Catching Up

Tags

giveaways, makeup, Simple Beauty Minerals

Sorry, y’all.  I took a little unintended snooze for a while and neglected my blogs, my email and life in general outside of Poca Voglia.  I practically dropped off the map.  I’m actually surprised the Internet still knows me.  I logged in only to pay bills and buy things from Amazon.  (I heart Amazon.)  My own parents didn’t see me for three weeks, and Mom and I only talked on the phone twice in that whole time.  I know, right?  And what, you may ask, kept me holed up in my bubble for so long?  Well… see, what had happened was…

I got tendonitis in my elbow, which is aggravated by my desk height every time I use the computer at home.  So that kept me from sitting there to write, which as you see I am finally determined to do anyway.  My poor little blog has been bombarded by spam and autobot “users” despite all the free protection I can afford for the site, so checking my email has become an all out pain in the backside.  I had to deal with Comcast (the corporate spawn of Satan) three more times, and suffered the botanical injustice of watching a “white” crepe myrtle bloom purple in my front yard.  PURPLE!  The nursery graciously gave me another tree that blooms in the correct color.  (Comcast, surprisingly, also came through for me in the end.  The very end.  Go figure.) I was cell-phone harassed by an obnoxious marketing ploy for two weeks before I finally got the chance to give them an uncensored piece of my mind.  I got sucked in to a really long book that I couldn’t put down despite my grudge against it.   And on top of all that, Aaron’s computer got a virus, so any tech time I had at home was devoted to restoring his system.  Were it not for my father, I’d still be sitting there trying to disarm the virus.  He dealt with it for twenty minutes and then just formatted the hard drive.  Needless to say, I am now an overbearing Windows-updating, kilobyte-clearing, security-locking, virus-sniffing bloodhound. Floppy ears and all.

Not that it’s been all bad, mind you.  My garage now sports a gloriously organized peg-board, my yard is looking pretty good, and the family is still healthy.  I managed to ease myself into a new hairstyle, and this pasty white girl is finally sporting a natural, subtle summer glow.  The tan (if you’ll forgive my liberal use of the word) won’t last long, but I am enjoying it nonetheless.

OK, so now that you’ve heard my sob story, put down your violin and sneak a peek at this!  I am officially three weeks late with the news (because of all that crap I just whined about) but Lisa over at Simple Beauty Minerals (formerly Style Essentials) is having a month-long anniversary party.  And she’s giving gifts at her own party…’cause that’s just how she rolls.  Each week is a special celebration.  I won’t even tell you what we’ve already missed, but this week focuses on Different Colored Eyes and Lisa has free mineral shadows to send based on your eye color (if supplies still last).  Next week will have something to do with ice cream colors, which sounds perfect for this time of year.  I’ve already put you drastically behind, so head on over to Lisa’s site and sign up for her newsletter so you can get some cool gifts too!  You’ll only be sorry if you don’t sign up.  😉

May the rest of your summer be infinitely healthy!

Keep Calm and Carry On

Tags

3-Free, Butter London, mother-daughter time, nail polish, summer fun

Victoria and I did a novel thing Friday night.  At least, it was novel for us.  No one else in a three hundred mile radius would have blinked an eye, but we established a new mother-daughter bonding activity: Trampoline Manicures.  You must realize that the novelty of this is that I actually, in fact, enjoyed it.

This hen party spontaneously combusted simply because Vic wanted to jump on the trampoline and I wanted to paint my nails.  Don’t all wise women just assume those two activities are compatible?  Duhhh…

So, out to the trampoline we marched…into the 90+ degree early evening (I don’t know what the thermostat actually registered because, quite honestly, some days I’m too chicken to look.)  This particular evening was not nearly as scorching as I expected it to be, though, and I found myself enjoying the gentle breeze blowing through the tree branches high above us while we buffed and filed and painted each other’s nails – all in the middle of our net-walled trampoline.

