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IndonesianEco-friendly, clean, sustainable, natural, vegan, non-toxic, chemical free, organic… anyone else super confused? How do you know what to align yourself with? Or maybe you know you don’t want nasty parabens, alcohols, silicone, sulfates, harsh chemicals, palm oil, fragrances or testing on animals but don’t really know where to start? We’re pretty lucky here in Bali, ‘The Island of The Gods’ to have access to some of the best, natural beauty ingredients.
THE CLEAN SERIES; Part 1: Let’s start with Island Travel Essentials
If you’re just starting out in the world of clean beauty, focus on the ingredients that are good for you and not harmful to you or the environment.
At Alive we’ve taken the guesswork out for you by stocking a range of local brands all doing fantastic things in the Bali clean beauty market
Detoxing
When we hear the word clean, the first thing that often comes to mind is clean eating, limiting the amount of “un-clean” or toxic elements we are letting enter our body via food and drink. But it’s equally important to think about what is going on and into our largest body organ, the skin.
Living or travelling to an Island like Bali, in the touristy areas you’ll be faced with a daily array of environmental toxins from bike and car fumes, building sites and even walking on the beach. Your largest organ is already working in overdrive doing an amazing job to protect your body from these toxic factors entering your body and blood stream through your skin.
Just like we detox our bodies through healthy eating, liquid fasts and exercise, it’s good to give our skin a little break too.
If you’re just starting out on your clean journey it can be a bit daunting reading the ingredient list of your well-loved products, and replacing everything at once can be expensive! A good place to start is with the products you use every single day that are absorbed quickly into your skin (or mouth). Have a look at your deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner, body and face lotion and go from there.
ALIVE TIP: Keep it simple! Stick to products with the lowest amount of ingredients, choose ones you recognise. If you can’t pronounce the ingredient, it’s probably not good for you!
Products we’ve got on high rotation at the moment:
Coffee and Vanilla Body Butter with Balinese coffee extract from Embun Bali pictured below (available in store only)
Tropical Flower Body Mist from Embun Bali (available in store only)
Rejuvenating Frangipani body lotion from Embun Bali (available in store only)
Natural Deodorant from Angelo Store pictured below
Sunscreen
You might have grown up with the notion of never going in the sun without sunscreen. If you’re Australian you would have been taught to SLIP, SLOP, SLAP (Check this out for a giggle ). While it is super important to always protect your skin from the harmful rays of our glorious sun, did you know how many toxic chemicals your average store bought, chemical based sunscreen contains? In short, lot’s of nasties – oxybenzone, avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene, homosalate and octinoxate. For some more facts have a read of this article by The Wellness Mama. The ingredients you want to see in your sunscreen are zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, which create a physical barrier to protect the skin from the sun.
Side note to consider: Not only do these chemicals harm you but most of this sunscreen washes into the sea when we bathe, surf, swim or snorkel. Have a google if this interests you, it’s pretty shocking!
ALIVE TIP: Look for a mineral sunscreen that contains zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. Steer clear of these chemicals: oxybenzone, avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene, homosalate and octinoxate.
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Massage
One of the perks of living in Bali is definitely the traditional Balinese massage. You may have heard a therapist tell you to drink lots of water after your massage. This is because a massage will often stimulate the release of toxins from your tissues and muscles, and drinking water helps to flush these out of your system. (A great tool to use in conjunction with a Liquid Fast or detox too! But have you thought about what the highly fragranced oil the therapist is rubbing into your body contains? You’ll often find parabens, phthalates, triclosan and benzophenone-3 (BP-3) which some studies report as being endocrine disrupting chemicals (What are they? Have a read here.) One of the best natural alternatives you can find here in Bali is good ol’ coconut oil, but there are some beautiful smelling options too.
ALIVE TIP: Take along your own oil when you next visit Ibu at your local massage salon. When choosing an oil look for ones containing single ingredients and stay away from anything with the word paraben in it! ( Methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben and ethylparaben. )
Our Favorites are:
Jasmine Massage Oil to reduce stress and promote and even skin tone from Embun. (available in store only)
Insect Repellent
Yep, two things that go hand in hand are tropical Island and mosquitos (amongst other creepy crawlies).
The World Health Organisation says that DEET- and picaridin-based sprays are the most effective at repelling insects, but these highly toxic pesticides can do more harm than good when we are repeatedly exposed to them.Luckily there are natural options available that are really effective!
ALIVE TIP: Mix any combination of these essential oils to create a bespoke scent and insect repellent in one! Citronella, clove, lemongrass, mint, rosemary, tea tree, cajeput, eucalyptus, geranium or our personal fave, lavender.
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