Shopping for Alpha-Gal Friendly Skincare Products
Finding Alpha-Gal friendly skincare products can be such a hassle! The ingredients list is always so long and unpronounceable…so it’s a pain to scour the label for mammal byproducts.
So, as a general rule of thumb, I stick to certified vegan skincare products. I don’t want to risk an accidental allergic reaction.
Today, I’m going to share some of my favorite vegan skincare products that are safe for me to use. Ready to dive in?
Where to Shop for Alpha-Gal Friendly Skincare Products
We all have our favorite places to go shopping. You walk inside and you just know you’re going to find something good to walk out with!
For me, two of those places are TJ Maxx and Ross. I always find at least one Alpha-Gal friendly skincare product at these two stores, and I can usually find several.
Recently, my daughter and I made a shopping run so we could pick up some items for her summer camp. While she was looking for shorts and a bathing suit, I was scouting for some new Alpha-Gal friendly skincare products.
Ross Is The Boss
We started at Ross. In this store, I usually start my exploration in the make-up and body care section.
Shopping at Ross (at least in our local Ross store) requires some sorting and sifting. Items are a little bunched up and hard to find. I liken it to mining for gold.
On this particular trip, I lucked out and found some of my favorite lip balms. The EOS lip balm I found was even cheaper than in Walmart and Target—so I call that a win.
After scouring the makeup and skincare products, I moved on over to the haircare products. You just never know what you will find, and I hit the jackpot!
As a person with Alpha-Gal Syndrome, especially a woman that likes to look and feel pretty, it's super exciting to find hair products that are Alpha-Gal safe AND smell good. Unfortunately, a lot of haircare products have mammal byproducts in them, making them unsafe for me to use.
There are several brands that make vegan haircare products that are generally safe for me to use, and one of them is Love Beauty and Planet.
On this gold mining trip I didn’t find hair products—but I found something new that I didn’t know Love Beauty and Planet made. They make a vegan body wash! Who knew, right? Oh and the smell is divine! Coconut and ylang ylang.
T J Maxx for the Impact
Next on our shopping adventure, we walked next door to TJ Maxx. I sure hope you have one in your area. TJ Maxx is a treasure trove.
Once again, I started in the make-up and body care area. I perused the makeup first, looking for Alpha-Gal friendly or vegan manufacturers that I’m familiar with. A few makeup brands with good vegan products are ELF, Wet n Wild, and Pacifica.
TJ Maxx also carries a lot of my favorite soaps, body washes, and other skincare products. Vegan brands like Acure, Ginger Lily Farms, and JASON all have Alpha-Gal friendly skincare products.
As I was perusing TJ Maxx, I saw another favorite that I often buy. It’s the Everyone brand 3 in 1 shampoo, body wash and bubble bath. It may sound like an over-the-top combo, but trust me, it’s a good buy.
They have several scents, and I was excited to see several bottles of my favorite scent: coconut lemon. It smells so good and refreshing! It’s the perfect invigorating smell to start the day with. Everyone also makes vegan body lotion in the same scent. The pair is a dynamo.
Successful Hunt
Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”
That is how I see all my shopping expeditions. Each place I visit may hold a treasure yet discovered. Sometimes my shopping brings success, and sometimes it lacks the same, but I always keep trying.
Keep searching, my friends. Your next Alpha-Gal friendly treasure may be just one stop away. Don’t ever give up. Life is a gift, and I hope you will choose to live each day to its fullest and discover new treasures along the way.