So about four years ago I was introduced to a friend who made her own body scrubs. She made them with all organic and natural ingredients, and I asked her why?
It turns out; she made her body scrubs because scrubbing, for her, was not just a way of cleaning. It was also a way of getting in touch with herself and scrubbing away her daily toxic thinking. And I was like, ‘wow that’s beautiful!’
She then started telling me about the toxic and suspect ingredients that you’ll find in your everyday stuff. At that moment, a whole new world opened up to me. I couldn’t believe that these chemicals are usually in the products that I’d been using every single day. I was even more worried about the products that were being used by my children as well.
It’s a kind of chaotic madness that has come about through all sorts of means. These chemicals are known to contaminate our environment as well as bioaccumulate in our soils. These endocrine disrupting ingredients have also started to show up in marine life, disrupting their whole reproductive systems. To me, the real idea of cruelty-free is not only about giving up testing on animals, but it’s also about what we’re putting down the drain for the fish, (i.e. ingredients like propylene glycol and formaldehyde).
I then wanted to find a way to become a trusted source amongst a lot of the green beauty communities. I aimed to find ways to help people to make that shift in their lifestyle. My aim is to be transforming the world one beauty cabinet at a time.
My personal journey was about how can I contribute? What can I do to help more people make that shift to green beauty and clean living? And how to inspire and inform their green beauty journey at the same time? There was a moment in my life when suddenly I had no idea what ingredients were healthy and what weren’t. So I had to start researching everything, and it took hours and hours.
Words like ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ can be used across any brand but there’s no law behind using the word organic or natural, and they merely increase interest in green beauty. They’ll say natural, green, or organic when it’s not at all!
This is what sparked my first business, Wanderess Beauty, as it started as a combination of learning about the toxic ingredients and also from a very personal clean living and green beauty journey. I felt like I was just three feet from gold and I couldn’t give up. It was also a way through which I would push myself to keep going on my journey.
Through my experience with Wanderess I realized that the number one toxic ingredient in almost all product is synthetic fragrance. This then spurred me to focus my efforts on sharing the harmful effects that synthetic fragrance can have on your health and provide an easy solution to finding and trying the most beautiful natural perfumes on the market.
I hope Natural Perfume Collective can help to facilitate a genuine love for the body and the soul through bringing awareness to the harmful effects of synthetic fragrance. And I hope to make finding your natural alternative to fragrance easy, enjoyable and as personal as your favourite signature scent.
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Jessica Kiely is a best selling co-author and founder of Natural Perfume Collective.
