Erin Nevers

What led me to creating my own beauty products was the constant frustration of shopping online and in-store, picking up products on the shelves, and turning them around to see those dreadful, hard-to-pronounce, inferior, sneaky, and unnecessary ingredients. I always asked myself, "What is the point of having ingredients like these in a product? How the heck does this help people?" Well, they don't help people, that's for one, and I'm going to change the subject. I was tired of grabbing beauty products that promised "luxurious and soft skin," just to use them and end up with dry and cracking skin. I also have eczema, which is a womp womp for me, so lotions that contained fragrance caused major flare ups. Once I found this out, I searched for unscented lotions. However, this did not help my case. I still experienced flare-ups regardless if I used scented lotions or not. The same thing applied to hair care products. The shampoos, gels, and hair oil I purchased dried my hair out. The conditioners, leave-ins, and masks left my hair dry too. Everything annoyed me, and I cannot count nor remember how many different brands and products I tried. Cantu, Carol's Daughter, The Mane Choice, Aphogee, Curls, Design Essentials, Queen Helene, SoftSheen Carson, Shea Moisture, and other brands did not work for me. (If these products worked for you, great! They just did not work for me. Just because something did not work for me doesn't mean you stop using what works wonders for you.) Anyway, I had so much fun creating my own beauty recipes! The trial-and-error part intrigued me the most. Figuring out what did not work, why it did not work, editing a recipe, and trying it again to achieve successful results was so rewarding for me. I created lotions, body butters, body wash, hair oil, body scrubs, lip balm, face washes, and more. My skin felt so much better! It was not angry, and NOT once did I get an eczema flare up. When I noticed this, I knew the culprit for my eczema flare-ups were the store products. Unfortunately, I could not continue this passion due to frequent conflict with family members. I wish and hope to create beauty products full-time one day. As of right now, I just cannot afford to do so. The products I listed below are the exact products I used to create my DIY projects. I hope you like what you see! (And yes, my flare-ups came back 🙄). ♥︎ As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. ♥︎ All the links provided throughout this list will redirect you to the Amazon website. They are safe links that were shortened.

That one annoying sentence that we ALL have seen at least once before: "CONTAINS BIOENGINEERED FOOD INGREDIENTS." This was all I saw when I shopped at Publix, Key Food, and Kroger in search of healthier snacks (This is not a jab towards the stores themselves. It is a jab towards the products. Stores don't have much control over the items that are shipped to them). I cannot count the amount of times I have grabbed a product from the shelf, turned it around, and found that sentence near the bottom of the ingredients list. These garbage products are being sold everywhere. To make matters worse, majority of the products and brands on the shelves come from the same big corporations. This creates unfair competition, and makes it more difficult for small businesses to get their products into stores. I reached a point in my life where I gave up, and decided to stop eating snacks altogether. It almost felt like I was being forced to purchase these tainted products at these stores. To me, it felt like a big, "Screw you. If you don't like the products being sold at your local stores, then starve." We are not given enough food options, and the greed is strong and alive. Not every single individual on this planet wants to fill their bodies with nonsensical and dangerous ingredients. Some people cannot afford better because healthier equals more expensive. The worst products have the cheapest prices. Later on, I decided to look for healthier snacks one more time. This time, I did so online. I was very pleased with what I saw. Based on what I have read, it looks like some of the brands I listed below started off as small businesses, and sold their company to a bigger corporation. I am just typing this here to provide transparency to individuals that decide to purchase these products. Hopefully, the ingredients and taste of the products do not get altered as time progresses. ♥︎As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.♥︎ All the links provided throughout this list will redirect you to the Amazon website. They are safe links that were shortened.

Nails Inc. London is a nail polish brand I authentically recommend. I own over 60 different nail polishes from this brand, and do NOT regret purchasing ANY of them. At first, I hated both in-store and online shopping for nail polish brands. Scanning various store aisles and reading the scary ingredients contained in multiple nail polish brand bottles infuriated me. I did not want to continue putting toxic nail polish on my natural nails, and wanted a better option. I eventually landed a job at Sally Beauty. From there, I discovered Nails Inc. London nail polishes and could not stop buying them. These words stood out to me, and led to me buying this particular brand: "Vegan" and "Cruelty Free." I felt that I finally found a healthier and safer nail polish brand, and pretty much ran with it. As of now, Nails Inc. London is the ONLY nail polish brand I use. You can head to two websites to purchase this nail polish: The Nails Inc. London website and the Sally Beauty website. I noticed that the Nails Inc. London website does not list many nail polish options, and they are usually sold out. I have purchased a few Nails Inc. London nail polish bottles from Sally Beauty. However, MAJORITY of the bottles I have were purchased from a Sally Beauty store I worked at. In addition to this, a lot of the bottles I purchased are NOT listed on the Nails Inc. London website and Sally Beauty website. I HIGHLY recommend walking into Sally Beauty stores to look for different tints and shades of the Nails Inc. London nail polishes. EVERY Sally Beauty store contains different items and products, and you never know what you may find. In regard to this list, make sure to be mindful of the Sections because the products are organized by colors, Top Coats, and Base Coats. Please make sure to pay attention to my notes as well! All of the nail polish bottles listed are nail polish bottles I OWN and USED. I think the coolest part about this nail polish brand is that it uses PLANTS to make their nail polish colors. I thought the only way nail polish colors could be created was through chemicals, and ONLY chemicals. I recommend looking into the Heat Activated nail polish collection and the Gemstone Infused collection. They are so cool. I have included an important note for the Heat Activated nail polish colors in my list. The links listed throughout this list description will redirect you to either the Nails Inc. London website or the Sally Beauty website.