This post was originally posted in May of 2016, based on personal experience provided by Dr. Trevor Cates, author of Clean Skin from Within and creator of the SpaDr skincare line. I have since developed new articles and resources for Hashimoto’s that might be helpful for you. For the latest information on skincare, please visit the following:
- Are You Sacrificing Your Health for External Beauty
- The Thyroid and Skin: Getting Your Glow Back
- Common Beauty Procedures that are Compromising Your Health
I’m excited to announce that my dear friend, Dr. Trevor Cates, has formulated her line of skincare products! Dr. Cates is a naturopathic doctor who has seen her fair share of patients with autoimmune disease and is one of the top doctors I recommend for people with Hashimoto’s!
We know that autoimmune conditions and Hashimoto’s are more common in women, and I believe this is in part due to the toxins we put on our bodies…
According to the Environmental Working Group, the average American woman uses 12 personal care products each day, resulting in a staggering number of 168 chemicals applied to a woman’s body each day!!! In contrast, the average man uses 6 products each day with 85 different chemicals!
Conventional cosmetics, potions, and lotions are filled with petroleum by-products, phthalates, formaldehyde, hormone disruptors and other toxins, and as a pharmacologist, I can tell you that what you put on your skin definitely gets absorbed into your body!
In fact, I often recommend that my clients go on a personal-care detox, where they remove personal care products from their lives for a minimum of two weeks. Clients regularly report that they feel better and in some cases, their skin conditions clear up. However, some continue to struggle with dull and dry skin (which is more common in thyroid disease and can make us look older than we are)…
The natural skin care products on the market work well for some, but not for others, and it’s been challenging for me to recommend a natural product with the same efficacy women have been used to getting from high-end department store brands.
I thought about formulating my line of skincare for that reason until I learned that Dr. Cates, who became known as “The Spa Doctor” after working in several world-renowned spas, has developed products and programs to help women achieve glowing skin and vibrant health.
Dr. Cates believes skin is our magic mirror, which gives clues about the overall health of our bodies and when we restore balance, our skin is clear and glowing. She is dedicated to helping her patients and customers discover the clean and natural path to confidence and beautiful skin.
On the one hand, as a naturopathic doctor who has seen the effect of toxins first hand on her patients’ health, Dr. Cates was frustrated with the ingredients in conventional skin care products… On the other, as an avid fashionista and natural skin care expert, Dr. Cates was frustrated with the lack of efficacy in some of the safer natural skin care products.
This is why she decided to formulate her line of natural skin care products!
Here are her 3 keys for the science of natural beauty
- Free of hormone-disrupting chemicals and other toxins
- Contain key nutrients in their pure and active form
- pH balanced towards mild acidity to promote a healthy skin microbiome
Dr. Cates formulated her skincare line so that you don’t have to choose between natural or effective… you can have both!
The Spa Dr.™ Daily Essentials 4 Step System
The 4-step Daily Essentials skincare system cleans, nourishes, renews and enhances your skin for natural beauty and radiance, and it’s clean and non-toxic.
Did you know that the SpaDr face care products may not be gluten free? The ingredients are free of gluten but the facility in which they are made is not gluten free. And, there are gluten containing products that are run on the same manufacturing equipment as the skin care line… I was told that the equipment is cleaned before the skin care products are run but if you are a very sensitive celiac this may not be adequate. I sweat a lot during my work outs (with sweat dripping down my face and often in my mouth) and have celiac so I don’t want to chance that their cleaning process is pristine… particularly since they don’t test for gluten after the cleaning or in the finished face care product. I received this information from the company via phone call on Sept 25, 2017.
Wendi – thank you for reaching out and for sharing this information with me. <3
Dr. Wentz,
Could you please give me your opinion on the Aveda line of hair and skin care?
Thank you,
Janie
Janie – thank you for following. I haven’t researched this product, however, you can check out the website http://www.safecosmetics.org/ or search http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/search.php to see how your products compare. You can search companies to see their overall rating, and also search for individual products. I try to use products with a 1 or 2 rating (lowest toxicity). I hope this helps!❤️