Here at Monave mineral makeup, we get many calls from women looking for products and food sources that they can trust to either alleviate their allergies, or prevent further acceleration of the symptoms. When it comes to makeup and skin care, we have some suggestions for what to avoid.

It may sound obvious, but for starters, we suggest avoiding long ingredient lists. This includes long lists of natural ingredients, such as extracts, and essential oils. A long (we’re talking in excess of 10-15 ingredients) list of ingredients means more probability of something in the bottle being an allergen. It also increases the possibility that one or more ingredients in the product can react to each other and create toxins or allergens. When it comes to actives, such as extracts, and essential oils, your skin benefits from limiting these to the more soothing ones, such as rose, lavender and chammomile.

In general, women overdo it, and apply much to many products on their skin with multiple possible allergens in each product, fragrances, preservative etc. We suggest shopping at your natural grocer for starters. If you don’t have one in your town, you can browse online. What you want to look for is at the minimum a mission statement from the company whose products you buy, that emphasizes that it is specifically designed for people who are sensitive to possibly allergenic ingredients. It should state on its website, and/or packaging, what is not contained. Look for these key points: free of fragrance, dye, petroleum products, carmine, sodium laureth, and sodium lauryl sulfates. These are the heavy hitters. In addition for mineral makeup brands, beware of bismuth oxychloride and talc, as they are minerals, but can trigger itching, redness, and bumps, especially in hot weather.

Another trick, very inexpensive, is to create a single-note routine. Single-note means picking one whole food item to use to clean and moisturize your skin. This is a great way to start the process of determining what your skin likes. The problem with products in bottles is that you may be allergice to one item on the list. Here’s an example; virgin organic coconut oil. Another one; cold pressed olive oil. These oils are rarely, if never, cited as allergens, and as long as they are cold-pressed, and organic, you’ll be avoiding synthetic chemicals. Simply rub the oil onto your face until all of your makeup is dissolved, and use an organic, chlorine free tissue to wipe it off. Do this until all of your makeup is gone. Follow up with a warm, wet wash-cloth to hydrate your skin, and use some of the oil as a moisturizer. Oil, wax and water are the basic components of a moisturizer. This may seem too simple to be effective, but try it for a few weeks. If you have oily skin, you can apply hazelnut oil on your skin after cleansing with one of the other oils and water.

When you hunt for makeup, moisturizers, cleansers, and toners, look for simple. Look for a company with a commitment to your issues. And finally, avoid soy, corn, and products with gluten (wheat, oats, barley, and rye). Gluten is another common ingredient that many people have a sensitivity to, but are not aware of.

For your makeup, stick to mineral makeup that is loose, not pressed, and that has only iron oxide, zinc oxide, or titanium dioxide, mica, and ultramarine blue. There are many myths on the internet about mica and titanium dioxide being allergens, but this is only in industrial settings. Make sure to use the softest brush to apply your mineral makeup, or mix your loose mineral makeup foundatin into a light moisturizer to avoid brushing dry, or irritated skin, especially if you have rosacea.

Try some of these tips, and you may be able to start determining which ingredients to avoid. It’s a process of educating yourself, and listening to your body.

I just had occasion to look at a slide-show of a Breast Cancer Awareness event, and noticed a sponsorship banner for a prominent, national candle company displayed near the stage area. I commented to the coordinator of the event about how ironic it would be for this particular company to show interest in breast cancer awareness, since their products contribute to cancer.

She was totally unaware of the issues surrounding synthetic fragrance and cancer, so I thought I’d take a minute to go over it in this post. Oddly enough, she mentioned that this company sent unscented candles to donate to the event. When I asked why, she said that the scented candles that had been sent the year before gave everyone headaches. That’s no surprise.

Synthetic fragrances are one of the top contributors to the rise of cancer, especially among women. The reason for this is that each note (ex…apple) in a fragrance is created with as many as 300 chemicals. Many, many of these chemicals are carcinogens. This is public information folks. You can read about some of these ingredients in places like Skin Deep. You see, the disturbing thing about this is that when you read a label that says, ‘fragrance’, it will never disclose those three hundred chemicals, because that information is considered proprietary, and therefore sheltered from FDA regulated ingredient disclosure.

So, for example, let’s say you go to purchase a Burt’s Bees lotion, and it has an ingredient list with innocuous ingredients such as aloe, olive oil, almond oil, beeswax, shea butter…etc! It all looks good. Then the last ingredient is simply, ‘fragrance’. There is absolutely no way for you to know what else is in that bottle at that point, so you are being misled by the manufacturing, many times without their knowledge as well.

The funny thing is that proponents of synthetically fragranced products say that the amount needed to fragrance a bottle of lotion or a candle is so low that it doesn’t have an impact. In fact, this is quite untrue. Tests that have been done on women and men in the U.S show much higher levels of hundreds of individual toxins in women’s blood than in men’s, and they are linked to the ingredients in fragrance. Men typically want unfragranced products, women, fragranced.

