green beauty – facial cleanser

I know you’ve seen this brand of facial cleanser – Yes To. Yes to tomatoes, yes to cucumbers… Well, now they’ve added Yes To Coconut. Their packaging is eye-catching, which is exactly why I suspected the products really weren’t as natural as they claimed (skeptical me).

(Affiliate links included for your convenience. As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. See disclosure here.)

I’ve been using MyChelle Fruit Enzyme Cleanser  for a while now. I’m picky about my facial cleansers. I prefer a creamy one over a foaming one; it feels less drying. The problem with MyChelle is that I can only find it in health food stores, and that’s not always convenient.

I’m down to my last drop of cleanser, so off to the stores I went. First stop, a local health food store. They didn’t carry MyChelle products, so out came my iPhone with my EWG app. I began scanning barcodes. Surely any one of those cleansers on the shelf would do. (Get ready for this.) Not one of all the cleansers there had a low EWG hazard rating. So before you drop a ton of money on products from a health food store, do your homework.

Next, off to one of my favs, Target. Back to scanning barcodes. I scanned more than 20 products, and they either rated too high or didn’t show up at all (some brands are not yet logged into the EWG database). Well, ain’t nobody got time for that. So I grabbed up the Yes To Coconut cleanser and called it a day.

Once home, I entered all the ingredients into the EWG database and – lo and behold (I just love that phrase) – it met my criteria. Whew. Then I used it (novel idea). And the winner is… Yes To Coconut Ultra Hydrating Crème Cleanser.

And here’s the cool part.

• EWG rating of 1
• Sold at Target, Walgreens, CVS, Whole Foods and Walmart.
• Average price $9.99 (My beloved MyChelle cleanser is $16!)
• Why do I love it? It’s creamy, rich, and one of the more moisturizing cleansers I’ve ever used. (If you have oily skin, you should check out some of the other Yes To collections.)

In my research, I did run across a few other well-known brands that have safe cleansers – Neutrogena Ultra Gentle Hydrating Cleanser and Olay Professional ProX Exfoliating Renewal Cleanser.

The lesson from today? Before saying “yes to” just any facial cleanser or other natural product, do your homework.