I’ve sat down to write this post more times that I can count but there was always something that held me back. I want to tell you all about my clean beauty skin-care routine—and I’ll get to that, I promise—but starting there felt surface.

Clean beauty is part of my self-care and taking time to slow down and have a set way I care for myself has been a key part in helping me manage my anxiety.

There, I said it. Let’s just stop feeling ashamed, embarrassed or hiding our mental health. It doesn’t help anyone.

:Kerri Axelrod wearing Mara Hoffman dress standing in front of Follian in Boston a key part in her skincare routine

If you’ve read my about section or follow me on Instagram, you know that most of my life I have suffered from anxiety. I’m not a doctor and if you also suffer from anxiety, this post is not intended to offer you medical advice; I’m simply sharing one aspect of my holistic lifestyle that has helped me.

I’ll stick to skin-care and beauty for this post, but I recently shared other ways to help manage anxiety naturally with Byride. You can read about that here.

Kerri Axelrod wearing Mara Hoffman dress sitting in front of Follian in Boston a key part in her skincare routine

Having a morning and evening skin-care routine helps me reduce stress and grounds me energetically. It brings peace, control and empowerment to my day. I know that no matter what is happening in my life, I can start and end the day by taking care of myself. My day starts and ends exactly how I want it to.

I’m extremely careful about the skin-care and makeup products I use because the beauty industry is one of the most unregulated industries in the United States. Companies are essentially free to create products however they want, with no government oversight, and many use toxic ingredients and known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors in everyday products such as mascara, cleansers and moisturizers. Companies can also slap “green” on their label but include some of the same toxic ingredients as more mainstream companies.

Our skin is our largest organ and if I don’t want chemicals in the food I eat, I certainly don’t want them put onto my body and absorbed into my skin.

The majority of my skin-care and make up I get from Follain, a natural retailer with brick-and-mortar stores in New York and Boston as well as online.

Clean beauty skincare routine products at Follian in Boston

Each product at Follain contains the highest quality, unprocessed ingredients, gets checked for a long list of restricted ingredients and for efficacy, as every product they sell has to work as well as, if not better than, anything on the market.

One of my absolute favorite brands that I discovered at Follain over a year ago is OSEA—a line of amazing organic and natural luxury skincare products made from the most potent, bioavailable ingredients. OSEA products contain seaweed and are also infused with plant-based active ingredients and organic essential oils, all containing minerals and nutrients that are readily absorbed and utilized to rejuvenate skin.

Kerri Axelrod grabbing OSEA Ocean Cleansing Milk, a key part in her skincare routine

The two OSEA products I swear by are the Ocean Cleansing Milk and the Undaria Algae Oil. The Ocean Cleansing Milk is a creamy cleanser—it seriously feels like you’re washing your face with soothing milk—and is formulated to reduce impurities and minimize fine lines and wrinkles. The Undaria Algae Oil is one of the most soothing, lightweight and non-greasy oils I’ve tried. It smells amazing and contains Acai, Babassu, Passion Fruit and Ayurveda Sesame Oil to deeply nourish skin.

OSEA at Follian Boston is offering a skincare routine giveaway on Instagram

OSEA is graciously offering one of my readers a $125 gift card to use on their website. Head on over to my Instagram page for the details on how to enter. Contest closes on Saturday, July 15 2017.

 

Thank you OSEA for sponsoring this post. As always, opinions are my own.

Matthew Davey Photography