I've always felt strongly about accessible green beauty, but my idea of what fits that label has changed a bit over the years. Initially, I saw it as almost exclusively based on price, but I think physical availability is an important factor to consider too. Not everyone can order online -- or necessarily wants to -- so with my new website reboot, I want to start a series featuring brands with wider in-store availability. Due to logistics, these are often products from larger companies, with perhaps a slightly less clean ingredient deck, but they're still a massive step up from conventional products!
Today I want to talk about REN Clean Skincare, and specifically the Evercalm line. I'd never tried REN before, but I've been testing out the Stop Being So Sensitive Kit, which includes small sizes of three Evercalm products. I picked this up a couple months ago at Winners, but the current incarnation (which comes with one additional product!) is available at Sephora.
The Evercalm line is intended for sensitive and reactive skin, so it's made up of gentle products without many actives. Keep reading for my thoughts on three of the bestselling products in the line.
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me tweet a couple weeks ago asking for natural product recommendations at Sephora. It's not somewhere I've shopped for quite a while now, but I still get their emails and they had a Bare Minerals eye shadow gift with purchase that had me just about ready to pull out my wallet. In the end I decided against buying anything - it's not as though I needed the eye shadow anyways - but that darn GWP almost had me!
I know for a lot of people Sephora is an easy place to shop, so after my thorough browsing experience, I thought I'd challenge myself to see if it would be possible to create a completely non-toxic skincare routine using only products sold at Sephora. Here's what I came up with!
Keep in mind that I haven't actually tried most of these, so I can only speak to their ingredients, not their efficacy. Everything is free of the regular nasties like parabens, phthalates, silicones, petroleum, PEGs, and dyes, and is also free of phenoxyethanol - which presented quite a challenge, let me tell you!
Makeup Remover: Ole Henriksen Pure Truth Melting Cleanser
Cleanser: REN ClearCalm Clarifying Clay Cleanser
Toner/Face Mist: Caudalie Grape Water
Face Oils: Lea Journo Revive French Plum Oil / Sunday Riley Juno Hydroactive Cellular Face Oil
Eye Cream: Tata Harper Restorative Eye Creme
Face Scrub: Tata Harper Regenerating Cleanser
Mask: REN Flash Rinse 1 Minute Facial
So, is it possible to create a full non-toxic, natural skincare routine at Sephora? Yes. Is it easy? No. And it's also pretty costly.
These eight items came to a whopping $497! I think you could do a lot better for your money shopping somewhere else, but in a pinch, Sephora could have you covered. Which is always good to know.
What do you think of Sephora? And - since I'm always up for some window shopping - let me know if you'd be interested in seeing something similar for makeup.
