If you’ve been here before, you know I’m not fond of this trendy talk of horrible ‘chemicals’ and ‘toxins’ in products. Everything is made of chemical compounds and no, we are not putting toxins on our face (unless they mean that everything can be toxic in huge amounts, but one would have to be drowning in skincare for this to be relevant). I’ve got nothing against green skincare – I think it’s important to innovate in that direction -, I just don’t like pseudoscience and ill-informed preaching. I also find it irritating that most people ignore what all-natural skincare for all people would mean in a resource-deprived world.

Anyway, I am not here to rant (this time), I’m here to share my latest green finds. I realised last week that several of my new products are literally green in colour, so this is where the idea came from.

1. The Unveil Cleanser by Mahalo. This is a beautiful balm cleanser based on sweet almond oil and avocado butter, made by a small company in Hawaii. I have found that with cleansers, the sensory aspect is very important to me, and this one delivers on colour (light green), texture (lush) and scent (gorgeous). Kassandrakomplex says it smells like Key lime pie, I say it smells like a mixture of citrus and chocolate. Like most balms, it does remove makeup well, but that’s not why I use it. Mahalo products are organic and botanical, in case this is important for you.

2. Green Ceremony Cleanser by Odacité. I mentioned this product already in my summer skincare routine overview, but wanted to return to it, as it’s still rather new to me. This is a green powder that basically looks and smells like a mix of matcha and spirulina. This is not surprising, as the two words also feature prominently on the packaging. It is a little bit stripping for my skin, but it cleans deeply and I love the bouncy foamy texture it turns into. As a consequence, I now use it exclusively mixed in with my other cleansers, it works beautifully with my beloved jellies and I only need a little. It contains no synthetics, is vegan and cruelty-free.

3. Wild Carrot Serum Concentrate by Odacité. Another Odacité product and I adore this little bottle of green oil serum. I have not used it long enough to talk about long-term benefits, but I’ve come to trust my instincts with these things. There is no way I can definitively tell what and to what extent is working in my routine, so I need to go by the general feel and experience. I love the texture, I adore the smell and I appreciate the immediate glow and vitality it gives my skin. It is pretty much pure carrot seed oil with some added vitamin E and the only reason I don’t use it as my daily antioxidant serum is that the bottle is so small and rather expensive. I do use it on its own occasionally, otherwise I mix two drops with my moisturiser and pray it lasts me a while.

4. Daily Serum by Joanna Vargas. This one doesn’t fully fit the green theme, as it’s not a natural or organic product. However, it looks green and is often referred to as ‘a green smoothie for the face’, so that seemed justification enough to include it. It is a very nice all-rounder, especially if you cannot handle (or don’t like) very strong actives, but still want your serum to do something. It has a little bit of vitamin C, A (Retinyl Palmitate), E and F, some exfoliating acid, things to hydrate., the lot. You can use it daily – as the name indicates – without any ill effects.

I like all these products and would recommend them, if you are someone who is fine with spending on skincare. Because none of these products are cheap and that brings me to a final point (briefly returning to ranting): those people who imply that individuals who are not buying skincare like this are somehow morally failing, would do well to remember that these prices represent the value of the weekly foodshop for some families. And yes, I’m aware that there are cheaper green products out there, but occasionally it feels like the green crusaders in the industry are not. Years of observation tell me that being green does not make people immune to snobbery.

How do you feel about natural/organic/worthy products? Any recent discoveries in this genre?