Today my friend, Jane Pope Cooper, is guest blogging at Bare Beauty.  Jane was one of the first people I met when I moved to Charleston from New York seven years ago and as a career-gal she has always served as a source of inspiration.  She does what she loves and she is damn good at it!  Her jewelry is at once sophisticated and organic in its aesthetic and makes its wearer look like the put-together, effortless type – kind of like Jane.  Take a look; you will be obsessed!

I was so honored when Jessica asked me to do a guest blog post for Bare Beauty.  And panic immediately set in, as all I know about clean beauty products, I know from her.  Before Bare Beauty, I was blissfully clueless using products that I thought were clean, and I was dead wrong!

 Now I certainly didn’t think everything I was using was clean, but seeing “organic” on the label gave me a warm fuzzy feeling (please tell me you guys are familiar with Tommy Boy.  “Here’s the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee on a box ’cause he wants you to feel all warm and toasty inside”… you know where this is going http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114694/quotes “).

When Jessica Launched Bare Beauty, I realized that I pretty much needed to dump everything in my cosmetics bag.  It wasn’t that difficult to rid myself of most of the junk and make switches in shampoo and conditioner, moisturizer and cleansers.  Done and done.

I knew my deodorant was crazy toxic, as I was using my husband’s Old Spice!  The first of my switch outs, I got the SoapWalla Deodorant Cream.  It smells yummy and works well.  It wasn’t that strange to use my fingers to put it on.  Small warning, if you are going to be seriously sweating, you may need to reapply or use something else, but day to day it works!

 There were a few things that were impossible to pry from my death grip until I had an equal to replace it.  First and foremost, I LOVE my Nars orgasm blush. I have loved it for an eternity and I always get asked what blush I use.  I used it until recently when I found the Juice Beauty Glowing Cheek Color in Pink.  I have been really happy with it and have tossed my NARS into the trash.

 The other thing that I can’t live without is mascara.  I have used Chantecaille for the past year, and I LOVE IT!  I first tried the Dr. Harushka Volume Mascara.  I love the way it looks when it’s fresh.  But, I will warn that it did bleed after a long day or in the hot sun.  I would recommend just checking your eyes every few hours to make sure you aren’t running.  Sadly, I lost this mascara and ordered a replacement from Juice Beauty. It’s a great mascara and doesn’t run at all!

Finally cover up has become a must have for me daily in the past couple of years.  I have tried a million fancy cover ups, foundations, tinted moisturizers, but I always returned to the drug store L’oreal Visible Lifting Foundation.  I have a few broken capillaries, a couple of dark spots, and I need some good coverage without it looking like foundation is caked on.  Enter RMS UN-Cover up.  It has great coverage, but still feels really light.  next up on my list are the Un-Powder and the Lip2Cheek in Beloved!

All in all, replacing my must-haves has been relatively painless.  I am so happy to have found clean and safe versions of these every day basics.  Thank you, Jessica for making the world of clean products easy to understand!

Xo jpc