Natural Beauty: Natural Moisturizers

When perusing the local Whole Foods for an all-over moisturizer I could use in the arid Utah climate I came to two conclusions: 1) paraben-free moisturizers are spendy and/or 2) natural moisturizers are kinda goopy and sticky.  I neither like goopy or spendy, so I decided to move a few aisles over to the cooking oils to see if I could find a better alternative to moisturize my whole body.  I was pleased to discover nature already has my back: there are quite a few oils typically used for cooking (here in the U.S.) that are amazing for keeping your skin moisturized and glowing!

Enter the holy grail of oils, coconut oil!  This versatile oil not only is an amazing moisturizer for your entire body, it's great for your face and hair, too.  Coconut oil has antibacterial properties, so slathering it on a blemish or scrape can actually speed up the wound's healing time.  Coconut oil absorbs rather quickly, so it doesn't leave too much of a residue behind after application.  Coconut oil also naturally smells amazing!

Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, but it quickly melts when applied to the skin.  If you want to use it in your hair, I recommend melting a little in a bowl in the microwave and letting it cool before application.  Coconut oil really has a ton of beauty uses!

Another great moisturizer is sweet almond oil.  It is quite a bit more viscous when compared to coconut oil and is commonly used as a massage oil.  I love it as an all-over moisturizer, except for the face.  With a light hand and applying right after the bath or shower, your skin will be glowing for the rest of the day!  Sweet almond oil doesn't have a smell, which can be considered a good and a bad thing.  If you want your skin to be lightly scented, you can add a few drops of essential oil to the large container of almond oil and mix well.  Be advised that some essential oils can be irritants, so if you have sensitive skin, I'd stick to fragrance free!

The last natural moisturizer I love is grapeseed oil.  It shares many of the same properties as sweet almond oil, but is just a tad "lighter."  I like to use grapeseed oil in the summer, while sweet almond oil is what I use for the drying winter months.  Grapeseed oil is scentless, so if you want to add essential oils for fragrance, that's up to you!

Another way to moisturize we really don't think about is from the inside out!  Taking 2000-6000mg a day of fish oil can up the moisture content of your skin.  Vegans and vegetarians report that taking flaxseed oil can help in moisturizing the skin.  Drinking water throughout the day is also an effective way to keep your skin glowing!

Natural Beauty: Sunblock

Me and the sun have had a rocky relationship over the years.  I was a lifeguard and taught swimming lessons for close to seven years.  While I always wore sunblock, I still managed to get a deep, dark tan.  I also love to ski and, while in high school, I was logging about five days a week up on the slopes.  The story was the same: I put sunblock on, but still managed to cultivate a pretty mean raccoon-tan by the end of the season!

Now I put sunblock on just to go to the office!  My days of reading in the sun or sitting on the back porch for a quick ray or two are gone.  I'm already starting to see the effects of my years in the sun!  I have started to get some pretty dark sunspots and fine lines are creeping their way into the corners of my eyes.  While we all know the ideal situation is to never have gotten a tan, I have tried to be diligent about my sunblock use, so matter what the season!

One of my favorite sunblocks to use on my face is Josie Maran Protect Daily Sun Protection Argan Oil Infused 40+.  It's free of all the gunk I try to keep off my skin and it only uses physical sunblockers to protect from the harmful UVA and UVB rays.  There is some hotly contested research that eschews chemical sunblocks because they are so readily absorbed into the body.  I've been trying to stick to sun protection that is physical and inert (meaning your body can't absorb it!): the active ingredients are zinc oxide or titanium oxide.

I also really like Peter Thomas Roth Instant Mineral SPF 30.  I dislike how sometimes your sunblock can make you too shiny, this I just use as finishing powder after my makeup!  You also don't have tp wait for 30 minutes before heading outside!

What are some of your favorite sun protectors?  We all know a wide-brimmed hat is brilliant for a sunny day, but what are your tried and true methods for protecting your skin?

Natural Beauty: Exfoliation

I was struck one evening by a scary line uttered by my favorite jerk on Mad Men, Roger Sterling, something to the effect of "...after 30 women just seem to lose that glow."  Now, I'm pretty sure Roger was speaking, ahem, euphemistically, but he was pretty spot on in terms of glowing skin: at around the age of 30, cellular turnover slows down, and skin can start to look dull.

