Simple steps to switch to Non-Toxic Living and the products I swapped

Hi, friends! Hope you’re all doing well. I am really thankful to be quaranteed at home with my favorite people living in our little bubble, staying safe and being hopeful that sooner than later all this will pass. Because…… it cannot rain forever. We are reorganizing everything, painting the rooms, getting ready for the baby number 4, and adding in a few DIY projects among everything.

April marks one ONE year since I started this non-toxic journey, and it also marks three years of blogging for me on Motherhood Charm. A lot has changed, and I continue to share everything with you. Today, I wanted to focus on a few simple steps you can take to a more non-toxic living especially now that we have so much time on our hands, right?!

In all honesty, I never thought how harmful some of the products we were using in our home and on our skin were. I always thought that because they were on the market, sold to us, they would be safe for us too. Well, I was wrong. Really wrong. The scary part is when you start looking into the ingredients of the products you’re using, and the website I highly recommend you check your products on is EWG (or just google EWG ‘name of product’)to see what is in the product you’re using right now…. like your hand soap, your baby’s diaper rash cream, the shampoo you use, window cleaner, floor cleaner, detergent, etc. The chemicals in some of these products are linked to cancer, are hormone distrupters, contain Formaldeyde, lead, asbestos, and a lot of other awful, making me throw up, type of ingredients.

It was about a year ago that I decided to try safer beauty, and I found Beautycounter. I not only fell in love with their products, but their company’s mission. I am proud to be part of this movement, of something bigger, of a voice that matters. You can read HERE why I decided to become a Beautycounter consultant.

THREE SIMPLE STEPS TO NON-TOXIC LIVING

DO YOUR RESARCH

Thankfully we have websites like EWG where you can type in any product and it will give you a list of ingredients it has. I have provided safer products here in the Blog to make it easier for you, as I know it can be overwhelming but you can always type the product in on EWG website to look for yourself too. Another excellent tool is the Think Dirty App.

WAIT UNTIL YOU RUN OUT

Don’t go throwing everything out now that you’ve read this post, but do know that removing these harmful products from your home will improve the air quality. I waited until I ran out of things to slowly replenish the products products as I normally would but this time with safer products.

DO NOT FEEL PRESSURED

It can be very overhwleming when you start looking into the products you are using, but don’t pressure yourself. Give yourself time to process everything and slowly make the adjustments that you feel are needed for you and your family.

Over the last year, I have swapped all of my skincare and makeup products to Beautycounter products and these are the ones that I use currently.

MAKEUP

• Tint Skin (in linen) and Dew Skin (in sand)
• Volumizing mascara
• Concealer (in fair) (bye bye dark under eye circles and tiredness)
• Color Define Eyebrow Pencil
• Blush (in sorbet)
• Lip Balm and lip gloss
• Eyeshadow Paletta (Romantic)
• Mattifying powder
• Highlighter

The only brush I have from Beautycounter is the Retracable Foundation Brush, but I do plan on trying the rest of their brushes eventually. I hear they are amazing.

SKINCARE

• Overnight Resurfacing Peel (ain’t no glow like this glow)
• Charcoal Mask (I apply it twice a week)
• Charcoal cleansing bar (excellent for prone acne skin too + to wash your makeup brushes)
• Counter+ plumping facial oil (No 2)
• Countercontrol Clear Pore Cleanser (I use this in the morning & the charcoal bar at night…. just preference)
• Adaptive Moisture Lotion (my everyday go to face lotion)
• Rejuvenating eye cream (eye cream is a must for me)
• Counter Recovery Cream

I just got the Countertime Tripeptide Radiance Serum and will report back on how I like it, but based on all the reviews it seems like this is the serum I was missing in my skincare routine. As you get older your body stops producing the necessary collagen, well this serum helps boost that and leaves you with healthy, glowing, and beautiful face.

When I first heard of Beautycounter, I didn’t know what to try first so I bought the Flawless in Five makeup which includes six beauty products to try Beautycounter and that’s how I fell in love with them. I continued to buy more as I ran out and/or wanted to try new products out. It slowly turned into me trying all other makeup products. Honestly it’s the best way to give it a try as you can see how these natural products work best together on your skin.

Be sure to message me if you have any questions on Beautycounter as I would love to help you to choose the right product and shade for yourself. You can search for me as your Consultant under – Vesna Tanasic during your checkout as well .

NAIL POLISH

I have always been a HUGE fan of Essie and OPI nail polish, since I can remember and I have always done my own manicure/pedicure. I rarely ever go to the nail salon. While doing all this other research I learned that the nail polishes I was using contained way more chemicals than I want to admit, so a swap was a must for me. And that was a drastic one, I literarily threw out all the nail polishes I previously had and bought Zoya nail polish and Ella + Mila nail polish. I also got the top + base coat from Ella + Mila. I did this about two months ago, so still very new to me. My manicure still lasts me about a week in a half or so and I feel so much better using safer products especially when my daughter wants her nails done now too. Target has Ella + Mila nail polishes now, and Zoya you can order online on their website.

PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS

Dry Shampoo

This has been a hard swap for me and I am not there 100% yet. I have used Batiste dry shampoo for a very long time, then I switched to Living Proof dry shampoo + volume blast that I absolute LOVE, but I also know that they contain harmful ingredients so it’s necessary for me to swap. I found PRIMARILY PURE powder dry shampoo and it works really well. Obviously the big difference that I am having a hard time getting used to is that it is POWDER, not aerosol spray so you have to put powder on your roots and shake through.

Shampoo

I use the Beautycounter daily shampoo + conditioner for my hair and love it.

Body Wash

I have the Beautycounter body wash + the Raw Sugar Living body wash. I just got my husband Counterman charcoal body wash and he loves it.

Kids Shampoo & Bodywash

The kids shampoo and bodywash are from the kids Beautycounter line as well. We also have the Beautycounter baby products awaiting baby girl’s arrival.

Deodorant

I love this one and this one. I have both.

PERSONAL CARE FEMININE PRODUCTS

I never realized that the feminine products we use were filled with fragrance chemical ingredietns. I stopped using them as well and now use these pads from Seventh Generation (well, obviously not while pregnant but I have a pack waiting for afterwards for postpartum).

HOME PRODUCTS

This was a big one for me too, realizing that most of the home products I was using were full of chemicals. Chemicals that distrupt hormones, cause cancer, affect reproduction, etc., were in our home. I always thought our home was a safe place, and the air wasn’t polluted… well I was wrong to think that too. I started reasearching the products were using to clean our furniture, wipe dust, clean windows, hardwood floors, bathroom tiles, our sink, counteropts, etc., just to find out that I wasn’t really cleaning them I was actually making it even worse. Who would have thought that those perfectly Windex-cleaned windows were not actually cleaned, or that Swiffer swept floor was not actaully spotless now… this is when I decided to swap these toxic products to safer non-toxic products. Most, if not all of these products you can order on Target website.

CLEANERS

*update*

I recently joined Young Living Essential Oils and have been incorporating them into our daily lives along with the Thieves Cleaner that has slowly replaced all of my other cleaners in the home. I love that one bottle can clean just about everything in our home and it is safe. You can read about this switch HERE.

Right now I am using *Thieves* I never used bleach, which I am glad, but I did use Windex and other surface cleaners that “smelled” great.

DETERGENT

I used to use Tide to wash our clothes + dryer sheets a few years back. Well, I got rid of the dryer sheets completely, and actually don’t use them at all. I simply use the Seventh Generation laundry detergent to wash our laundry.

DISHWASHER DETERGENT

I used to use Cascade but I swapped it out for Seventh Generation pods as well. And, as for the dish soap when I wash dishes by hand I have the Seventh Generation as well.

TOOTHPASTE

We have been a huge fan of Tom’s of Maine toothpaste for a very long time, and we still use it. I just got us the charcoal one to try and the kids are having a blast seeing their teeth black haha!

BATHROOM CLEANER

Also, just started to use *Thieves* to clean the bathroom.

HAND SOAP

We are currently using Raw Sugar Living.

STAIN REMOVER

I use this one on clothes, on rugs, on furniture, really anywhere where the kids or us get a little stain. So far, it has worked so great and has gotten all the stain out.

PRODUCTS I WANT TO SWAP NEXT

• Toilet Paper (when things are back to normal)
• Towel Paper
• My husband’s deodorant + hair products (like gel) + shaving cream
• Floor cleaner (currently ordering one)
• Cookware (I swapped some but want to completely swap)
• Plastic straws to stainless steel straws (just ordering these now too)
• Hairspray
• Floss
• Mouth wash

This is a really great time to start thinking about yourself and things that are being used in your Home. It’s the perfect time to add a little extra self-care in your daily routine, and swap some of those harmful products for more safer products. It’s definitely been a journey for us, but I am so happy to be on this path of safer products. The way I swapped everything slowly is by replacing the products we run out of with new safer products.

My NUMBER ONE TIP to swap to safer products is to slowly purchase them as you run out of the products you’re currently using. So the next time you’re looking to buy hand soap, think about a safer option. The next time you’re thinking to reorder your laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent, think of safer products that would be better for your and your family.

I am proud of myself for being on this non-toxic living journey and cannot explain to you how much better I feel, not to mention how happy I am that the products I am using now around my children are safer. I know I have ways to go, which is why this is a journey not a destination as I continue to learn. But, now at just about a year of this journey I wanted to share the changes I have implemented into our lives.

Simple swaps can make a big difference for your family.

Xo, Vesna

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