The other problem as I see with this argument is this: I call it, ‘the poop in the pool’ argument. If you were swimming in a standard pool and a child released well…you know…a little nugget, would you continue swimming, and just say to yourself, ” It’s only a little bit, and the pool is so large “? Hell no! You’d beat it out of that pool as fast as you could.

That’s essentially how I see that one drop of fragrance. It suspends in the lotion or shampoo, and contaminates the whole bottle.

So, how do you know if a product has synthetic fragance in it? If it’s natural, it will say ‘essential oils, resins, or flower extracts’ right on the ingredients label.

For example, ‘lavender fragrance’ : no go. Lavender essential oil: good stuff!

Fragrance doesn’t give you cancer, what it does is enter into your body through your olfactory system (nose), get into your blood stream, and then deposit tiny amounts of these chemicals into your fat. This builds up over time. The cells become damaged. Then cancer starts to occur. The best defense against cancer is to maintain healthy cells!

So, if you have those little plug-ins in your house, take ‘em out! Go to a natural products store, or a metaphysical store, and purchase a diffuser. You can even just drop a few drops of essential oils into a pan of water on the stove and lightly simmer it. The essential oils will come in little bottles, and you can mix and match them.

If you purchase products like Tide, commercial shampoos like Suave, lotions like Lubriderm…check out the labels, then chuck them, and look for unscented or naturally scented alternatives. Try your local grocery store, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, or the internet.

And about that candle company. They bought out Aroma Naturals, a wonderful natural candle manufacturer, then shut them down two years later. Just trying to kill the competition.

Teporah

So, what can you do to combat the flakes, lines, and overall less plumped appearance of your Autumn Skin?

Firstly, (you’ve heard this before, many times), examine your water intake. Do you carry a water bottle with you to work? If you work at home, do you have a water bottle next to you by your computer? If the answer is no, I’ll bet you’re water intake is quite low. Coffee, Tea, Juice, and Soda don’t count. They all have ingredients that actually may be hindering water absorption.

So, if the answer is no to the water bottle question, then make it a priority, at the TOP of your to-do list, to either purchase a good-quality water bottle, use a cheaper plastic one for now that you can refill, or use a to-go coffee cup.

Fill it at night before you go to bed if you like your water cold, and pop it in the fridge. About an hour after you wake up (assuming you drink coffee, tea, or juice for breakfast), sit it near you, whether at work, in the car on the way to work, or at home, and start taking swigs. Swig until it’s gone, prepare to use the restroom fairly soon afterward, and fill it up again, and pop it in the fridge. Then do that all over again. If you can manage to do that six times a day, you’ll find your skin to be  softer, as well as other bonuses, such as proper elimination, which is very important to skin health. If you are filling your bottle from the tap, consider getting a good filter to prevent absorption of chlorine and other harmful chemicals.

Secondly, take a look at the ingredients in your cleanser and moisturizer. I know we speak about this until we’re blue in the face here at Monave, but harsh cleansers and inappropriate moisturizers are the main cause of early aging in women, as well as sun damage.

What to avoid in your cleansers: sodium laureth sulfate, sodium lauryl sulfate, ammonium lauryl sulfate, and ammonium laureth sulfate. Just imagine using dish soap on your wood furniture or fine leather goods. It would get dry and cracked and the same applies to your face. You are essentially, covered with skin, and liquid detergents of the traditional variety sold even in health food stores (watch out for green-washing), are excessively drying because they are designed to bond to and strip yoru skin of its own natural oils. Your skin needs some oil on it, and once you strip it of, it then reproduces it, causing a cycle of oily, dehydrated, flakey skin.

What is in a good quality, gentle cleanser? One option for a  good cleanser would be handmade soap; either liquid or bar-soap, that has retained glycerin, (not to be confused with glycerin soap). Look for ingredients like palm oil, castor oil, coconut oil, olive oil and shea butter. If your skin can’t tolerate soap, then some simple effective options, are: water, an exfoliating cloth, oil cleansers (yes plant oils are fabulous cleansers), and clay cleansers.

• Oil Cleansers: At your local natural grocer, pick up a cold-pressed oil appropriate for your skin type: hazelnut for oily skin, almond for normal-dry, and avocado for dry skin. At night, rub a few drops of the oil into your skin, and then use a warm, wet washcloth to wash off the oil, which will carry the pollution and dirt away with it. A gentle rub with the washcloth will keep skin fresh and smooth-looking.

• Clay Cleansers: An easy mix is kaolin clay, and liquid honey, both of which can be found at a natural grocer.  Take a teaspoon of clay in your palm, or a small dish, add a teaspoon of liquid honey (raw is best, but tends to be a bit hard for a skincare application), and blend.  Tie back your hair, and rub this mixture over your face for a minute or so. Then rinse off with a warm wash-cloth.

