Introduction to the Natural Makeup Addict

So... what made me decide to go natural?

Well first, I've always had acne... wait no! I haven't always had acne. I've had acne for about as long as I've been wearing makeup. It's sort of a what came first the chicken or the egg scenario. Did I start wearing makeup because I was beginning to get bad skin? Or did I start to get bad skin because I began wearing makeup? I was in my late preteens (12-ish?) when I started wearing Clinique Almost Makeup. I didn't really need makeup yet, I just wanted to wear makeup to fit in with my friends. But then came the pimples, and what was merely a showpiece that I wore occasionally, became an every day necessity. 

 

 The saleswoman at the Clinique counter swore to my mother that their products were the best: fragrance free, hypoallergenic, and recommended by dermatologists. I used their products loyally until college, when I was introduced to the scary truths of animal testing.

All through college I used brands that my animal activist friends and classmates used: Kiss My Face, Jason's, Body Shop.... the list goes on. Magically, my skin began to clear up.  I became a vegetarian (for about three years) and eventually a vegan (for about six months). 

But then something scary happened, my hair began to fall out because I was not eating a balanced diet. It's the sort of thing that people who HATE vegans love to stick in their pocket and save for later--- just to rub it in your face! But the truth was, I probably would have had the same thing happen if I was eating meat, because I just wasn't eating a balanced diet. Still, I was worried, I stopped eating a vegan diet and just became vegetarian again. 

Then, I dislocated my knee (I am the CLUMSIEST person on earth) and couldn't walk for about a month. I was in physical therapy for a few months after that.  I had to depend on others to buy my groceries. It got really frustrating, and I also began to worry that my poor diet had some how weakened my bones to a point that made my knee more suceptible to injury. 

So I just gave up and started eating meat again, and junk food, and fast food. I kind of just put all ethical concerns out of my mind for a while. 

But then I got a wake up call. The movie Food, Inc. has had an impact on a lot of people. Oprah has featured it on her show. It's received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary (and I hope it WINS!!). Any film with such widespread popularity is bound to have critics. I'm certain that there are those who would say that it didn't go deep enough, that it didn't show some of the real horrors of the food industry. That said, it was enough for me! 

I began to think that I don't really know where my food comes from. And honestly I don't!  I never have felt comfortable consuming animal products. I'm approaching things differently this time. I'm not going into this change gung-ho. I'm doing this gradually. I'm using up what remnants there are from my pre-natural days, and slowly replacing things individually.

This desire to start using things that weren't cooked up in a laboratory caused me to look critically at things I'd been using daily for so many years: my makeup and skincare products. And it wasn't pretty. It was scary to me how dangerous the chemicals were that I thoughtlessly smeared on my face (don't even get me started on lip gloss- and how much of it you ingest in your lifetime).

This blog isn't about being vegan or vegetarian. It's not about only buying organic products. It's not about making pledges to PETA or Greenpeace or anyone else. It's not about being perfect 100% of the time. This blog is for people like me- just everyday average girls who want to make changes in their lives.  I know this much is true: I want to be an ethical consumer. I'm not the most informed person on the planet, but I'm trying. Trying is what counts. Any type of change for the better is to be encouraged, even if misguided.