We can combat this dulling effect a number of ways, the most important being maintaining a healthy intake of fresh foods and moving around on a regular basis.  Sunblock is also another must in the holy book of great skin, sun damage is the number one aging factor for our skin.  Also, if you smoke, sorry, but you are aging your skin at an even more accelerated rate...if you don't believe me, just think of the people you know who are lifelong smokers.

If you have the basics of keeping your skin looking healthy, now you can move on to exfoliation.  Exfoliation is just a fancy term for buffing the dead skin cells off the surface of your skin.  When skin is younger, this process happens pretty naturally, but as we get older, it can help to give your skin a little "oomph" one or two times a week.

Enter the Boscia Illuminating Black Mask.  This is a crazy, but really effective, way to get some heavy duty exfoliation into your beauty routine.  It's made with clay, pine tar, vitamin C, and witch hazel to help clean the gunk out of your pores.  It also will take the flaky top layer of skin cells with it.  Slather this on, wait 20 minutes, and peel off.  It's like a Biore Nose Strip for your entire face.  The great thing about this mask is that it's free of parabens, dyes, and other artificial crap you wouldn't want to be slathering all over your body.

So try to incorporate a scrub or peel into your routine once or twice a week to help let your beautiful skin shine through!  You won't be unhappy with the results!

Glitter!

I think you can never have too much sparkle during the holiday season!

This polish is called "Boom-Boom-Pow!"

These black glittery oxfords are a perfect way to add a little sparkle to any outfit.

What's not to love? Feathers AND glitter!  Sold.

I love how this vintage glitter earring was made into a ring.

For a more subtle sparkle, put this paraben-free shimmer spray 

on your shoulders, shins, and clavicle.

SO beautiful!

Pit Juice Thunderdome!

I have been conducting a real-life science experiment since July.  In my efforts to stop putting crap, in, on, and around my body, I thought a great place to attack would be my antiperspirant.

Since the presence of aluminum in anti-stinky stuff for the underarms has been possibly linked to breast cancer and other heath issues for quite some time, I knew I'd have to give up the ghost of NOT sweating all together.  Antiperspirants actually clog the pores in your underarms, hindering your apocrine and eccrine glands from "sweating" at all, and no sweat means less places for bacteria to grow and start to funk up the place.  Deodorants, allow your glands to sweat, but wage war on the bacteria that try to set up camp in your sweaty armpits.  The only natural options are all deodorants, since one of the functions of aluminum it to stop up those glands from leaking!

SO, the rating system I chose for these natural pit juices is from 1 - 5 Sweaty Bettys.  "1" meaning a Sweaty Betty like myself would need to reapply alllllll day long at every bathroom break possible and I'd still be a stinky mess.  "5" Sweaty Bettys means, while you are sweating, there is little to no stinkage detected and if re-application is needed, it's after working out or a stressful presentation (this happened!)  Points were also deducted for ingredients that could be health no-nos, but have yet to be proven as completely dicey to use.  I used each pit juice for three weeks to allow them to get their mojo started.  Let's get to the Pit Juice Thunderdome!!!

Tom's of Maine - 1.5 Sweaty Bettys
Tom's of Maine Long-Lasting Care gets a whole Sweaty Betty ADDED for it's awesome ingredient list!  Every ingredient is listed and explained on their website, no extra gunk here, like synthetic fragrances.  If you don't perspire, just "glow" as my junior high P.E. teacher told me that's what girls should do, then by all means, get some Tom's of Maine on your pits.

Unfortunately, I was smelly by my second cup of coffee the mornings I swiped this on.

Mbeze Deodorette and Dabber Dust - 5 Sweaty Bettys 
I stumbled upon Mbeze after watching a segment of Kathie Lee and Hoda (don't ask) talking about battling the summer makeup meltdowns.  The cute little deodorettes are a little larger than a lipstick and one little deodorette lasted me about a month.  It's small size is perfect for traveling or just stashing in your purse for touch-ups.  I used the Dabber Dust on top to help with my perspiration-problem, and this magical combo worked like a charm!  My favorite scents were the Once Bitten and Coco Haze.

I used this in San Diego by the beach on a sunny day where I probably walked 5 miles on the boardwalk with no reapplication and my pits were fresh as daisies!  The only drawback to these beauties is the price...While the Dabber Dust lasted about three months, the little deodorette only held on for about a month, and at $10 a deodorette, that adds up.

 Crystal Stick Body Deodorant - 0 Sweaty Bettys 
Should have just gone commando pits with this one.  Smelly and stinky minutes out of the shower.  Ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously, save your moolah and skip this one!

