This yearly beauty post will be my sole and only post concerning the matter.

I’m actually just reiterating how amazingly ignorant we are when it concerns beauty products. I see a lot of bloggers trying out all sorts of beauty products without even reading the label of what they’re putting on their skin. I would say 99.9% of us have no clue what the majority of the ingredients are in our beauty products, or what effects they have on our bodies. Yet, consumers are willing to play guinea pigs in the hopes of finding some miracle product that will make them look and feel like the photoshopped models in magazines and commercials. Two years ago, I’ve written a post about laying off beauty products after reading a disturbing article from the Telegraph UK that women who wear makeup every day absorb, on average, about 5lbs of makeup a year.

To recap here’s what I personally use for my “beauty upkeep”. But were I not to wear any makeup at all, I’d only be using a moisturizer on my face and maybe some chapstick in the winter. That’s all you really need.

Daily Routine
Pond’s Dry Skin Cream: $4.50
Pond’s Cold Cream (makeup remover): $5
MAC Technikohl eyeliner in black: $17

Glam Look
Add MAC’s Ruby Woo lipstick: $16.50

Secret To Fabulous Skin?
Stick to a single product. And I do mean A single product.

Shampoo, Conditioner and Soap of Choice
I’ve opted for the eco-friendly, Canadian-based, beauty line of Live Clean. The line works just as good as any other brand without the toxic ingredients found in popular beauty products. Plus, they smell great.

I cannot say this enough. Before you dive into any goodie bag you receive from your sponsors or designer shows, think about what you’re doing to your body with all these chemicals.

With that, I leave you with a clip of director Darryl Roberts, whose acclaimed documentary “America The Beautiful”, where he discusses why he did the film and what he experienced throughout the journey in making it.

Here’s a gem that I found out from online friends who have linked to this very interesting site. As you know, I’m not a huge fan of beauty products in general except for eye makeup, and don’t see much of a point in using 6-7 different facial products a day to keep my skin beautiful.

This site only reconfirms my idea that using too many beauty products is bad for your skin and health in general. As far as associating them with cancer though is another story. Skin Deep is an online safety guide on beauty products, assessing over 32,000 products on their cancerous capabilities. From skincare to fragrance, each product is labeled on a scale from 1-10, 10 being the most hazardous, as to how high it contributes to cancer. It also gives a very detailed page of each product on other hazards and a list of ingredients. The site conveniently categorizes by brand or product with a searchable engine.

Although it’s a little obvious that too much use of any product is bad for you, there are some people out there who believe what they use is little to moderate, when in fact it’s way too much.

For fun, I’ve listed the products I use on a regular basis and note the rating of each one.

Pond’s Dry Skin Cream – Hazard rating: 5

Pond’s Cold Cream (makeup remover) – Hazard rating: 4

St-Ives Cucumber Melon moisturizer – Hazard rating: 6 (that’s getting a little high…)

Aveda’s Pure Volume Shampoo – No data

Aveda’s Pure Volume Conditioner - No data

MAC Eye Liner Technakohl – No data, but looks to fall between 3-5

Ok, so I guess they can’t have all of the products on there, but it looks like most of the products I use have moderate ratings, and considering I use minute amount of these (an 8oz jar of Pond’s will last me a year), I think I’m in the safe zone. But the site does make you think twice about what you’re really buying.

Image credit: MOULU Philippe / SUNSET