You’re slugging green smoothies, you’ve cut out the gluten, and you’re hot yoga-ing every week, but what about your beauty products? Just like our bodies need a good detox and seasonal cleanse, so do our makeup bags and personal care products. Because it’s not just what you put in your body, but also on your body that counts.

How you look on the outside is a direct correlation to how you're treating your body on the inside. Drinking lots of purified water, eating an abundance of fresh fruits and veg, and getting the specific micronutrients you need extra support from with quality vitamins every day can dramatically change the way we look (and feel).

But my personal skincare story didn’t end there. While nutrition can do wonders for giving us that natural "glow", I still felt like the person in the mirror was aging faster than I was. To make matters worse, I struggled with hyperpigmentation and bouts of adult acne. After consulting with skin experts, I learned that our skin needs the right kind of nutrients and support to remove dirt and dead cells, to let it “breathe”, and to regenerate effectively, especially as we age (which meant my coconut oil and witch hazel weren't cutting it.)

But I was faced with a decision — do I sacrifice my health by applying chemical-ladened products?

Your skin is your largest organ and whatever you slather on it finds its way into your bloodstream, where it can have long-term consequences for your health, hormones and even fertility.

Yes, you read that right. Your skin is your largest organ. It 'digests' things that are put onto it. In fact, some studies suggest we absorb 60% of what contacts our skin in just 26 seconds. Then what happens? Your body does what it can to filter them out through detoxification cycles, and the rest get stored in your cells. Studies have shown 287 chemical toxins detected within the umbilical cord blood of newborns.

The David Suzuki Foundation performed a landmark study and found that in their test of 12,500 personal care products from moisturizer to shampoo, 80% of the products contained at least one of the 12 toxic chemicals known as "the dirty dozen”. The Environmental Working Group also found the average person is exposed to 126 chemicals each day, just in personal care products alone. This includes chemicals from cosmetics, body lotions, sunblock, facial cleansers and personal hygeine products.

Women, on average, use 16 products containing 168 different ingredients daily.

If we’re constantly bombarding our skin with questionable ingredients and chemicals, we're not doing it any good - no matter how many promises the product label makes, or what luxury price tag was attached to it. Since there are thousands of chemical additives legally available, it’s almost impossible to create a list of all products to avoid. In general, avoid any products with:

Parabens
Talc
Butylated ingredients (BHA)
Formaldehyde
Phthalates or polytetrafluoroeth- ylene (PTFE) [Yes, that’s Teflon]

If you’ve ever wondered if the chemicals in beauty products influence your health, the answer is yes. Toxic ingredients and sneaky contaminants in beauty products can disrupt hormones and sabotage health. Your liver, kidneys, lymphatic system, other organs are burdened with processing these harmful ingredients out of your body. Overtime, this can cause serious health implications.

These are some scary statistics and it gets worse: did you know that hormonal imbalances in women are at an all time high and most of our makeup bags are filled with some pretty nasty endocrine disruptors? For example, I've seen my clients suffer from weight gain, acne, fatigue, depression, ADHD, learning disabilities, cancer, menopausal symptoms, and reproductive problems, all influenced by the chemicals in personal care products. You can find more comprehensive lists at SafeCosmetics.org and at EWG - Skin Deep, to see what nasties might be lurking in your personal care products.

The goal of any skin care routine is to clean out pores, revitalize and nourish skin cells, and troubleshoot or target any areas you want to work on.

The five steps to my skin care regimen include:

Cleansing — Washing the surface dirt and oil off my face.
Toning — Balancing the pH of my skin and clearing out my pores.
Serum — Renewing cell turnover and boosting collagen production.
Moisturizing — Hydrating and softening the skin.
Eye Treatment — Targets delicate skin, fine lines, and wrinkles around the eye area.

Now for the question I get asked most — what brand do you use? A nutrient-dense skin care line called YOUTH is my everyday skincare ritual. I landed on it because it has the most rigorous ingredient selection process. No chemicals, no contaminants; only high-density nutrients that facilitate healthier cell renewal. But it’s not just free of toxins and hormone-disrupting chemicals, it’s effective. The clinical trials proved that the blend of nutrients and botanicals erase 10 years in 60 days. You read that right. A decade of aging gone in 60 days.

The science had me, but I believe the real proof is in the pudding. So I decided to give it a shot. By day 1 my skin looked brighter and felt smoother, but of course the skeptic in me thought this must be placebo or coincidental... maybe I just drank more water! But by day 3 my pores started to flush out. By day 10 my dark circles and puffy eyes had almost entirely vanished. And within 3 months, the most unusual thing happened — I started to get complements on my skin. (I’d look behind me to see who they were talking to before I realized it was me!)

This regimen has become a daily ritual to clean and fortify my skin. And is has made a huge difference. I've noticed the best results when I do this regimen twice daily; when I wake in the morning and again at night before bed. Because our skin is constantly being burdened by environmental factors and regenerating daily, results are best seen -like anything when it comes to our health - when we are consistent.