Over the past few months I’ve made the decision to use more natural beauty products. I do use a lot of different products in my daily routines and while I can’t swap 100% of them to natural products, I can switch out a few.

Switching to natural beauty products

One of the main products that I wanted to swap was my deodorant. Since I started using deodorant as a pre-teen, I must have tried almost a hundred different ones. I don’t really get sweaty armpits unless it’s really hot, so I don’t need a particularly strong one. At the start of this year, I noticed that my arm pits were getting quite itchy. I put this down to the deodorant I was using, so I stopped using that one and bought a new one. Unfortunately, the same thing happened again and I did a bit of research and realised that it could be some of the chemicals in the antiperspirants. This is when I decided to try out a natural deodorant.

I ended up getting one from a high street store, which was just a salt crystal. The way this works is that you have to wet it, then apply it to your underarms. This isn’t always convenient, especially if you need to reapply and aren’t near a sink.

Natural deodorants

Luckily, I’ve found a couple of great natural deodorants on Notino. First of all I picked up the Rose and Vanilla scented stick from Schmidt’s. This is just like your normal stick deodorants however it is 100% natural and doesn’t contain any aluminum, propylene glycol or artificial fragrance. I have been using this for the past couple of weeks when it’s been really hot; at one point it was 34 degrees where I live and it worked great!

The second deodorant I’ve been trying out is a bit different. This is the Soaphoria Sensualism organic creamy deodorant. As you can see, this comes in a small tin and you need to apply the product with your fingers. It can be a bit hard at first, but it soon melts a little under the heat of your fingers and allows you to apply it to your underarms. This one has a tea tree scent which I love, it keeps me really dry and there’s no irritation at all.

Natural shampoo bars

For a while now, I’ve been looking for the best SLS free shampoo. My hair is coloured and I don’t want that to fade too quickly. SLS in shampoos can strip your hair, which is why I try to avoid it. I had been using a solid shampoo from a high street store, but that one unfortunately contained SLS. I liked the idea of a solid shampoo as it’s a lot better for the environment. It is also a lot easier to travel with solids when you’re flying.

I managed to find a brand called Foamie who do a range of solid shampoos and conditioners. With quite a few to choose from, you’re spoilt for choice! I decided to go for two bars – one for normal hair and one for damaged hair. My hair is bleached and coloured, I also use heat on it so the one for damaged hair is great, but I can also get away with the one for normal hair.

They both have a great fragrance, one is hibiscus and the other is coconut. The packaging states that they will last for 25 washes, but I think they’ll last a lot longer than that. With shampoo bars, you don’t get much (if any) lather. This is because there’s no SLS. You don’t need a lather to wash your hair though, so it’s not a problem. I find that when I wash my hair with these I can last a lot longer between washes. My hair is no longer coated with any type of product.

Have you switched to any natural beauty products?