GudonyaTOO Stinky No More Deodorant - 2.5 Sweaty Bettys
This was a nice surprise, it was big, you could pick your scent (I loved the Chai), and it worked moderately well.  One Sweaty Betty was deducted for the use of propylene glycol as the first ingredient, which has not been fully investigated for it's carcinogenic potential.

Soap and Glory One Pit Wonder - 3 Sweaty Bettys
This punny line was recently available at Target, but has since been removed from their shelves.  You can still order Soap and Glory items online and I'd say it's worth it to wait for this "Wonder" in the mail!  It was one of the few antiperspirants that went on and dried clear, so it didn't leave a powdery residue on my clothes.  It also has a delicate rose scent, unlike the popular hippie-ish Chai or lavender scents that are used to help "cover up" the stinkified pit in many natural deodorants.

This worked pretty well for me, with just one mandatory re-application at lunchtime.  This also got a Sweaty Betty point deduction for propylene glycol as the first ingredient.

 Bubble and Bee Pit Putty - 2.5 Sweaty Bettys
Oh, how I wanted this Putty to work SO BADLY!  Not only is this made locally here in Utah, it's ingredients are 100% USDA Organic.  You seriously could EAT this stuff and it would be a-ok...except it wouldn't taste so great.  I tried the Geranium & Lime scent and it smelled lovely and citrus-y!

You have to swipe the Putty on and rub it into your armpit, so if you rock hairy armpits, I imagine this could take awhile.  While I appreciated how natural and local this stuff was, I had to re-apply at LEAST twice a day to keep the stinkiness away.  If you aren't a Sweaty Betty like myself or have lots of time and privacy to reapply often, I'd highly recommend this local concoction.

The Body Shop DeoDry Dry-Effect Deodorant - 4.5 Sweaty Bettys
This was the underdog that I bought on a whim during my layover in Cincinatti on my way back from Paris.  You know how the Body Shop gets you, the whole "Buy 3, Get 2 Free!" deal that has your basket filled in no time!  This was one of my "2 Free!" items and I'd thought I'd give it a whirl.

It is GREAT!  I have yet to need to re-apply when using this stuff!  The roll-on is the kind I've been using and it get's and extra half-a-point for being refillable, so less waste!  The fancy specialty to this deodorant is that it uses perlite to keep your pits dryer than the average deodorant.  While breathing in perlite is a big health no-no, this is suspended in liquid form so inhaling the perlite in DeoDry is low-risk.

A half of a Sweaty Betty was deducted for the synthetic fragrance used, but I'm not gonna lie, I loved the Fresh & Floral scent..!


So there you have it!  Pit Juice Thunderdome completed!  It really was a tie between the Mbeze and Body Shop DeoDry, and the super-loser being the Crystal Stick Body Deodorant.  I hope this helps and remember everyone's body chemistry and sweat glands are different, so don't be cross with me if these don't work the same way for you;)!

Source

Natural Beauty: Mascara

My six-month-long-and-counting experiment in ridding my life of parabens continues, but I've had a few small victories along the way!

Finding natural products that work as well, if not better, than products with parabens has been a challenge.  Parabens help everything in cosmetics from being spreadable, extending their shelf life, and to not flake, to name a few...So finding products that work as well as paraben-laden junk has been tough.

But today I feel victorious, because I have found a mascara that's BETTER than any of that paraben crap!  It's Korres Provitamin B5 & Rice Bran Lash-Strengthening Mascara.  It's highly pigmented and is really layerable, plus it has virtually NO flakiness.  I wore this by the ocean, out in the sun, for an entire day and didn't even need a touch-up for dinner (my stinky armpits are another story!)

I also really like tarte's Natural Lights, Camera, Lashes! "push-up bra for your lashes" mascara.  It's not as pigmented as the Korres mascara, but it made my lashes suuuuuper long and luxe.  It's more of a night-time mascara, since it's pretty easy to Tammy Faye yourself with this stuff.  It's a bit flaky towards the end of the day, but if you're only wearing this at night, no one can see!

Do you have any paraben-free make-up that you love?

Natural Beauty: Vitamins

The skincare biz is a multi-bajillion-dollar industry and it's not surprising: people have dealt with skin issues that have hundreds of creams, serums, and potions that promise to fix whatever problem you might have.  I have to admit that I have funneled quite a bit of my own income into this snake oil business.