And then we squealed and laughed and bounced each other through the air as if we had not a care in the world for our freshly decorated fingers and toes.  And here is yet another shameless plug for a product I have fallen in love with:  Butter London nail lacquer.  Lisa over at Simple Beauty Minerals (formerly Style Essentials, my fave beauty supplier) suggested it to me because it is “3-Free,” meaning it is manufactured without the three toxic chemicals commonly found in nail polish: DBP, formaldehyde and toluene.  It smells like regular nail polish – it is paint, after all.  But it also has the staying power of regular nail polish, a feature we had begun to miss in our more “natural” polishes.  And Butter London magically causes me to speak with a British accent, which makes Victoria giggle endlessly.

This spiffy polish also comes with a hefty price tag, but I’m sold, nonetheless.  $15/bottle.  Yesirree, you read that right.  Still, it beats the $20 bottles I had tried in the beginning.   And, up until midnight tonight you can get 30% off your entire order on Butter London’s website.  (Sorry to be so late bringing this news to you, but it’s still worth sharing.)  Basically, if you put four bottles in your cart, one of them is free plus you get free shipping.  Don’t ask me how I know that little detail.  😉  If you’re reading this too late for the sale, go on over there and sign up for the newsletter so you won’t miss the next one.   If you happen to go looking for Butter London locally, I can tell you that most ULTA stores carry it, but don’t expect to use any coupons on it.  Also, there is an extensive list of American retail shops on Butter London’s website.  God Save the Queen!

The only downside of our trampoline manicure was that both dogs had gone outside with us.  While Mabel, our four-year-old Labrador Retriever, tried (unsuccessfully, thankGOD) to get on the trampoline with us, Mason, our 13-year old Lab rested in the grass nearby, but had such difficulty in the humidity that he could not walk himself 20 yards back to the house.   He had 30 minutes of labored breathing outside, during which I managed to lay him on a blanket and drag all 80 pounds of him back to the patio.  Five minutes after that, I was hovering above him and supporting his torso while he ambled across the patio to the back door.  I was absolutely beside myself, fraught with guilt for having let him venture outside with us for longer than he could withstand.  But he did eventually cool down – 30 minutes later – in the kitchen, where Victoria lay across him, crying and begging him not to die.  (We don’t mince too many words in our house, you see.)  He happily obliged, coming around to his old self within another half hour, wagging his tail and slobbering kisses on us, and inspecting our fingernails, which were not marred in the least for all the doggy drama they had endured.   Ahhh, Mason…Carry on, old chap!!

(I believe it is proper blog etiquette to note that I get no rewards, kudos or even nods for recommending these products with my lopsided, drooling reviews.  Seriously.  I wish.)

Rites of Passage and Rules of the Road

Tags

beauty, cosmetics, girls and makeup

I came home one day last week to a slightly made-up version of my 10-year old daughter: a little eye shadow, some mascara and lip gloss.   Mom had prepared me that Vic was asking to “practice” with some cosmetics and had been provided with her own sampling of some Grandmama-approved colors.  Mom knew that I would have no problem with the quality of the cosmetics because we both buy our beauty products from the same place.  (That would be from Lisa at Style Essentials, for those of you who might be curious.  We love her!)  I asked Mom over the phone if Vic’s friends were wearing makeup already.  She replied, “Apparently, there’s been talk of it.”

Ohhhh, great.

I admit I get a tad squeamish when I see little girls with their faces made up.  I try not to go all judgemeister on the moms; I know we all pick our battles.  But two things instantly blaze through my mind when I see pre-teens wearing makeup reminiscent of 80’s glam rock:  1) what ungodly chemicals are seeping into that baby’s face? And 2) what message are we giving our daughters?  Do we really have to wear makeup to be “pretty?”  Is “being pretty” all that it’s cracked up to be?  Is it the be-all/end-all of womanhood?

While I want my daughter to answer “NO!” to each of those questions, I admit that I rarely (if ever) leave the house without at least a hint of powder and mascara.  I don’t walk into a store wearing my pajamas and sporting bed-head; a little makeup, to me, is as important as getting dressed and combing my hair.  At some point, the line is crossed from showing respect for ourselves to drawing attention to ourselves.  I’d like for my child to keep it all in perspective.

