New beginnings

Lately what I'm putting on my skin has been on my mind. There is a growing public awareness about the bad things we put into our bodies, but it seems there is little discussion about what we put onto our bodies. Fast forward to New Year's Eve 2013 when I get the half baked idea to "detox my beauty products," something I've been wanting to do for a while but have found a million reasons to put off. At my traditional New Year's brunch the next day when I officially made it one of my New Year's resolutions, and here we are. I decided to chronicle my exploits in an effort to turn a half-baked idea into a fully baked loaf of delicious idea-bread...maybe writing a blog was a poor choice.
The challenge is to rid my beauty products, cosmetics and otherwise, of harmful and toxic products and replace them with natural alternatives; I'm aiming for as many food-grade products as possible. To make sure I stick with this, after all I've committed to a blog and put that information on the internet and I don't want to look stupid (!), I've decided to break it up by month. That is to say, each month I will be targeting a different group of beauty products. I think this project will require a lot of research on my part, so here's hoping that grad school does not get in the way of my project (which at this point I find much more exciting that school).

Here's the breakdown:
January--Face wash/makeup remover, moisturizer, face masks, and toner
February--No shampoo method
March--Foundation and blush
April--Lip stick and lip balm
May--Eye shadow and mascara
June--Lotions and sunscreen
July--Shampoos, conditioners, hair spray, heat protecting spray
August--Body wash and scrubs
September--Tooth paste, mouth wash, and teeth whitener
October--Nail polish and hair removers
November--Perfume, body spray, and deodorant
December--Special beauty treatments

I am also aiming to find affordable in-store alternatives (so I don't feel like a total hippie), and for this I will be using the database on www.ewg.org, which offers information and ratings on a variety of products. They also have a barcode scanner app specifically for cosmetics called "skin deep," which I have acquired.
 I have decided I am going to throw out as many of the toxic products as I can (I can't commit to everything), save the more expensive lip sticks and eye shadows I use very rarely for cosplay reasons. My aim here is to have safe natural alternatives to the things I put on my skin on a daily basis, and I figure my skin can handle the bad stuff 3-4 times a year.
This is definitely going to be an interesting project, here's hoping I can follow through!