Cheap natural beauty brands?

Jellicat

I'm trying to go all-natural with my bath and body products, but most of the brands I've seen are totally extortionate, and I couldn't consider spending that on body products unless I was a lot richer.

Are there any cheaper brands (and I mean 100% natural ingredients, not like Lush who still use quite a bit of synthetic stuff) or should I just look into starting to make up my own products?

adelight

Do you want to go 100% natural with no preservatives or chemicals that are considered okay? You may struggle to find products that give the same results as the products you currently use but you'll get used to it. Brands like Naked, A-Derma and Botanics are close to 100% natural and reasonable prices. Naturally thinking sell sls, paraben and synthetic fragrance free cosmetics bases such as shampoo and shower gel for reasonable prices, the shampoo base is £10 for 1 litre http://www.naturallythinking.com/products/Shampoo-SLS-free-Extra-Mild.html You can add your own scents, oils, silk, colour etc.

African black soap is very cheap considering just how long it lasts(a block lasts me six months if i keep it dry), it's good for removing make-up, cleansing, washing and shaving. It can also be used to wash your hair depending on your hair type. http://www.akomaskincare.co.uk/section.php/147/1/african_black_soap_from_ghana there are maybe cheaper sources for this but i've always used this company as most stuff is organic, fairtrade, raw and they do brilliant work in the communities they source ingredients from.
It's much cheaper to use oils for moisturising, a quick google and search through the boards will give you plenty of advice on the most suitable oils for your hair and skin type. It will also be cheaper to make lip balms and lotions yourself. Buy dry clay powder and mix it with water to make face and scalp masks.

There are lots of good recipes in the recipe thread. I think making your own lotions and potions is half the fun of natural products

jenniewb

Jason Organics is a good and fairly natural brand. You can pick it up online or at Wholefoods or Holland and Barratt.

Lush is fairly natural as well, bit pricier but if you know how to use it, it can last quite a while.

juliebunny

I assumed that Lush would be natural but it's products are packed with Sodium Laurel Sulphate (I may have spelled this wrong!) - anything that foams will generally have this in.

I love stuff from craft fayres, home made by small businesses etc. It does seem to last for ages too. I am sure we all put far too many products on our skin (hold my hand up to this.) I once had a bf with dreadlocks who NEVER washed them and they did not smell awful, just a natural sort of smell! And yet he did wash himself, LOL!!

shandyclover

I am slowly switching over to more natural products - as I use up what I have. I used to use apricot scrub - now I just use baking soda, used to use facial cleansers, now just the oil cleansing method. I still have night and day cream to use up but once that is finished will experiment with coconut oil and almond oil. I switched to solid mineral deodorant, and now use olive oil soap for bathing which has basically erradicated any need for body lotion. Over the winter I have been using the Wilko baby bum butter (which is all natural ingredients) for hands, elbows, knees and heels etc. I have yet to find a natural affordable toothpaste I am completely happy with. Shampoo and conditioner I still have stocks of thanks to gifts but once they are used up I am going to try and be brave and experiment with baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Make up I am slowly switching over to at least a mineral version as I use stuff up - ELF is pretty affordable especially if you sign up for the discount codes and order when there is free shipping. Alot of the above are very reasonably priced but you do not always get the convinience of the packaging etc. It has been an education for me to see how seduced I am by how a product looks even more than how it works! Now for me it has not just been about going more natural but also about simplifying my life.

jenniewb

I have to say, its very hard to find natural products on the cheap- hence my suggestions of decent ones only being two and I'm not even sure if they are totally natural, many brands can claim to be if a certain amount of the product is natural rather then 100% of it which is where I'm at, I work out what man-made stuff my skin doesn't like and which I can live with without any real issues. I know for example though its drying, SLS isn't going to hurt me (as long as I moisturise) but mineral oil and petroleum oil (among others) just clogs up my face and I get really horrible deeply inbedded spots.

I guess I'm lucky in that sense because it gives me more opportunity to buy more then just the natural products but its not without a lot of work reading packages and reading things, making mistakes and learning from the consequences and still I make mistakes!

I used to love Kiehl's products but they changed the forumla and I didn't know. I used some of the facial creams (luckily in sachets) and ended up with spots. Speaking to an excollegue it appeared L'Oreal bought them not so long ago and this changed the quality of some of their products. Apparently similar happened with Liz Earle when they were bought by Avon, I'd look at the Body Shop (who were bought by L'Oreal) now with a question mark.

If you do have the money or want to splash out, I can recommend loads which I've had samples of and trialled-even been given as gifts (Nude, Dr Perricone, Neals Yard, Nuxe,-not sure if they are all totally natural but they have fewer man-made additives in.) Green people (they aren't oo badly priced actually) and Vichy has a range within the brand without parabens. Again, these aren't cheap products

Its often hard and expensive to find cheaper natural brands because products don't last long. Much of the non-natural man-made ingredients found in highstreet products are preservatives one example of them are the contraversial parabens).


This site is worth a visit, not sure again if all brands are 100% natural but they aim to be!
http://www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk/daisydirectory/category.php?id=2

ada1988

I think skin Food is good which is made almost by natural products.

Jellicat

Thanks for the tips guys. I had heard of the African black soap, definitely going to give that a try. I want to go for 100% natural products as much as poss, but I am skint. I think I will stick to Lush and simple one ingredient homemade stuff I can use for now (oil cleaning, coconut oil hair treatment etc) until I know what I'm doing then maybe start making my own. How nice it would be to be rich enough to afford all these gorgeous natural skincare products! That being said, I do bleach my hair, but hopefully everything else being natural will make up some of the damage I'm doing to my poor hair :rotfl:!

Zoe.

Try good things skincare, and I heard rose water can be used as a toner.

Mely

I use rose water in a spray bottle as a toner.
Coconut oil (i use Parachute) on my hair. Its apparently the only oil that can penetrate the hair shaft. I also use it on my skin. It also clears up athletes foot and lots of other skin conditions.
Grapeseed oil (from supermarket) as a body moisturiser and sometimes mixed with heavier oils to dilute them to apply to my hair.
Coconut milk (in a can from supermarket), as a hair treatment.
Shea butter as a moisturiser, skin and hair.
Salt crystal deodorant (i dont trust the aluminium in non natural deodorants!), but i dont know if i would buy another one of these.
Fullers earth for a face mask.
Olive oil (supermarket), on hair and body. Also to remove eye makeup.

LolitaLove

Jellicat wrote: »

I'm trying to go all-natural with my bath and body products, but most of the brands I've seen are totally extortionate, and I couldn't consider spending that on body products unless I was a lot richer.

Are there any cheaper brands (and I mean 100% natural ingredients, not like Lush who still use quite a bit of synthetic stuff) or should I just look into starting to make up my own products?

Cowshed do natural, paraben free products and are not too highly priced, I have a lip balm that is aromatherapy oil based and cost the grand sum of £1.