I hope to teach my daughter that beauty is on the inside.  It’s what you see with the heart, not with the eyes.  Beauty is who you are when you think no one is looking.  Women will always be their own worst critics; I know I am.  Ultimately, who my daughter is on the inside is far more important to me than how she looks on the outside.  As she matures, nothing would please me more than for her to hold the same values.

But, I put all my worrying to the side for the moment and focus on the rules of makeup with her.  I have a few. (You knew I would.)

Makeup Rule #1: Makeup should not look like makeup.  If I can see it before I see you, it’s too much.

Makeup Rule #2: If you put it on your face, you must take it off before bedtime.  Skin care is of utmost importance.  No sleeping in makeup, no matter how natural the product is.

Makeup Rule #3: You do not share makeup with other people.  Ever.  (Ewww.)  In fact, I hereby invoke my Mom Authority to limit the sharing of personal items to tee-shirts and shoes, even though the shoe thing is still against my better judgment.

Makeup Rule #4: I will approve and buy the makeup.   There is no need for you to ever even entertain the notion of putting mainstream, chemical-laden cosmetics on your skin.

Makeup Rule #5: You will read the ingredient labels.  You will become familiar with and knowledgeable about what you are putting on your skin.  Then, at the very least, when you go off the rails in college and sport CoverGirl to your heart’s content, you can’t use ignorance as a defense.  In other words, Mama’s not gonna raise no fool.

For now, Vic’s experience with cosmetics will be limited to learning how to use a few select things (pale shadow and lip gloss, cleansers and moisturizers).  I began wearing makeup in middle school at age 12; my baby girl will be there next year at age 11.  I’m not ready for her to be glammed out by next August, so we will navigate these waters slowly, carefully and together.

She is, after all, the reason I know all this stuff in the first place.

Healthy Oils

Scattered in among my current thoughts about houses, summer sandals and particle physics (no, not really!) are a few things you can actually benefit from: my thoughts on healthy oils for your skin. I have two cost-conscious favorites: almond oil and coconut oil.  My splurge oil is jojoba.  I’m sure there are a multitude of other healthy oils, many of which I am learning about for cooking purposes. But these oils are the ones I have tried myself and can vouch for.  Here’s how they have helped me:

Almond oil as makeup remover

Whether you are sixteen or sixty, I hope you aren’t neglecting to take your makeup off at night.  And if you use mineral makeup, as I do, then you know that it doesn’t wash, rub or cry off with any ease.  But that’s okay, because we have oils that make the job ten times easier.  I use about a dime-sized drop of almond oil on a warm-water washcloth to remove my makeup.  It does a great job at a fraction of the cost of mainstream makeup removers AND is beneficial to your skin. Plus, being pure almond oil, it won’t clog your pores, threaten you with cancer or knock your hormone levels out of whack.  After the first rinse, I typically use Style Essential’s Pink Mineral Complexion Bar.  At least twice a week, I skip the Bar and use another dime sized drop of almond oil on my face, followed by draping a hot-water washcloth over my face for a couple of minutes.  Sadly, I cannot remember who I learned this from – either Lisa at Style Essentials or Robin at Toxic Beauty – but I know both ladies would agree that this is an excellent way to cleanse and moisturize.  If you double up on the almond oil, you don’t really even need another moisturizer, but I use one anyway because I absolutely lovvvvvve my moisturizer – it’s an olive oil crème from Style Essentials and it rocks!

One word of caution to contact lens wearers:  When I wash my face at night I still have my contacts in.  If you rub the almond-oil-washcloth too much into your eyes, as I sometimes do because I want to make sure I get all the eyeliner and mascara off, then you could get the oil onto your contacts and blur them up a bit.  Lens solution cleans them right up, and I probably don’t even need to mention this to any of you, except that I’d be the reader who squints into the mirror saying, “Well, crap!  She didn’t say anything about THIS!”  So there.  I said it.