• Creamy Cleansers: Your moisturizer can be your cleanser as well. Assuming that you are using a simple oil & water based cream or lotion, the oil in the product itself will dissolve any dirt or pollution on your skin.  Simply follow the instructions above.

What to look for in a moisturizer: A good moisturizer is a simple formula of water, oil, and binders. The water could be hydrosols (the by-product of essential oil distillation), distilled or purified water. The oils should be appropriate for your skin type. Some common ones are coconut oil, almond oil, grapeseed oil, hazelnut oil (for oily skin) avocado oil, apricot kernel oil, etc.

The binder can be beeswax combined with xanthan or guar gum, or other options; vegan, but not quite as creamy, would be stearic acid, or palm stearic acid. Definitely avoid products posing as natural that use binders such as emulsifying wax. This is not a natural binder, but in fact, has many questionable components embedded in the formula.

In general, boutique lines have the highest quality ingredients and formulations, so it is wise to sample as much as possible and see how your skin feels. If it feels tight after you wash and moisturize, then look for something that has a creamier texture. Don’t be afraid that this will clog your pores. If you stick to plant ingredients, that is unlikely to happen. Oily skin is a by-product of either stripping you own natural oils, or overproduction of sebum due to dietary imbalances, such as hormone absorption through poultry, meats, and dairy.

Lastly, if you live in a dry climate, now is the time to consider putting a humidifier in your bedroom and most prominent living space. This is especially an issue if you have forced hot-air heat. Radiator, baseboard, and ambient heat are much healthier for your home environment, so consider that as you are looking at living spaces for rent or to purchase. Forced hot air heat can wreak havoc on your skin during the colder months, which can lead to a host of problems, including dry, cracked capillaries in the nose, leading to flu and cold symptoms.

Monave Mineral Makeup made the decision from inception to use ingredients that were benign and beneficial to the skin. To that end our mineral foundation is produced with the highest quality ingredients possible. Two of our main ingredients are Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide. Titanium dioxide is a naturally occurring oxide that has a variety of uses, from toothpaste to ceramics to sunscreens. Titanium Dioxide has a high refractive index and strong UV light absorbing capabilities. The other important ingredient is Zinc Oxide it blocks both UVA and UVB rays and is water resistant. Both of these ingredients cannot be absorbed into the skin so they are non irritating and non allergenic.

However, sunscreens today use micronized particles of Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide which does get absorbed into the skin. There is a theory that these nano particle sized ingredients gives rise to cellular malfunction causing cancer.  Monave Mineral Makeup does not use micronized particles in our regular loose mineral foundations making them safer for the skin.

With all these wonderful factors is it any wonder that mineral foundation is best when used in place of a conventional sunscreen? Pick up yours today for the health of your skin.

Yes, it is carcinogenic in vast quantities as it is a product that is used in commercial manufacturing such as paints, plastics, paper, food, medicine ( pills and tablets) and cat litter for odor control! The lungs would be highly impacted due to the particles flying around. In cosmetics and skin care, titanium dioxide (TiO2) is used in sunscreen, toothpaste and makeup, especially foundations. What is happening in the industry is the use of micronized TiO2 which affects the body on a sub cellular level. This can be found in sunscreens especially as it is used for babies and people with sensitive skin.

Women and men can develop rosacea but more women seem to succumb to this disorder. Symptoms are varied and include areas of redness on the cheeks, forehead, chin, nose and even eyelids; the appearance of small blood vessels on the nose and cheeks and in severe cases acne- like pustules.

Rosacea seems to be on the rise lately as some women thinking it’s a complexion problem dismiss it and hope it will go away but in reality will grow progressively worse. Acne and Seborrheic Dermatitis are co- occurring skin diseases sometimes giving rise to mis-diagnosis. If caught early this disorder can be cured but if later will become a lifelong problem.

The makeup that you apply to your face can be a source of possible irritants. The best choice for rosacea and acne sufferers is mineral makeup which doesn’t contain these ingredients (some supposed mineral makeup does, so read the labels carefully): talc, Bismuth Oxychloride, preservatives, synthetic dyes and fragrance. Talc is a cancer causing ingredient that clogs pores. Bismuth Oxychloride is a mineral that is a by-product of lead and copper refining. Its properties are very similar to Arsenic hence the redness and irritation which results after prolonged use. Synthetic dyes such as FD&C colors and lakes can also be irritants to the skin.

The inclusion of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide give excellent sunscreen capabilities and zinc oxide is an anti- inflammatory so it calms the skin down, soothing and camouflaging the flushed areas. Without the addition of talc, mineral foundation holds in moisture which helps the skin’s dry condition. We’ve created a line of foundations that is geared specifically women with rosacea and acne, this is our concealer foundation, it has a higher zinc content. For additional questions and help with skin care please contact us at www.monave.com