As a teenager, I was one of those terribly lucky girls who had porcelain perfect skin.  I got maybe two zits a year and they seemed to come and go with the new fashion statement I was making.  I also was a lifeguard, which meant hours upon hours in the sun with minimal amounts of clothing on.  While I did wear sunblock, I usually only applied it once in the morning.  I was always so ridiculously tan by the end of the summer.  Gross.

All of the skin issues I was spared from in high school seemed to take their vengeance on me as an adult: sun spots, acne, sun damage, photo-aging, melasma, THE WORKS.  And while I was lured into the creams and potions way of dealing with these new fun issues, I found myself turning to root causes of many of these problems when the topical treatments fell short.

Enter vitamins.  While antibiotics are the go-to treatment for dermatologists, I have real issues constantly consuming antibiotics to deal with non-life threatening issues, i.e. my skin.  I have been using a more holistic approach to dealing with the horrible way I treated my skin ten years ago.  Here's a list of supplements that have worked well for me:

• L-Lysine - helps with healing and inflammation of the skin
• CoQ10 - functions as an antioxidant
• Zinc - aids in healing and immunity
• Probiotics - maintains your body's "good" bacteria and helps prevent skin infections
• Flax Seed Oil - great for overall skin health

**Of course, I am not a doctor, so consult your physician before you start taking any supplements or vitamins, since there may be side effects when taking these supplements with other medications.  Dosages are also a personal decision and should be discussed with your physician, as well!**

Learning to care for my skin from the inside out was a true paradigm shift for me.  In a culture where miracle creams are being pushed to 9-year olds, it was liberating to realize my skin is a part of a bigger system that I should be taking good care of also: my body.

Natural Beauty: Dry Skin Brushing

So when trying to rid my life of parabens, I've found there is some other nastiness that I needed to throw out, not so much because of the harmful chemicals it contained, but harmful polyethylene, or simply plastic beads.  My favorite exfoliating scrub had these little buggers in them, and that had to GO.  These plastic beads that are so great in scrubbing off dead skin cells gently are also super-pro at collecting in large garbage patches in our water systems and oceans.  YUK.

Enter dry skin brushing.  First of all, it's the cheapest exfoliating agent for the price, once you spring for the $7-10 brush (get one with natural agave or cactus fibers), you're good to go for years.  I like the Yerba Prima Botanicals Skin Brush because it has a removable handle that makes it easy to scrub my back.   Secondly, my skin has never been softer since I started using this method, and last, but definitely not least, it reported that skin brushing can help reduce the appearance of cellulite!!!  Ok, I really haven't seen any changes in the cottage-cheese department, but a girl can dream.

So all you have to do is, before hopping in the shower, start at your appendages and brush in small, short strokes towards your heart.  Dry skin brushing has been reported to stimulate your lymphatic system, so help a girl out and always brush towards your heart, since this helps with lymphatic drainage.  Don't use this brush on your face, decollete, or lady parts, since the skin is super-sensitive, duh!

It will seem super-scratchy, at first, but your skin will start getting used to this mini-massage.  It really does help wake you up!  After you're done brushing, hop in the shower to rinse off all those dead skin cells.  Be sure to wash your skin brush every week with castile soap, I like Dr. Bonner's Magic All-One Soaps, and let it dry with the bristles facing down, so water won't collect in the base of the bristles! 

See, you can get super-smooth skin with no waste and no polyethylene!  Win-win.

Paraben-Free Update

A few weeks ago, I embarked on an adventure. I aspired to rid my house of all cosmetics, lotions, soaps, scrubs, and potions that had parabens in them. Little did I know that everything, I mean EVERYthing, has parabens in them!

Most of my spendy makeup I splurged on for the wedding, yep, has em'. My favorite of all favorite cleansers, that is touted by dermatologists as the BEST, has em' too. Even Shug's favorite local heat and serve enchiladas have them in it!!!

So, instead of the huge overhaul I had planned, I've been phasing the house over bit by bit. It's been a tedious process. You know why products have parabens in them? Because it makes them work better! Case in point, in search of a paraben-free mascara, I tried Physician's Formula Organic Wear. Aside from the fact that I smelled like honey all day (the smell really never went away), I had raccoon eyes by lunchtime.

Some products I've tried are actually better than products I've been using with parabens. Two products I've fallen hard for have been Korres Lip Butter and just extra virgin coconut oil. The lip butter is pretty self-explanatory, but the coconut oil is amazing! I've been using it as a moisturizer for my face and body, on the ends of my hair, as an oil-cleanser for my face, and to cook with. I know I sound like a crazy hippie, but this stuff has a million uses!

If you have any paraben-free products you love, let me know!