Almond and Coconut oils as body lotion

I first used coconut oil as a moisturizer during my initial 365 days on this blog.  I loved it! The one I bought has no scent, so I ran no risk of smelling like an Almond Joy.  I would use it instead of lotion after a shower.  My heels LOVED it and coconut oil became an immediate fixture in my homespun pedicures.  After a while of using the coconut oil (especially during the winter) I got tired of having to warm up the solidified oil in order to use it, and I was afraid I was using too much and wasting.  So I switched to almond oil – bought the big bottle – and added my favorite essential oil to it.  Voila! Instant perfumed moisturizer.  Into the big bottle I pour about 20 drops of jasmine oil (you can pick any oil or combination of your favorites!) and shake it up a bit.  By the next morning, the essential oil is dispersed through the almond oil and smells sooooooo good.  (NOTE: Do not use the scented oil as makeup remover.  Keep a separate bottle of pure almond oil for your face.  Trust me.)  I have since also put jasmine oil into my coconut oil as well.  And now, I use either the coconut or the almond right before I dry off from the shower – this way, I use less and there’s no chance of being shiny when I leave for work.  J

The only thing I don’t like about the oils – and this may only relate to me and my personal weirdness – is that the oils react with the gold in one of my 14K rings and discolors my skin under the ring.  Coconut oil makes it worse, but it still does it a little with the almond oil.  If it’s the weekend and I have plenty of time between shower and jewelry, then it’s not an issue.  Since it doesn’t react with my wedding ring, I’ve considered asking a jeweler to examine the gold in the other ring.  But really…like I have time for that!

Coconut oil as tanning agent

OK, this is where it gets a little weird.  Even I can see it.  When I wrote the previous post about having to give up my sunless tanner, one of the commenters posted a link that has steered me in a completely new direction.  The Paleo lifestyle…which shall be a whole post unto itself.  I read this post on Sarah’s paleo blog and decided to give it a try.  I mean, I’m already vampire white and eating differently from everyone else.  What have I got to lose?

Sarah suggests that sun protection is more effective when addressed from the inside out.  As the sunburn is a symptom of inflammation, address and prevent the inflammation itself.  Makes sense to me.  While I won’t go all into the paleo benefits and backups in this post, I will say that Sarah listed a small supplement routine that, in addition to the paleo lifestyle, should help increase sun tolerance, i.e. the time you can be in the sun without burning.  Vitamin D (which gets cancelled out by sunscreen), cod liver oil (don’t gag…it’s tasteless in the gelcap form) and – you guessed it – coconut oil are all on the list.

Now, I’m still wrestling with this one, even though I totally see the reasoning behind it.  Sarah suggests downing ¼ cup of coconut oil in a mug of herbal tea each day.  I managed to do it for three days.  Perhaps if I find a coconut oil for cooking that does not have the coconut flavor, I’ll be better about that. (And if, in the last cup, the oil didn’t pool on top of the tea – a fact which led my mom to believe I was completely outside my mind.)  Instead, I have used coconut oil almost exclusively in my cooking.

My tiny paleo results, though skewed because of a week of complete dietary mishaps, are that I only got a tad pink on my neck during my four hours at the school’s Field Day last week, using no sunscreen (in the name of experimentation, people!) Also, my face was blemish-free for two weeks…until I went with Dom for pizza and beer.  Damn the pizza and beer!  I’m climbing back on the paleo wagon and will post more information when I’ve done proper experimentation.  😉

In the meantime, go get you some healthy oils, and be free of the cosmetic chemicals!

Nixed the Tan. Please Send Chocolate

Now that I have swung my feet over the top of the proverbial Hill, I find another demon to wrestle…my vanity.

See, there I was, minding my own business, perfectly content with my cosmetics and my skin care, with my frozen pizzas and my toxic toothpaste… when suddenly, out of the blue, BAM!!  One little meeting sends me into an information tailspin.  Next thing I know, I’m tossing out makeup, shampoos and half the contents of our pantry.  For almost two years now (gosh, has it been that long??!) I have worked diligently to nix the petrochemicals from our midst and provide healthier options for my family.

It ain’t been easy, folks.  That is one seriously bumpy road.

