5 Steps to a Conscious Beauty Routine
I have been a personal convert to organic beauty for many years now and have never found that my aesthetic should suffer for a more natural approach to body and face care. If anything, my beauty routine has become more enjoyable with the knowledge that the brands I am using are good for the environment and free of chemicals that are ultimately worse for my body than any short term results. To me, an organic beauty regime is the definition of a sustainable beauty regime because it will be good for both you and the planet in the long run -- and what could be more gorgeous than that? Here are my top five tips for getting started on a more conscious beauty routine...
1 | Upgrade your lipstick --
After organic make-up artist Spaniel Turrell made the very apt point that anything you put continuously on your lips you will inevitably swallow, I made the swap to organic. It’s a beauty item that you are actually ingesting whether you know it or not. In order to make the lipstick last as long as possible, conventional lipsticks are huge culprits of the use of petroleum (as in the stuff you put in your car -- no thank you)!
2 | Swap out your mascara --
Silicone, essentially a strong variant of plastic, is what makes mascara so effective -- which means we are constantly coating our eyelashes with something both harmful to ourselves and the earth. Also an occlusive substance, mascara acts as a barrier over the skin not allowing anything to pass through it. It does not allow the skin to breathe so any additional mascara you get on your eyelids remains.
3 | Go plastic free --
Now that we all realize how harmful plastic water bottles are for our earth, we need to turn the same eye on the beauty industry. Each year we go through 81 billion pieces of plastic due to our beauty routines -- all those tubes of face cream and plastic shower gels tend to add up incredibly quickly! By implementing a no plastic packaging rule we do our small part in implementing an environmentally damaging substance.
4 | Get natural deodorant --
Deodorant is one of those things that we are constantly weighing up -- we sort of know we should use natural but we aren’t totally sure why... and also, is it even going to work? The ingredient that really makes it work is aluminium, and aluminium is something you simply should not be putting on your skin ever (let alone skin that sits right next to your breasts). There has been some correlation proven that women exposed to aluminium have experienced higher rates of breast cancer due to the fact that aluminium may interact with DNA and lead to cancerous changes in cells.
5 | Avoid any product with phthalates or parabens --
Phthalates can be found in cosmetics, hair sprays, lotions, and hair products, despite being linked to damages in the liver, kidney, and reproductive system. Parabens can cause hormone disruption like mimicking estrogen and the binding of estrogen receptors in the body. In certain conditions, parabens have been observed to aid breast cancer cell growth. They have been banned from cosmetics in the European Union, but still remain prevalent in US products. They can also be labeled as DEP, DBP, DEHP, as well as various fragrances so be sure to watch out for them being disguised as something else. No hair spray is ever worth that sort of risk to the body!Cora Hilts, co-founder and CEO of luxury sustainable e-tailer Rêve En Vert (REV), began her illustrious career at Christian Louboutin and Stella McCartney where she gained a love for design and the creative industries. From Bar Harbor, Maine, Hilts has lived in London since 2013, where she co-founded Rêve En Vert in 2014 out of her London studio apartment. Having since lived and worked in Paris and New York, Hilts gained a master’s degree in Sustainability and Environmental Politics from King’s College London, where her true passion for the environment was nurtured and the idea for Rêve En Vert began.Rêve En Vert believes in quality style made from a place of consciousness. Their highly-curated collections deliver long-lasting fashion you can feel good about, wanting to empower their consumers to think differently about the products they buy. Rêve En Vert strives to create a new era of style, and a space for honest luxury.
