Why Nurtured 9 Started the Non-Toxic Beauty Top 3's
"Is it necessary to 'go natural' While pregnant?"
That is THE question. The question that often left us lost in a sea of Google searches during our pregnancies...
Our Story
While trying to better understand what hazardous ingredients to avoid while pregnant, we felt overwhelmed by articles listing countless scary sounding chemicals in everything from skin care to nail polish to perfumes and hair products. It was like a whole new language of beauty care ingredients we had never considered! Parabens, phthalates, oxybenzone, propylene glycol, petroleum derivatives...say what?
We also felt confused by conflicting information proclaiming different levels of concern. Our doctors were surprisingly the most relaxed, the internet the most daunting, our friends put in their two cents, and our moms told us they were never concerned with all of this nonsense.
Because there aren't a lot of studies about the safety of modern beauty and skin care ingredients on pregnant women (who is volunteering for that?!), there’s not a whole lot of conclusive data, and therefore there are multiple levels of caution to choose from.
At the end of the day, each woman will make different decisions based on her own personal opinions and her own doctor's recommendations. Some expectant moms will dive right into the deep end vowing to embrace roots (perhaps this is how ombré came to be) and ban all things scented. Others will ease into the process by making small adjustments to their beauty routine...so long as wrinkles don’t creep in.
We know there’s no one way to approach pregnancy – just like there’s no one way to raise children – and whatever decisions you make during your pregnancy are 100 percent right for you. For us, we both decided we couldn’t “unread” some of the articles we found about beauty and skin care safety. So, we felt our most zen by incorporating more natural products into our routines while pregnant.
Which led to its own battle: it is really hard to scrutinize product labels to be sure we were weeding out the chemicals we wanted no part of during pregnancy. All those 23 letter ingredients on tiny packages made us see double and led to a handful of mid-aisle meltdowns. Then, once we had laboriously verified a product was safe, we found a lot of the natural beauty products just weren't very good...or smelled terrible (enhanced morning sickness?, no thank you)!
After all of this safety confusion, ingredient label dissecting, and natural beauty product testing, we set out on a mission to make our pregnancy-safe skin care and pregnancy-safe makeup Top 3 Product lists, which make it easier for you – other moms-to-be – to quickly narrow down the safe options out there. Now, you have easy access to clean beauty products that are luxurious, smell great, and work well without all of the research (and $$!), so you have the peace-of-mind you need when selecting beauty items. Bottom line: we have simplified the confusing world of clean beauty and skin care products, so you can enjoy a pampered and peaceful pregnancy.
About Our Top 3's Screening & Selection Process
The Roundup
To come up with product ideas for our Top 3 Product lists for pregnancy-safe skin care and pregnancy-safe makeup, we interviewed beauty experts and sales associates, vetted online reviews and articles, and tested a broad spectrum of natural beauty products.
The Recommendations
Once we figured out which products were generally considered safe to use during pregnancy (reading and comparing all those long ingredient labels and clearing with industry experts and doctors), we picked our Top 3 favorite products in each category by judging elements like consistency, scent, price point, convenience of purchase, and the ever so important effectiveness. And as we continue to test clean beauty products, we will update our lists if we find something we like even more. We hope you enjoy our favorite items as much as we do!
Wondering how clean and/or pregnancy safe your current beauty routine is? Use our cheat sheet as you review your ingredient lists.
*Please note that we are not medical professionals, so if you’re concerned about any product we mention, please talk to your doctor to make sure you’re 100% comfortable with what you’re using on your body. We did our best to sort out what we feel are the best pregnancy-friendly options out there by conducting extensive research, including: talking with our own doctors, scouring the internet, sifting through product reviews, and chatting with other moms-to-be. We hope our research helps you find products that make you feel great!