Organic, holistic and healthy beauty products

I’m passionate about using healthy, toxin free products on my family as much as possible.

There are enough toxins in the air, water and land for people to deal with, so my feeling is that by reducing the amount of toxins you put into your body by opting for healthy food and by using natural, safe products on skin and hair you at least give yourself a chance to enjoy good health by reducing toxic overload.

When Little Miss Green was a baby there were very few ‘green’ beauty products around. Choices for basic requirements such as shampoo and body wash were limited so we adopted a ‘less is more’ approach.

Nowadays we have the opposite problem; the market is awash with products making claims that they are safe for both the environment and our health. The key is to sorting the wheat from the chaff!

There aren’t many companies I rave about because, quite frankly, I’m pretty sceptical. For instance I know some of the labelling loopholes mean that products aren’t always what they seem. However, Made From Earth; who sell organic, holistic and chemical free products at competitive prices, is one company I CAN get excited about!

They sent me a box of products to review and you can guess what the first thing was I did! Yep, I took the lid off and smelled each product. Why do we do that? Our sense of smell is one of the most powerful and can evoke memories in an instant. We know whether or not we like the smell of something immediately because it evokes an emotional response.

Smell plays a crucial role in our emotional well-being and I know I’m super fussy when it comes to fragrance. Due to reducing chemicals in the products we use at home my sense of smell is heightened. I only have to walk outside my back door to smell the neighbour’s tumble dryer going. People walk past me in the street and I can smell their deodorant or body odour. I cannot walk down the cleaning aisle of a supermarket any more without getting a headache and my eyes watering.

Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised and Made From Earth use one of my favourite scents in their shampoo and conditioner – peppermint!

Made from Earth do not use the following harmful ingredients in their products:

• Petrochemicals – oral and topical application of petrochemicals in rodents resulted in anaemia, kidney degeneration, and nerve damage.
• Phthalates – helps skin care absorb into skin; classified as a “probable human carcinogen” by the EPA.
• Parabens – low-cost synthetic preservative linked to possible carcinogenicity, as well as an estrogenic effect
• SLS, SLES – dissolves the oils on your skin, which can cause a drying effect.
• Cosmetic fragrance – made from petroleum or coal which degrade in the environment and cause skin irritations.

So what did I think?

Whenever I carry out product reviews I try things for at least of month before sharing my thoughts. This allows me to see how well products work and whether or not I have an adverse reaction to them.

Here are the products I used followed by my round up of the good, the bad and the ugly…

 

• Green Tea Toxin Cleanser
• Rooibos Tea Facial Scrub
• Rosehip and Hibiscus facial serum
• Olive night crème
•  Tea and Protein herbal shampoo
• Peppermint herbal conditioner
• Citrus lavender soap
• Citrus fresh lip balm.

 

The Good

Natural Fragrance

I was thrilled with the smell of ALL the products I tried. The conditioner, in particular, was beautiful and leaves your hair with a subtle scent that lingers gently. What I love most about the smell of these products is they are so obviously natural – you can smell real essential oils, ( or even nothing at all in the case of the serum) not synthetic fragrances and I had no adverse reaction to any of the scents used.

Price

For the quality of the products, the prices are amazing. Lip balm is $3.99, facial serum is $24.99, shampoo is $16.99 – all of which are competitive. Some of the organic brands I use charge double that.

Quality of ingredients

Aloe Vera features in many of Made From Earth’s products high on the list of ingredients. It’s soothing and cooling and helps to prevent adverse reactions to products. Other beautiful ingredients include:

• Jojoba oil – one of my personal favourites because it’s similar in characteristics to human skin
• Green Tea – powerful antioxidant
• Tea Tree – powerful antiseptic, antifungal essential oil
• Organic honey – antibacterial and wound healing
• Berry oils – from raspberries and blueberries to revitalise the skin and heal wounds

Ease of use

All the products do what they say they do! The shampoo lathers despite containing no SLS. The lipbalm moisturises beautifully without being sticky. The facial scrub exfoliates but does not strip the skin. The Olive night crème moisturises without being too heavy. I’ve tried numerous shampoos that have felt as though they’ve either stripped my hair or not cleaned it enough, Made From Earth works just right although I noticed my hair was oily a day before it might normally be.

Customer service

I was personally looked after, via email, by Stergios who went out of their way to answer questions, ensure I was sent the right products for my skin type and get my delivery sent quickly. Stergios checked product suitability, made sure the ingredients were ok for me (I don’t use products with nuts in them) and put together a box of goodies that were right for my needs.

Overall packaging

I was delighted to see my products wrapped in tissue paper inside a cardboard box. There was no excess packaging; no polystyrene packing peanuts, no plastic bubble wrap, just good old fashioned paper and cardboard which can be easily recycled.

Air miles

If you’re in the UK, all the ingredients are sourced from the US and the products are made there which is wonderful if you’re concerned about your carbon footprint. Buying US ingredients gives a sense of trust about the quality of the ingredients too which is vital for products you put onto your skin.

The bad

Hard plastics!

The first time Little Miss Green used the shampoo and conditioner she called me to help her because she couldn’t get the product out of the bottles! I know it’s no good if products are so runny you lose half of it down the drain but I could see instantly what she meant. The plastic is so hard and the products are so thick that squeezing them out is an issue if your hands are not particularly strong. I have a friend with arthritis in her hands and there is no way she would be able to use the shampoo or conditioner.

I can imagine that by the time we are half way through these products we’ll have to store them upside down in order to be able to get the products out.

Cruelty Free and Vegan?

I didn’t quite understand one of the labels on their website. At the bottom of the ”about us” page are ‘partners’ which includes “Truth in Labelling pledge” and a bunny symbol –  “Cruelty Free and Vegan”. When I clicked on Cruelty Free and Vegan it took me to the PETA site and a searchable database of cruelty free companies. I searched for Made From Earth and couldn’t find them.

In the UK, if I see the leaping bunny symbol I automatically know that it is a cruelty free product. But I’m not sure about this one. In addition, the word ‘vegan’ is confusing because I know Made From Earth are using beeswax and honey in some of their products.

In addition, I found the ‘Truth in Labelling’ section of the Natural Ingredients Resource Centre and could not find Made From Earth listed.

In today’s climate of greenwashing and aggressive marketing, these sorts of issues leave you wondering whether or not you can trust a company.

The Ugly

Non recyclable packaging

Talking of plastics, and you know I’m someone who takes recycling and sustainability of packaging pretty seriously; here’s what I found when looking at the recycling codes on the plastic bottles and jars.

Shampoo, conditioner , cleanser, night crème – all 1 PETE which is fantastic; these can be recycled easily from a local bring bank.

Scrub – 7. To use number 7 plastic for packaging is unforgiveable because it’s such an unknown. Over here there is no recycling for this type of plastic and nobody really knows what it is. It can be anything from a mix of plastics to something that is compostable; but I’m not going to put it on my compost heap unless I know it’s ok for that.

Serum – unmarked. Not knowing what type of plastic you are buying is not empowering to the customer. These are the sorts of plastics that end up in landfill and pollute the environment.

Verdict

If I can have the confusion about the ‘Truth in labelling’ and the ‘Cruelty Free’ collaboration cleared up and everything in a number 1 plastic, then I’m very happy with these products.

The quality of the ingredients is second to none, they were sent quickly, the smell divine and they work! What more can you ask for? Not only that but these products are of a high standard and are competitively priced.

For those living in the US, it’s good to know that the ingredients are sourced within the country and made there too, so air miles are reduced.