Nellie's All Natural Laundry Soda

my husband and i have been using nelly's for a couple of years now and it's great. i totally recommend this to everyone...reallly i do.  it's all natural with no scent and the clothes come out smelling like real clothes. not like spring flowers or pine cones or water lillies or whatever else they have you smelling like. 
i first used it on my towels and though hesitant, it kicked me on my butt with a big "ha!".  totally cleaned my towels and they come out soft as well.  btw, i don't use fabric softener but that's another post on its own.
back to nellie's. 
the website at first glance is quite interesting. it's like a cartoon or something you'd expect your kids to be looking at.  it's something like a puppet set with messages and characters that pop up the longer you're on that page.  then you see nellie and her story.  she's a real person that first came up with the idea of hypallergenic, all natural, and friendly for the environment detergent.

the detergent is HE machine compatible and uses about 1 tablespoon. for a $10 tin, it washes 100 loads.  Costco sells a huge bin for $100 and you can get 1000 washes..that's what we use. we bought it about 2 year ago and are still working on it. and that's after giving some away to friends and family.  we use it on towels, colours, whites and dress shirts.  even dish towels come out clean. and yes, they smell like clothes.

It's a powder that is quite fine textured so when you're scooping it, it can easily go up your nose so be careful. it contains (from her blog):
SODA ASH – (SODIUM CARBONATE) also known as washing soda. In domestic use, it is used as a water softener during laundry.
SODIUM METASILICATE – A major use is as a builder (a material that enhances or maintains the cleaning efficiency of a surfactant, principally by inactivating water hardness) in soaps and detergents
SODIUM CHLORIDE - Sodium chloride, also known as common salt, table salt, or halite.  As well as the familiar uses of salt in cooking, salt is used in many applications, from manufacturing pulp and paper to setting dyes in textiles and fabric, to producing soaps and detergents.
CITRIC ACID – This is a weak organic acid. It serves as an environmentally benign cleaning agent and acts as an antioxidant.

here's the nellie's link. they sell other cleaning products as well so take a look.  and totally try it out. what's $10 for the livelihood of the planet??

http://www.nelliesallnatural.com/

The Guelph Soap Company

The Gueph Soap Company

We've been using this soap for the last year or so in place of our regular shower soap. The various scents are quite lovely and not too harsh on the nose. Whether the scent is artificial or not, it's not quite clear. It lathers easily and doesn't leave that soapy feeling on your skin nor does it dry your skin too much.

The company itself specializes in various products ranging from concrete additives, dry mix products, surfactants, liquid blending and lard oils.

The website is quite simple and doesn't give too much product information but does mention the use of essential oils.

The soap itself is a vegetable bar with a blend of palm, palm kernal and coconut oils depending on the the bar.

It can be bought in most supermarkets and health food stores for about $1.20 each.

I would recommend anyone trying this out as a small step to something less artificial and a little more natural. It's not a big change nor is it tough on your wallet.

Try it and let me know what you think.

Ok. So, I've been a little delingquint in posting but here's the thing. I've got some great products for you guys out there that I've been really interested in and I hope you're just as interested.

For the last little while I've been really focused on what make-up I've been using and what's in it. I'm one of those girls that can't leave the house without atleast powder and eyeliner or mascara on. I know, vain. But that's just me.
The thing is, I work shift work which has left me with dark circles and being chinese, I have monolids (no eyelid crease) so my eyes look even smaller. There fore I MUST have make up in public!!  Ok, not that much emphasis needed.

In any case, my husband started reading this book called "There's Lead in yourLipstick" by Gillian Deacon. http://www.gilldeacon.ca/
It talked about all the crazy stuff that cosmetic manufacturers put in our mae-up and what it could do to us.  This and the little online video that really got me going called The Story of Cosmetics

So there began my quest to find more natural or dare I say organic cosmetics.  Here are just a couple of products that I've started using.

