Photo credit: annia316

Purchasing and using nontoxic skincare and personal care products is of the utmost importance for our health.  Our skin is our largest organ and absorbs approximately 60% of what we put on it, and if that is harmful chemical/synthetic ingredients….you get the general idea.

While healthy skincare products equals better health overall, how much does it affect our appearance?  After all, we all like to look good and spend a fair sum on products that we feel help us achieve this goal.  But we need to take a look at the bigger (and, yes, slightly more scientific) picture.

Our toxic body burden lends a huge hand in the premature aging of our skin, more so even than sun, stress or gravity.  “No matter how many anti-wrinkle serums you rub into your face, your body is crippling under the weight of the industrial toxins that have entered our food, air and personal care products in the last fifty year,” says Julie Gabriel, Registered Holistic Nutritionist, in her new book, The Green Beauty Guide. 

“It’s a well-known fact that vitamin A supplementation is very helpful for acne, and drinking green tea can prevent skin cancer. The opposite – that certain chemicals can trigger DNA changes in our skin – can be true for many artificial ingredients in food and cosmetics that we ingest daily,” says Julie.

Since most of us cannot afford to completely revamp our grocery spending, start by taking a look at your produce, meat and dairy.  The Environmental Working Group (EWG) lists which produce absorbs more toxins and are therefore most important to purchase organically grown.  Most conventionally produced meat and dairy products contain added hormones, so be sure to check the labels on these, as well.

What goes in shows up on your skin, so drink lots of pure water, eat a healthy mostly organic diet and use nontoxic skincare products.  It will show.