In our fifth annual Beauty & Body Awards, we highlight brands delivering safe, high-performance products that make us look and feel our best.
In our fifth annual Beauty & Body Awards, we highlight brands delivering safe, high-performance products that make us look and feel our best.
View all of this year's winners
If you’re conscious of your and your family’s health, products that nourish and support your body are probably very important to you. So, what do you do? You go out and buy things like hormone-free milk and meats, organic fruits and veggies, snacks that are lower in sugar and sodium. Maybe you even use nontoxic products to keep your home clean. But where do you buy your beauty and personal care products like shampoo, lotions, sunscreen, and more?
Despite the growing natural and organic personal care category, the majority of health-conscious shoppers actually leave their natural retailer to buy their beauty and personal care products elsewhere. When research increasingly links chemicals in personal care products to a range of health concerns and—equally important—when natural brands are delivering so many awesome benefits and innovative products, why aren’t we going natural in every aspect of our lives?
Like any behavior, shopping patterns are hard to change, especially when you factor in brand loyalty (for many of us, personal care products are rooted in tradition; maybe you use the same baby shampoo on your little one that your mama used on you) and convenience. If you always always buy a product at a certain store, that process appears to be convenient even if it means making another trip. Then of course there’s the fact that finding something you like as much as your go-to product for X, Y, and Z can be time consuming.
Our picks for the best natural beauty products around
We all need a little help finding new products we love—I can definitely relate (need. more. time). That's why I always get superexcited to announce the winners of our Beauty & Body Awards. Now in their fifth 
year (another reminder of why I should be using the winners in our best skin care category; I ain’t getting any younger), these awards strive to make that process of choosing an awesome natural product that fits your needs easy … and fun! While my process starts with vetting products for pure ingredients, I have found that brands are going well beyong the "clean" factor to deliver innovation and efficacy. I am loving natural beauty’s focus on foodie trends and ingredients such as chia and superfruits (and even products that cater to lifestyles such as paleo and gluten-free), plus a continued emphasis on science-backed ingredients that really work. I know that this is ultimately the most important factor driving these decisions.
Even if you choose just one product a month to swap out of your bathroom or shower, these picks are a great place to start. For those of you who are already devoted to natural personal care (high five!), we hope that you’ll find some new options to freshen up your beauty regimen. And as you’ll see, these products aren’t just for women; more and more brands are catering to male shoppers, too.
Yes, you can vote with your dollars—and, better yet, you can look and feel great doing it.
With that, I hope you enjoy reading up on some of our favorite products. Head over to your natural retailer and try them for yourself, or tweet me your favorite picks if they didn’t make our A-list: @jessica_rubino.
