Last year I was on the judging panel for Cert Clean’s Clean Beauty Awards and it was great. It’s a really lovely way to find new products that perhaps wouldn’t normally be on my radar.
Cert Clean is a North American beauty certification; their criteria isn’t whether the products contain organic or natural ingredients but a certification for products free from ingredients that may pose risk to our hormonal, reproductive and or neurological health. A lot of course, by their very nature will be natural and/or organic. It’s an interesting concept, again it goes back to being conscious in your beauty – deciding what is important to you – your personal ethos and your skin… This is the fifth year of their Clean Beauty Awards.
In each category there were a lot of entries so the products were split between judges, and the winners from the first phase went into a second judging round. I judged the face oil category and was part of the first judging round. We judged the products on their overall performances but also ease of use, user experience and whether we would recommend them to others.
I had ten oils which was quite a few to get through! As lovely as judging is, it can sometimes be a bit tricky on skin. I usually like to take my time with products but when judging, it is always within a certain time frame, so perhaps I don’t get as long as I would usually like… I ended up splitting my face into sections so could try a few at a time!! I also had a skin reaction during it – not from one of the oils but from some old make-up – but then actually one of the oils helped heal it – good old jojoba..
The results have just been announced this week and two of my top 3 were in the final winner’s list 🙂
These were my top 3 –
Biossance Squalane and Vitamin C Rose oil – my skin just loved it, it seems to react very well to squalane.. our skin has its own version called squalene but like many things our natural levels drop as we age ☹️ adding a topical squalane helps with moisture levels 😀 Biossance squalane comes from plant based renewable sugar cane ✨ I’d love to try more from this brand.
Aromatica Jojoba Oil really helped to balance my skin after a reaction – I love jojoba as a great back to basics oil to really help you understand skin. The structure of jojoba is so close to that of our natural sebum, that skin just knows what to do with it, it’s great for cleansing too ✨ Skin care doesn’t need to complicated.
Nord Beauty Skincare Hydrating Face Oil – initially I thought this was a bit too thick but actually it was what my skin needed, it disappeared quite quickly into my skin and my complexion was definitely better in the mornings.
All of these are still part of my routine, they’ll get used up for sure 🙂 The others won’t go to waste, the Amaki, Be Genki and Neven in the picture above I’ve been using on clients and practising face massages 🙂 the others will get distributed to good homes!
Here are the other categories if you’re interested!
NB I always recommend trying just one new product at a time – if you try too many, it can be confusing to know what is actually working for you, and what isn’t.
Have you tried any of the above? What are your favourite oils?
