The Easiest Guide to Pregnancy-Safe Products
If you’re secretly pregnant and you don’t want to out yourself by asking people for recs, this is for you. And if you’re not, save it for someday.
If you haven’t heard from me in four months it’s because I’ve either been throwing up or being a research scientist digging through the trenches of ingredient lists. Today, I present to you my thesis.
What’s here: Vitamins, Skincare, Makeup, Haircare, Non-Alcoholic Drinks, Morning Sickness Drugs, Clothes.
Pregnancy Vitamin
Buckle up it’s way more than one vitamin.
MegaFood Baby & Me 2 Prenatal Multi Vitamin
I love this vitamin because it has the most choline that I could find. Who doesn’t want a smart baby, so I put a lot of research which vitamins help brain development Choline is top tier.Nordic Naturals DHA
Also important for big brains.Ritual Prenatal Vitamin
People love this vitamin for the lemony taste and because it’s the most convenient (subscription and 1 pill). However, this is what my doctor has to say about it: As they are a fairly new company, the Ritual vitamins are some of the least tested vitamins. It’s certainly not a bad choice, but it’s something that stuck with me.Ritual Prenatal Protein Powder
I love this and use it all the time in my smoothies. If you choose to get the Ritual Prenatal Vitamin, I suggest supplementing with this because it has choline and the regular Ritual vitamin doesn’t have much of that.
Mineral Sunscreens for Pregnancy
Kora Organics Silky Sun Drops Organic Sunscreen Serum with SPF 30
*EWG Verified* This is my #1. I love this SPF even more than the chemical sunscreens I’ve used in the past. It’s so dewy it feels like an actual skincare product. It’s the perfect base for a glowy makeup look.Biossance Squalane + Zinc Hydrating Mineral Face Sunscreen SPF with Ectoin
*EWG Verified* You would barely know this is a mineral sunscreen. It has a nice silky feel and leaves no cast on my skin (I have light skin with a peach undertone.)This sunscreen scored the best on EWG.
Face Moisturizers for Pregnancy
Youth to the People Superfood Air-Whip Lightweight Face Moisturizer with Hyaluronic Acid
La Roche-Posay AP+M Triple Repair Body Moisturizing Cream
I started using this because it was the best dupe I could find for the Augustinus Bader Rich Cream. I use it on my body as well. Great news: It also has a 1 score on EWG (second best score possible).
Body Lotion + Body Wash for Pregnancy
Necessaire The Body Lotion Firming Moisturizer
This one smells so good.
Stretch Mark Prevention Oils
I need to do an entire post deep diving all the ones I’ve tried, but here’s the ranking order.
Luna Daily | The Skin Support Oil
The reason I rank it the highest, is that it’s slightly less expensive than the Hatch Oil and it smells much better than the Bio Oil. ( I verified the safety of the fragrance directly with the brand.)Hatch Belly Oil
I used this my whole last pregnancy and loved it. (Got no stretch marks) The price tag is up there, but it works and the bottle lasts a long time. I bought two bottles throughout my last pregnancy and I used it multiple times a day.Bio Oil (Natural)
Very important: Only use the yellow natural version. The pink version has retinyl palmitate aka vitamin A, which is not safe during pregnancy or breastfeeding. I think the Bio Oil smells kind of musty which is why I don’t like it as much, but people swear by its efficacy. Plus, it’s the only one evaluated by the EWG.
Vitamin-C Pregnancy-Safe
Vichy LiftActiv % Pure Vitamin C Brightening Serum
At pennies compared to the SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic I used before pregnancy it works just as well. CE Ferulic has Triethanolamine in it btw. That’s why I don’t use it now. I honestly might not go back.
Face Cleanser for Pregnancy
Pregnancy-Safe Makeup Routine
Westman Atelier
Foundation stick, blush stick, Contour stick (I use this for contour and eyeshadow).
Pregnancy-Safe Hairstyling Products
Crown Affair Dry Shampoo
Dry shampoo is usually so bad for us and you spray it pretty much right on your brain ( i.e. formaldehyde, aerosol). I will always use this dry shampoo for the rest of my life. It smells amazing and I love that it’s clean. I also love that you brush it on because I feel like I can get a more exact application and I’m not wasting product.Prose Shampoo and Conditioner
After avoiding their deluge of paid social ads for many many years, what finally converted me was getting pregnant. I love how transparent they are. I reached out via email for my full ingredient list, which checked out beautifully and they also let me know this:
”Prose is always free of sulfates, parabens, phthalates, mineral oil, alcohol, and GMOs among the many other harsh ingredients you will never find in our formulas.
Lastly, we pride ourselves on being transparent, so I also wanted to share our comprehensive Ingredient Glossary here. This resource contains sourcing information, EWG rating, and the purpose of each ingredient in our portfolio”
Skin and hair products I stop using during pregnancy
Skinceuticals CE Ferilic
All retinoids
Salicylic Acid
Pureology Shampoo and Conditioner
Pureology puts chemical sunscreens in their products to protect your hair. I spent the most time trying to find a sunscreen that satisfied my criteria so imagine my disappointment (low key panic) when I found out my favorite hair products have octinonoxate.