Those who have followed my journey will recall that I have two predominantly unnatural addictions: my hair color and my sunless tanner.  I worked very hard to find suitable, affordable alternatives that I could trust.  Knowing that it was completely laughable to think that there would be purely natural applications to yield purely unnatural results, at a minimum I insisted on no parabens (hormone disruptors) and no petrochemicals.

Toxic Beauty recently turned me toward Bubble and Bee’s website, which I found to be so full of information that my head spun.  Hopping through links, I landed on an article about the dangers of sunless tanners and, thinking I already knew everything, clicked to have my suspicions confirmed.

Oh my holy stars.  What I learned almost drove me to Starbucks in the middle of Lent.  Or to Thrifty Liquor.  It’s really a coin-toss at this point.  But I digress…

DID YOU KNOW that sunless tanners, even the natural, “safe” ones I have touted, contain Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) – the chemical responsible for the faux bronzing of one’s skin.  Without DHA, your sunless tanner is practically useless.  (Remember my homemade tea tanner?  I rest my case.)  There are a ton of things I find disturbing about DHA, but I am most bothered by the fact that DHA messes with the body’s ability to produce Vitamin D.  You need Vitamin D not only to shield you from the sun’s harmful rays, but also to help the body absorb calcium.  Calcium helps your bones. ..Hello…

Studies show people exposed to DHA usually have a Vitamin D deficiency.  I’m deficient enough in other areas…I just don’t think I should risk this one.  I really can’t afford to break a leg trying to run from the Osteo-monster, ya know?  (For those of you who want all the sciency jargon, the studies are linked here, here and here.  Oh, and here too.  Thanks to Bubble and Bee for laying it all out there.)

Long story short, a half-full bottle of “natural” sunless tanner now rests at the bottom of my trash can, and my vanity will have to find another vice.  Like, fake eyelashes or a surgical butt-lift.

I kid…I kid…

If I have to be so ridiculously pale in the dead of summer, can I at least be a Cullen?

“I’ve Been ‘Yes’ and I’ve Been ‘Oh Hell No!’” – The Homemade Shampoo Review

I have recently had more bad-hair days than I care to admit.  Anyone who sees me regularly will tell you that my hair pretty much always looks the same.  (Style-wise, that is.  Dontcha go talkin’ ‘bout my color!!)  Last week my hair was pulled up, pulled back, and lopsided on various days of the week. Every morning was a struggle to settle on a ‘do that had a chance of lasting through lunch.  And the problem was that I have finally run out of conditioner – a conditioner that I did not want to replace, despite the fact that it worked just fine.

(Side note to my dear co-workers: if you didn’t notice my bad hair days, thank you.  You are too, too kind.  If you did notice and privately wondered what was up with my hair, well, now you know.)

The conditioner, while promoted as “eco-chic” and even borderline “organic” had more twenty-letter ingredients than I cared for.  I could pronounce less than a third of the listing, and my conscience was working overtime on what that might be doing to my hair.  Likewise for the corresponding shampoo.  There has to be a better product.

This brings me to what I have wanted to try for a year now…making my own shampoo that will cleanse and condition my hair all at once while preserving my un-natural color so that I don’t end up looking like a copper kettle on legs.

(And about that hair color:  I am far too vain to go THAT damn natural.  I am pushing both 40 years and 40 gray hairs.  I can’t do nuthin’ about the years, but the gray hair is another matter entirely!!!  I use Naturtint permanent color about every 6 weeks – I should use it every 4.  Although plant-based, it too has ingredients I’ve never heard of.  But it has no formaldehyde, no ammonia, and no burning or funky smell.  It’s a win for the natural-yet-vanity-obsessed.)

In the vast majority of my research, I ran across one problem:  many promoters of homemade shampoo tout its awesomeness by cheerily proclaiming that they can go up to five (or so) days without washing their hair.

Dear goodness.

Friends, I cannot go a single day without washing my hair.  Not because it gets nasty and funky and such, but because I CAN’T STYLE IT WORTH A DAMN IF IT’S NOT WASHED AND FRESHLY BLOWN DRY.

You’ve never seen me on a weekend morning, have you?  There’s a reason.

