War Paint? Nah, Ingenious Beauty Ritual

I have been on a mission for the last few years to "clean up" my family's lifestyle and get rid of chemicals as much as I can.  I will never be a candidate for for a completely all-natural lifestyle because I still like junk food and fancy schmancy cosmetics, but we have drastically changed our regular eating habits, switched out the vast majority of our cleaning products for natural (and often better functioning) counterparts, and kicked the full-time use of disposable diapers to the curb.  After reading articles like the one from ChemicalBodyBurden.org about how many toxins we taken in and carry, I was even more convinced that I needed to make some changes.

My beauty routine is another area of my life that has gotten the revamp.  Buying natural, organic products are holy-cow expensive, but I'm almost always up for the challenge of DIY.  That route is unbelievably affordable, often much more so than buying pre-packaged options, even the ones chocked full of good smelling chemicals (okay, I'm still a little in love with my fancy schmancy stuff).  In a further bid to get rid of toxins, I have been examining the benefits of using activated charcoal in my every-day life.

After drooling over Lush's Coal Face facial cleanser, I came across this DIY post for pretty much the same,darn thing, just much cheaper.  I took the plunge and made a batch for myself.  The in-progress results can be seen above.  The biggest take away, it really works!  I'm past the week of suggested adjustment by the original post's author and still having minor breakouts, but they are different from my typical issues.  They come to a head, only last mere hours, and don't leave marks behind.  This makes me think I may just have a lot of toxins to pump out.

My skin looks amazing!  On top of the suggested cleansing method I also do the added step of massaging my face in a circular motion for a minute before rinsing the mix off.  That gives my face some regular exfoliation.  Just ask Christy Brinkly how important daily exfoliation can be.  The dark red marks from past breakouts are rapidly fading, and I use significantly less of the CC cream I use to see daily glowing results.  I have big hopes for the continued benefits of this cleansing method.  I have high standards, but, so far, activated charcoal is standing up to the test.