Have you ever had a self care night and thought about the ingredients that are in your personal care products? Where do they come from? Can they harm my skin? Can they have long term effects? Sadly, the personal care industry is minimally regulated, which means that many harmful ingredients are perfectly legal; such as added chemicals, dyes and fillers, which can be considered carcinogens or harmful to your skin.
At Aira, we believe that access to high quality, clean, safe and transparent products is essential to caring for your physical self. We curate products with safe and high performing ingredients to improve physical wellbeing, rather than to harm our physical wellbeing.
Have you heard of the term greenwashing?
Greenwashing is when companies use adjectives to describe their products as ‘natural’ and ‘green,’ but in actuality, their products are full of harmful chemicals to preserve and extend their shelf life.
As avid users of personal care products, we have found that it can be really hard to differentiate high quality and true clean products with products that are not clean, but claim that they are.
So whats one easy way to tell if a brand is clean?
One easy way is to simply look at the expiry date. It seems pretty obvious but many personal care products do not have an expiry date or perhaps they expire after many years. That may mean that they are loaded up with preservatives, toxins and chemicals that can be harmful to you. To care about our physical selves, means to care about what we put onto our bodies, as much as we care about the ingredients that we ingest. It takes about 90 seconds for a topical beauty product to be absorbed into your skin. If the product is infused with chemicals and harmful ingredients, this can cause significant short and long term effects to your body. Would you dine in at a restaurant that served a lovely meal if you knew that meal wouldn’t go bad if you left it sitting there for months or years? Hm, probably not. So, we should be treating our personal care products and choices with the same standard.
Here are some ingredients to watch out for when choosing personal care products. Avoid carcinogens at all costs - these are ingredients that can cause cancer. Sadly, many are found in personal care products are the world. Here is a list to watch out for. Oh and don’t worry, you will never find these at Aira.
I know these ingredients might sound a bit foreign, but another helpful tip is to simply look at the ingredient listing. If there is an extra long ingredient list or if you are unfamiliar with more than half of the ingredients, then that’s not the best sign and let’s be honest, the product may not be as clean as they claim.
So, what does CLEAN mean at Aira?
To us, being clean is about being transparent with our ingredients and using natural and naturally derived ingredients to formulate high quality and high performing products. All of our products are made in small batches in Canada - so you can get the freshest and most ethically sourced ingredients that your body will absolutely love. We are:
- Formulated with natural and/or naturally derived ingredients
- Handcrafted
- Gluten Free
- Created in small batches
- Free from fillers and dyes
- Free from genetically modified materials (including GMO)
- Cruelty Free/Not tested on animals
- Vegan Friendly
- Created using therapeutic grade essential oils
- SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfates) & SLES (Sodium Laureth Sulfate) free (sulfate free)
- Petroleum free
- Free from Phthalates
- Free from Parabens
- BPA free packaging
- Free of silicones, chemicals
- Made in Canada
Now, just remember, when you’re on the hunt for your next favourite personal care product, check that expiry date, take a peek at the ingredient listing and only choose the ones that will give you peace of mind and make you feel good - physically and emotionally.