So while I am anxious to try some homemade shampoo recipes, I am going to need a lot of support from those of you who have to see me.  Sure, there are some great sounding natural shampoos that I really would love to try, but they are $20/bottle.  That’s not a price I can experiment with, ya know?

This morning I tried an egg-yolk, coconut oil, lime rinse concoction and PRAYED that I wouldn’t end up smelling like a happy-hour special, or worse yet, breakfast.   It felt okay in the shower, but afterward…

You guessed it.  Oh.  Hell.  No.

My hair was remarkably easy to comb through, but no matter which direction I combed it, it stayed in that position.  This is not a good thing.  Plus, after I managed to rid my hair of all the lime pulp (the lime was a bad idea…just a really, really bad idea…) and blow-dried it, it still looked wet.  And unnaturally “shape”-able.  Ick.  It reminded me of the time I used jojoba oil to condition my hair.

I emerged from the bathroom to be greeted by the shocked looks of my children.  “Mommy!  What did you do to your hair?!” asked Victoria, her eyes alternately wide open and then scrunched shut.

“I made my own shampoo, sweetie.”

“Did it work?  Why does it look like that??”

My thoughts exactly.

And this brings me to my next thought…how in the heck do some people manage to go five days with hair like this when I can barely manage to go five minutes?!  I foolishly thought it might somehow get better as the minutes passed, so I put on makeup and plugged in my rollers.  And then I just couldn’t take it anymore.  I got back in the shower and used the Giovanni shampoo to rid myself of this horrid memory.

So now it’s time for you to enlighten me.  Do you use a natural shampoo?  Do you make your own?  Do you feel the need to wash your hair every day like me?  And finally, is there any hope that I will ever find a shampoo or a recipe that makes me both pleased and proud?

Happy Birthday to The Story of Cosmetics!!!

In case you couldn’t tell, I love anniversaries, milestones, and special celebrations.  So I was super-pumped when I checked my email this morning and read that today is the FIRST BIRTHDAY of The Story of Cosmetics.  You may recall that I featured the video on this blog a mere 364 days ago.

Here is the email message I received:

One year ago today we released The Story of Cosmetics to build support for national legislation to regulate personal care product ingredients.

For years, the multi-billion dollar cosmetics industry had been largely left alone to decide what was safe to put in their products. You know, things like lead in lipstick, neurotoxins in body spray and carcinogens in baby wash.

Now, one year later our partners at the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics are making significant progress.

One big reason the Campaign is more hopeful than ever about our chances for getting this serious public health threat addressed is the increasing support for reform coming from this country’s community of small personal care product companies.

We’ve posted a blog today about the incredible work the Campaign has done to incorporate the concerns of this community-among the best actors in the market already-into the newly introduced Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011.

This groundbreaking bill would eliminate the most harmful chemicals from cosmetics (as Europe already does!), and ensure that personal care products are reviewed for safety before they end up on store shelves.

If that sounds reasonable to you, why not help us celebrate The Story of Cosmetics’ first birthday by sharing The Story of Cosmetics with your friends and family and then letting your elected officials know that you support the Safe Cosmetics Act.

You can watch and share the movie on our site. Let’s get that viewcount up to 1 million!

Then make sure to visit the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics site to send a message to Congress.

Thanks for your support and for all you do to make this a better world.

Onward!

Annie, Michael, Allison, Christina and Renee
The Story of Stuff Project Team

So, why is the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011 so dog-gone important?  Well, I learned in the blog post that is mentioned and linked above that the current law governing cosmetics was last updated in 1938.  NINETEEN THIRTY-EIGHT, people!! My grandmother was younger then than Victoria is now!!  The current law basically says the cosmetic companies do not have to test their products for safety, and they don’t have to tell us all the ingredients. (That’s one of the reasons the ingredient “fragrance” is so dangerous…it can be a combination of literally dozens of harmful chemicals and no one is required to disclose those chemicals!)  As the post states, “[The FDA] can’t even require product recalls—as we recently learned when a popular hair straightener, called the Brazilian Blowout, was found to contain dangerous levels of formaldehyde.” 

