There are so many makeup and skincare brands using the buzz word “natural” to describe their products. It also feels like every month a new ‘natural’ product arrives on the supermarket shelves. Most of these have prominent lists of all the ingredients that are not included in the product.

So, if you’re in the market for natural makeup and skincare, how can you be sure when you’ve found the real thing?

The key thing to look for, is not what the product doesn’t contain, but what it does contain.

The David Suzuki Foundation’s dirty dozen list of harmful ingredients commonly found in cosmetics is a great place to start when checking product ingredients.

David Suzuki Foundation’s Dirty Dozen list

1. BHA and BHT
2. Coal tar dyes: p-phenylenediamine and colours listed as “CI” followed by a five digit number*
3. DEA-related ingredients
4. Dibutyl phthalate
5. Formaldehyde-releasing preservatives
6. Parabens
7. Parfum (a.k.a. fragrance)
8. PEG compounds
9. Petrolatum
10. Siloxanes
11. Sodium laureth sulfate
12. Triclosan

However, we don’t always have the time to check every ingredient in products. An easier option is to find brands that have a philosophy of only using natural ingredients so that you know you can trust their products. You can do this by researching natural makeup brands online, reading their philosophy, story and ingredient promise and then looking at reviews.

Another key thing to look out for on websites is that all ingredients are disclosed for each product. If a company has nothing to hide, they will be keen to show you this by being fully transparent about the ingredients they use in every product.

At Ethical Collection we check all the ingredients and we only work with brands with a philosophy focused on making natural products. These brands don’t use known toxins and make their products in an ethical and eco-friendly way with no animal testing.

*CI listed ingredients in our products are iron oxides, mica, zinc oxide, titanium dioxide and not coal tar dyes.