Coconut Oil

Coconut oil has, for the most part, replaced my body lotions and body creams. And yes, I’m talking about the same coconut oil you find in the cooking oil section of the grocery store. This didn’t come about in relation to cancer—I’ve been using it on my skin, and also my hair, for about a year. Totally natural and pure, and is a great, not to mention inexpensive, moisturizer. It’s affected by temperature, turning from solid to liquid at about 74 degrees, which, for me, means that in the summer I’m usually putting on a liquid version and in winter a solid. But when it’s solid, it quickly melts on the skin.

Cuticle Cream

Why is softening cuticles suddenly key? If you clip them off and get any bleeding at all, during chemo, you may invite infection. And for me personally, I’ve been on blood thinners due to getting blood clots after chemo port surgery, and that means if you bleed at all, even a tiny bit, it can be hard to make it stop. So I’ve gotten pretty serious about cuticle conditioning and I love this product because it softens and smells wonderful.

Hairspray

It was challenging to find a truly natural hairspray that really worked for me. But this one seems to contain no chemicals at all and it works really well. It has alcohol, which, yes, is drying, but from my research, most hairsprays contain alcohol, including most natural make-at-home recipes, and at least this hairspray uses only natural ingredients. Has a fresh sea-salt sort of scent.

Nail Polish

It’s hard to find a good, easy-to-use nail polish that doesn’t have chemicals in it. The most natural type is water-based, but by all accounts, those don’t go on well or they require an involved or laborious application or drying process. That’s not for me, so I instead learned about “safer” nail polishes. These still contain some chemicals, but they are free of the biggest offenders in nail polish land. And they go on well. The Zoya covered in two coats for me, the Mineral Fusion in one. I’m also using Mineral Fusion clear coat and find it to be good quality and easy to use. And Mineral Fusion also has a polish remover that works great and is the only one I’ll use!

Facial Cleanser

This product is almost a liquid, milky like a shampoo, and a little goes a long way. It leaves my part oily/part dry skin very soft afterward without any adverse effects.

Facial Exfoliator

This is to be used in conjunction with the cleanser above (or BeautyCounter’s other face cleanser, which I haven’t tried.) I use it in place of the cleanser once every few day. It has tiny exfoliating beads that help remove any bits of dead or dry skin, or anything that’s hanging around on your face that shouldn’t be. I really like this product a lot. I’ve used other exfoliators on my face that are much more harsh—this one works very gently yet seems to do just as good a job.

coveryourhair.com Bands

What’s so special about this place? Wide headbands. Super wide. And I couldn’t find anything else like what they offer when I was looking for ways to hide partial hair loss. Should you have a need for extra wide headbands, this place is a lifesaver. The products are good, many of them inexpensive (I got 6 super-wide headbands for $9.99 in addition to others I paid a little more for), and you can also buy them via Amazon, which is where I got mine.

Australian Dream Arthritis Pain Relief Cream

This one isn’t about chemicals or safety, either—it’s about nerve pain. After surgery to remove lymph nodes to check for cancer, I had terrible, sharp nerve pain down my arm, up into my shoulder, and through my breast. It was really one of the worst parts of this whole journey, and no one had any solutions except to wait for it to go away. It was pretty unbearable and nothing helped—until I remembered Australian Dream Cream. It’s actually an arthritis medicine, but my mother used it years ago for nerve pain. It works like a charm and was really a lifesaver for me for a few weeks. It’s available at Walmart, Amazon, etc.

Mederma Advanced Gel

I’m using this for new scars that have resulted from my cancer journey. I chose it after reading a whole lot of reviews and I’m seeing a significant improvement.

 Miaderm Radiation Cream

Now, this is typically something you’ll only want to use if you’re having radiation, and it’s a bit pricy, but my doctor recommended it and I like it.  It goes on easy, absorbs easy, isn’t greasy.  And I’m mentioning it here because my understanding is that some radiation doctors don’t necessarily suggest a skincare regimen during radiation.  If yours doesn’t, this is a great product to start with, a week before treatment begins, throughout and for a couple of weeks after.  

Latisse

Okay, this isn’t a chemical-free product.  But it might help save your eyelashes and eyebrows during chemo.  My oncologist okayed it and my dermatologist gave me the prescription.  It’s only technically for use on eyelashes, generally used to increase their growth, but it was recommended to me to use it on my brows as well and I can say it has definitely worked in both places.

Tips: 

Don’t use the applicators that come with it on your eyelashes – this stuff is pricy and the applicators really soak it up.  Instead, buy a cheap eyeliner brush – I got the below one at Target for around $5. 

Use the applicators provided to press it into eyebrows.

The way I used it was to put one drop in the cap and use the eyeliner brush to apply it to lash lines, then another drop in the cap, which I then used with the applicator on my brows.

Don’t stop using it until several months after chemo as it can take a while for lashes and brows to react to the chemo. And if they fall out anyway, continued use of Latisse should help them come back more quickly.