It is my sincerest hope that this message will spread to consumers everywhere, and that everyone will begin to read and understand labels…and cast those increasingly-important votes at the checkout in favor of safer products.  

What a wonderful reason to celebrate!

A Little Salt, a Little Lime, and… Pumpkin?

My Facebook status this weekend shared the fact that Mabel the dog does not like salt and lime, these being the first and only things I have seen her turn her nose away from.  My FB friends thought Mabel and I were shooting tequila together.  And while I think Mabel would probably be a lot of fun to watch with a tequila worm, I should hope I could score a more discriminating drinking buddy.  I had to burst the bubble (and a few happy images) and confess that I was exfoliating my feet with the salt and the lime.  My friends are now scarred forever.

I read somewhere that a good, quick DIY skin smoother was half of a lime dipped in salt and rubbed on the knees and elbows, etc.  With me and Vic dressing up our toes with our new polishes, I decided this was the perfect time to try this trick on my feet.  Sort of a beachy, wish-I-had-a-margarita-right-now pedicure, if you will.

It wasn’t half bad!  My feet were really soft when I was finished. But the salt (I used sea salt first) trickled away pretty quickly during the scrubbing and the lime was holy-crap-why-didn’t-I-plan-ahead-and-and-set-this-fruit-out COLD.  But otherwise, a fine little homemade scrub nonetheless.  The next night I decided to try it again, but this time I would use kosher salt (a coarser variety) and add enough olive oil to make a stiff paste.  Then I used the lime with the olive oil/salt mixture to exfoliate my legs and arms (getting my tan from a bottle makes regular exfoliating extra important!)  I liked it with the olive oil so much better.  Olive oil has great skin conditioning properties, plus it keeps the salt in the general area to be worked on.  It was recommended for use in a DIY sugar scrub, but the proportions of that recipe made it way too drippy, hence my using  considerably less this time.  (But no, I didn’t measure anything out.  If I had to guess, I’d say I used 2 T kosher salt to ½ t oil.)

Sunday I came across an interesting DIY hibiscus hair pack.  If I ever give my hibiscus plants enough water, they will probably bloom enough for me to try this recipe.  In the meantime, this made me want to make my own conditioner with whatever I had on hand.  Looking through the fridge I spied some leftover pumpkin from a facial mask recipe I tried a while back.  So I googled a pumpkin conditioner recipe and voila…I found Cassadie and her recipe which is ½ cup Pumpkin, ¼ cup yogurt, and 2 tablespoons honey.  Stuff I always have on hand.  Cassadie warned her readers in a follow-up post that it is highly important to puree your pumpkin so it is easier to rinse out.  Can do! (Mine was actually already pureed because it came from a can.  I think Cassadie had used fresh pumpkin.)

Anyhoo, I mixed up the conditioner which, minus some egg whites, bore strong resemblance to the facial mask I had made.  I slathered the pumpkin through my hair, being sure to massage it into the roots (this stuff, too, was refrigerator fresh and appropriately c.o.l.d.) Since it was soooo similar to the pumpkin facial mask, I decided to slather the leftovers on my face before rinsing the bowl.

I have to say, this is the tastiest skin care treatment I have ever used.  😉

I left the conditioner in my hair for 20 minutes, wrapped in plastic wrap, with orange goo all over my face and neck.  Victoria laughed out loud, shouted, “Mama! Look at you!!” and took my picture.  I was instantly grateful that she does not have a Facebook account.

I found the mixture pretty easy to rinse out, but I rinsed extra long just to be sure.  I could tell a difference in the feel of my hair from the time I put the mixture in to the time I rinsed it out.  It felt softer.  And since it’s still wet as I type this, here’s hoping for a good result when I style my hair in the morning.

Otherwise Mabel and I are cracking open the tequila.

These Little Piggies: A Nail Polish Review

Victoria and I want to go on record as whole-heartedly endorsing Piggy Paint, the best-ever “natural as mud” nail polish.   (I feel the need to state here that she and I were not asked to review this product and we are certainly not being paid to do so.  We have no ties to Piggy Paint other than being fully satisfied customers  who just want to share the love.)

