How to Switch Your Skincare Routine to All-Natural and Organic Products

With countless kinds of skincare products available on the market, it can seem impossible to know the right thing to do for your skin. Brands throw around words like “natural,” “organic,” and “clean,” but what do they actually mean? Are products with these labels on them actually better for your skin?

Clean beauty expert and makeup artist Katey Denno says that, surprisingly, there are no governmental or beauty industry standards when it comes to defining “organic,” “natural,” “green,” “clean,” “botanically-derived,” or even “non-toxic” products (Denno herself prefers to use the term “non-toxic.”) She continues, “Anyone can—and many do—imprint such words on packaging to entice the consumer into thinking they’re choosing products that have been thoroughly evaluated for safety and developed using only the best of the best ingredients.”

Her best advice is to take a look at the ingredients in and the supply chains of the products. Many brands ensure that the farmers they source their ingredients from are actually growing said ingredients. "Clean" brands also ensure that these fresh-farmed ingredients are not mixed with synthetic fragrances or toxic preservatives. Denno also places an emphasis on transparency when it comes to knowing how products are formulated and how that translates to the effectiveness and cost of the product from the consumer’s standpoint.

One great resource that's easy to follow is Sephora’s "Clean At Sephora" label, which is applied to every product that is free of the following ingredients: sulfates SLS and SLES, parabens, formaldehydes, formaldehyde-releasing agents, phthalates, mineral oil, retinyl palmitate, oxybenzone, coal tar, hydroquinone, triclosan, and triclocarban. The products also have to contain less than one percent synthetic fragrances.

So, with that in mind, here are a few clean and natural skincare products that you can use to replace the products in your current routine, sorted by category.