Morning Sickness Aids
Diclegis
A prescription which saved my life and probably my job.Fresh Ginger tea
The only natural thing that helped me. I grate fresh ginger into hot water.
Pregnancy Clothes
(Read: Not Maternity Clothes)
My rant about maternity clothes is that looking at them will make you want to vomit once you’re not pregnant, they are a huge waste of money and they are usually fugly. You will most likely need to buy multiple sizes throughout pregnancy (unless you want a saggy belly section early on) so you’re spending money to wear something for like 8 weeks of your life. The huge exception to this rant is anything Bumpsuit (read on).
Bumpsuit
Anything by this brand is the most buttery thing I’ve ever put on your body — short of the popcorn I spill down my bra every night.Amazon White Skirt Set
This set was a FIND. It’s very cute for belly out. Size up 2X from your pre-pregnancy size.Alo Yoga Onsie
I wear this embarrassingly often. I have it in red in my pre-pregnancy size.
NA/ DRINKS
Enter my second rant (wow, is it only my second?): 0.05% is not Alcohol-free. Let’s say it again. If it has alcohol… why can they say 0-proof on the bottle??? I have bought three bottles now that said alcohol-free, but they actually do have alcohol. Annoyed enough to run for congress on this.
Alcohol during pregnancy is a debated topic. Some people do say a little is okay, some of those people are even doctors. My doctor says hard no, never, none. I literally trust her with my life and she works at Cedars Sinai, the no.2 hospital in the entire USA + the no.1 obgyn hospital in California, no.5 in the USA. Yes, even the 0.05% wine, is a no-no from her. Trust me, I double-double checked. The bottom line is there is no data on the safety of any amount of alcohol. I definitely don’t judge anyone who chooses to have the occasional glass of wine or 0.05% beer. But, I personally feel better drawing a hard line, so here are my vetted options.
The Main Ingredients I Watch Out For
Phthalates/ Parabens/ Fragrances
In 2024 most companies are on-board that we are not into these ingredients, so they’ve been eliminated from a lot of ingredient lists. However, it’s been found that a many products hide Phthalates in fragrance. So I only use products with fragrance if the company clearly states they do not use Phthalates.Oxybenzone/Avobenzone (anything else that ends in benzone) Octinnoxate
Sometimes called ethylehexyl methoxycinnamate. This is the number one ingredient I personally watchout for. It’s what is in chemical sunscreens. Research on pregnancy is so limited, but oxybenzone is one of the ingredients that has been studied and found to be harmful. Also it’s really bad for the fish. Avobenzone and other benzones are similar and structure, but haven’t been as well studied, so my preference is to avoid.
If it’s so bad, why do companies use it? Because it works really well and it doesn’t leave a film like mineral sunscreens do.Dimethicone
This ingredient is low risk and only has been shown to be harmful if ingested. So I just try to avoid lip products that have it.Salicylate
Salicylate is similar to salicylic acid. There are some opinions that say it’s okay to use once per day. However, I personally try to avoid. This made the safe-sunscreen search almost impossible because a lot of mineral sunscreens use it because it helps reduce redness. This ingredient is totally fine if you’re not pregnant.Retinol
It’s a vitamin A which is not safe during pregnancy.Harsh Acids
Any beta or alpha hydroxy acids (like salicylic acid) should be avoided.
Tools and sources
Little Bean App
This app evaluates products specifically related to pregnancy. So, it was important to cross check with this app because ingredients can be totally safe when you’re not pregnant and wouldn’t get flagged by other resources.EWG
The Environmental Working group has extremely rigorous standards for both human health and environmental safety. They score on a scale. EWG Verified being the highest, 1 being the second best and 10 being the most hazardous. Products can score low on EWG if they do not disclose fragrance ingredients. If that was the case, I reached out directly to the brand to verify safety during pregnancy. Products can also score low if an ingredient is ingested or used in high doses, so I made sure to evaluate the likelihood of that happening with the product’s intended use. For example, you wouldn’t eat a blush or use it in high doses.My Email
If any products I’ve listed contain fragrance I’ve either checked their site to find statements that they don’t use parabens or phthalates, or I’ve reached out to the brand directly to check.
Fine print: I’m not actually a research scientist, I was being sarcastic before. I’m just a mom doing her best. These are products I personally feel safe using, but my life’s motto is: to each their own. Especially since a lot of this info comes the fact that there is no testing. That being said, the whole reason I did this was to make your life easier.
As you can tell, I’m a freak about this stuff, so this is all very high on the safety spectrum. But, its a spectrum! Not an absolute. I didn’t know half of this stuff for my first pregnancy and my daughter is perfect in every way, so if you’ve been using anything “bad” don’t stress yourself out.