I first heard of Piggy Paint when Mrs. Bachelor Girl sent me a link from her Google Reader.  (Thanks, Kel!)  I  investigated them, followed them on Twitter and Facebook, placed an order and fell in love.

THIS is some rockin’ nail polish!  I had tried one other natural nail polish, and while I liked it enough to keep using it, it wasn’t a perfect fit.  For one, it chipped rather quickly.  For the second strike, the specially  formulated nail polish remover took FOR.EV.ER. to remove the polish.  I was willing to keep it up in the interest of avoiding the harsh chemicals found in mainstream brands, but I had a long way to go to get to the completely satisfied department.

Enter Piggy Paint.  We first bought Dragon Tears (lime green) and Sleepover (black).  No traditional colors for us Mainiero chicks, that’s for sure!  I slapped the green on my toes and Vic styled herself up with the black polish, and we were good to go.

Since the nail polish has earned my Official Stamp of Approval, Vic now has a color wish list that could rival any movie buff’s Netflix queue.   This week I placed another order for the Piggy Paint remover and the Little Miss Firecracker set (red, white and blue polishes in honor of the recent holiday).  They arrived in Friday’s mail.  Victoria was ecstatic!!  So after dinner I pattern-painted her nails and then tonight she graciously painted mine.  Here is the result.

If you decide to try Piggy Paint yourself (and I strongly encourage you to do so!) you’ll want to follow the instructions about using the hairdryer.  That’s the only difference in application from traditional nail polish. Because Piggy Paint doesn’t have the harsh chemicals in it, it needs heat in order to “cure” and develop its chip-resistance.  A hairdryer’s warm air on low setting for 1-2 minutes will set the paint nicely and help your manicure last.

A word about the remover: like the polish, it does not contain the harsh toxic chemicals that mainstream nail polish removers contain.  So you will not be able to make two swipes and remove four coats of polish in the blink of an eye.  It will take a little time and elbow grease, especially if you have cured it with a hairdryer.  But knowing you are using a safer product with no icky, obnoxious smell will make it all worthwhile.

I saw recently that Piggy Paint is now also making Puppy Paint for all those frou-frou Fidos.  I’m sure Mabel, our very own ooh-la-lab, will want in on this girly-girl fun.  I’m thinking Call of the Wild (hot pink) may become her signature color!!

This Year’s Plan for My Summer Tan

If you haven’t seen it lately, the Cosmetics Safety Database got an upgrade!  I can’t wait to tell you all about it, but that post isn’t ready yet.  The Cosmetics Database is the first place I go to see if the products I’m considering are worthy of touching my skin.  Sadly, many of them are not.

For instance, remember when I told you all about my new sunless tanner that contained organic oils and a pleasant smell, and I was so pumped up about using it?  Well, it finally made its way into the database.  Overall, the Lavera Sunless Tanner scores a “5,” which is a moderate risk level indicator for toxic ingredients. Some of those toxic ingredients could lead to cancer and developmental/reproductive toxicity.  As far as I am concerned, that is So. Not. Cool.

I had to do a fair amount of investigating, but I finally found  Nature’s Gate Sunless Tanner, which I am happy with and which scores a slightly lower “4” in the database, which is still a moderate risk level, but includes no carcinogenic or developmental/reproductive toxins.  Fragrance is its worst offender, and while I am trying to oust fragrance from my products, the sunless tanner options are so limited that I will suck it up and allow fragrance in this one.

I first read a good review of the Nature’s Gate tanner here, and then I bought a tube and tried it myself.  I love it.  It really does take 12-24 hours for the color to show, but it’s not drastic or orange, and it fills in tan-lines nicely without looking made-up or piled-on.  For the win, my legs no longer reflect the sun as if to suggest that I moonlight on the set of True Blood.

And are you ready for the cartwheel of cosmetic news?…It’s A THIRD the price of the one I was using!!! ($7 on Amazon)

[Happy Snoopy Dance in full progress]

I may still try other self-tanners in the interest of a lower risk rating, but for now I am content with what I have found.  I think I’ll go shopping for shorts now.  🙂