How to reduce the chemical load in beauty care

Is your beauty routine full of undetectable chemical bombs?

Many people lighten up their daily lives, choices, and moods at the beginning of the year. What if lightening up also extended to what you put on your skin every single day? Have you ever stopped to think about what your skin encounters every day through your beauty routine and whether switching to natural cosmetics could reduce your chemical load?

Skincare stress often occurs unnoticed. Synthetic fragrances and long ingredient lists can make routines overwhelming, especially for sensitive skin. Skin tightness, redness, imbalances, and skin “flares” can be your body’s way of saying that it’s had a little too much of everything.

Fewer chemicals in beauty care – why is it worth switching to natural cosmetics?

At Sopo, we believe in chemical-free beauty care and a drip-free January, and that means switching to natural cosmetics and swapping liquid soaps and shampoos for real bar soap. Bar soap doesn't need water, preservatives or stabilizers to stay put, making it a simpler and chemical-free option for your skin.

Natural cosmetics without synthetic fragrances, sensitizing additives or eternal chemicals help the skin return to balance. At the same time, the beauty routine is simplified: fewer products, fewer ingredients, less chemical load. And this is especially clearly visible in soap choices, as liquid soaps are replaced by real bar soap.

What chemicals do you reduce when you switch to natural cosmetics?

Not all ingredients used in cosmetics are automatically dangerous, but many of them can unnecessarily burden the skin when used for a long time. Some can weaken the skin's own protective barrier, some dry or irritate, and some simply do not bring any real benefit to the skin - even if the feeling is momentarily pleasant. For sensitive skin, these effects are often visible first.

By making these easy changes, for example, presented later in this text, and switching to natural cosmetics, you will end your daily exposure to many ingredients commonly used in cosmetics, such as preservatives, synthetic fragrances, sulfates, silicones, mineral oils, and plastic-based ingredients.

Many people are surprised at how many common cosmetic products contain these, often in multiple versions in the same jar.

Examples of chemicals in cosmetics that you can avoid by switching to natural cosmetics

Synthetic preservatives in cosmetics – Especially common in water-based and liquid products

• Parabens (methylparaben, propylparaben)

• Phenoxyethanol

• Sodium benzoate

Artificial fragrances in skin care products – One word on the INCI list, but there may be dozens of compounds behind it

• Perfume / Fragrance

• Synthetic fragrance compounds (phthalate carriers)

Sulfates and strong surfactants – Clean effectively, but can dry out the skin and scalp

• Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES)

• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)

• Cocamidopropyl betaine

Emulsifiers and stabilizers in cosmetics – Enable water and oil to mix

• PEG compounds

• Polysorbates

• Acrylates / Carbomer

Silicones and film formers in skin care – Give a silky feel, but do not nourish the skin

• Dimethicone

• Cyclopentasiloxane

• Amodimethicone

Mineral oil-based ingredients in cosmetics – Cheap and common, but do not support the skin's own function

• Liquid Paraffin

• Petrolatum

• Mineral Oil

Synthetic dyes – Often a purely aesthetic addition

• CI numbers (e.g. CI 19140, CI 16035)

Plastic-based ingredients in cosmetics – A burden on both the skin and the environment

• Microplastics

• Polyethylene

• Nylon-12

pH adjusters and chelating compounds – Necessary in industrial formulations, but rarely needed from a skin perspective

• Disodium EDTA
  

• Triethanolamine (TEA)

That's a lot of strange and even scary-sounding chemicals to apply to your skin every day, right?

Make at least these changes and you will significantly reduce your chemical load.

Switching to natural cosmetics doesn't require a complete clean-out of your cabinets and throwing away your jars. Often, a few thoughtful changes are enough and your skin will notice it surprisingly quickly.

• Replace your facial moisturizer with Sopo Beauty Oil or Balance Oil
  

• Swap your body moisturizer for Sopo's natural forest biome body lotion
  

• Replace your foundation with Sopon Miracle Balm
  

• Swap your lipstick and blush for the multi-purpose Sopon Lip & Cheek product
  

• Switch your hand washing liquid to Sopo's authentic bar soaps

• Swap your shampoo for Sopo's authentic bar soaps
  

• Swap your perfumes for Sopo deodorants and perfumes

Natural cosmetics support the skin's natural balance

Switching to natural cosmetics is not an achievement or a pursuit of perfection.
It's a gentle decision to give your skin peace – and the chance to function as it's meant to.

When you give your skin less, it often gives back more.