Get Added Value with Minimalist Makeup

BreakingModern — Personally, I’ve always avoided looking at the ingredients list on my favorite cosmetics and skin care products. I’ve heard too many stories about nasty secret ingredients — I don’t want to think about all the crushed up beetles, snail goo and toxic chemicals that I’m absorbing into my skin.

However, a recent trend toward minimalist makeup and skincare products is making that list of ingredients a lot less intimidating. As you may have noticed while wandering the new “organic food” aisle in your local grocery, more and more people are starting to pay attention to what unsavory additives lie hidden in their favorite food products. Now, customers are also starting to scrutinize what they regularly consume through the body’s largest organ — the skin. And as with the movement toward organic food, the people are demanding that major brands take skincare back to the basics, eliminating questionable, irritating or unnatural ingredients.

Entire skincare lines, such as S.W. Basics, have been modeled around this minimalistic movement. The company’s website perfectly sums up the trend, boasting, “At S.W. Basics, we use the simplest possible blends of impeccably sourced, whole ingredients to create products that truly work. Why? Fewer ingredients = less chance for irritation, higher potency, and a smaller overall ecological impact.”

S.W. Basics has earned itself a loyal following, but the brand is hardly a household name. Thanks to fashion behemoth Chanel, however, the minimalist trend has made its way into the mainstream. The brand’s new La Solution 10 moisturizer, the brainchild of chichi New York dermatologist Amy Wechsler, contains only 10 ingredients (thus the name). That’s more than 50 percent fewer ingredients than your average face cream, in case you were wondering.

That’s good news for customers with sensitive skin as well as trendy purists. La Solution 10 removes potentially irritating ingredients like perfumes and dyes, and includes soothing elements like silver-needle tea (full of antioxidants) and moisturizing shea butter (a popular ingredient in many minimalist brands).

Of course, not every product emblazoned with the words “all-natural” or “organic” is all-honest about its non-toxic purity. If you need some help finding truly minimalist skincare products, you can turn to Adina Grigore’s book Skin Cleanse: The Simple, All-Natural Program for Clear, Calm, Happy Skin. As the founder of — you guessed it — S.W. Basics, Grigore aims to help readers figure out what-the-heck-is-up with their particular skin problems, as well as offer a guide for engaging in healthy skincare habits. Even if you don’t follow her advice to a T, it’s definitely nice to have the advice of a professional while navigating new skincare possibilities.

So now, the only question is — when can I buy these minimalist skincare products at my local CVS?

For BMod, I’m .

All Screenshots: BMod Staff

Alison Maney

Author: Alison Maney

Based in NYC, Alison Maney covers lifestyle, trends and movies for BreakingModern. Follow her @sheepandcake on Twitter.

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