Korres Mineral Foundation in Wild Rose with SPF 30.

When I started looking into natural or organic make-up, I searched the Walmart aisles and Shoppers Drug Mart (here in Canada) and found very little to nothing that didn't have parfum, or ingredients that I could barely pronounce.  I wanted something that was pretty natural with little to no preservatives.  Difficult yes, but not impossible.  I then went to Sephora (which I'd never gone before and now LOVE!) and found this mineral powder foundation. It's a light coverage and very nice for hotter humid spring/summer days.  I bought 02 Fairly light colour and for my not so fair chinese skin tone, it matches pretty well.  What really sold me was that it contained SPF 30 which, you may already know, is a must!  Not only that though, the SPF was a physical sunscreen not a chemical one. I'm allergic to chemical sunscreens so I jumped at the chance to try this.  It contains both titanium dioxide and zinc oxide which are not absorbed into your skin, but just sit on top and protect your skin that way. 
Like I said, it's a light coverage but can also be used as a finishing powder as well.  Beware too much is always too much.  And the amount that you get can last you a good while. I've had mine for over a year and I have about a third left.  Enough to get me through the summer.

The second product that I want to talk about is Josie Maran's tinted moisturizer.
I found this after I finished my (name not mentioned) foundation and concealer. I wanted something that would shorten my makeup routine in the morning and was again, better for my skin, aka sans chemicals.
Into Sephora I went and found this in the section right next to Korres.  It was winter so I wanted something more moisturizing  I took a sample home and liked it.  Here are my thoughts.

For the price that I paid (somewhere along the lines of $36-42 CDN) you get quite a bit of tinted moisturizer.  I looked at other reviews about this brand and because Josie Maran is all about the Argan Oil, many of the reviews said it was oily....uh yeah!  I was ok with that. Argan Oil is said to be very enriching for your skin, and high in antioxidants, omega 6 and vitamin E.
It also has an SPF of 30 with titanium dioxide and zinc oxide- score!
Being a tinted moisturizer, you have to remember that the coverage is not like a foundation. It gives a little colour.  I would get asked time and time again if I'd been anywhere just because the shade that matched best was still a bit dark for my skind tone (Linen).  But for me, I was ok with that.  Just beware when picking a shade. 

When you first put it on it does feel a bit heavy especially since it's supposed to be a moisturizer.  But it eventually absorbs into your skin. I don't have any bad acne so the oily feeling doesn't bother me that much but for those who have oilier skin, you might want to keep this in mind when trying it out.

One last thing. When using it, the Argan Oil does separate a bit from the rest of the moisturizer so if you give it a good shake before you use it, it helps to mix the Argan oil back into the cream.

I know this is very different from the other posts/reviews but I thought I'd share a couple things that I'm really enjoying now.

I'm also trying the new Boscia BB creme so stay tuned for a review on that.  For those who aren't into cosmetics, I'll be reviewing some shampoos and face cleansers soon :D

Thanks for reading!!  And that's my 2-cents

Bio-Vert Multipurpose Cleaner

I know, it's been a while but here's something that most households are very interested in. The multipurpose cleaner...or really to me, the bathroom cleaner.

As most new green converts, I used to use the highly caustic-to-your-nose commercial cleaners to clean my bathroom and tub. It'd squirt it in wherever I had to wash and with small shallow breaths I'd scrub like there was no tomorrow until I felt a little faint and stick my head out the bathroom door to take in a couple breaths of fresh air, then go back to scrubbing...well, maybe not everybody does this but I did.

Since I switched to more earth friendly cleaners, I have to say things are a little better. I recently started using a line of cleaning products manufactured by Savons-Prolav, Inc., a locally Canadian owned company, called Bio-vert. It's a family owned and operated company from Laval, Quebec and has been in business since 1984. They are strict about how and what types of chemicals are used in manufacturing their products as well as the types of packaging that's used ensuring that it's 100% post-recycled as well as biodegradable. They also produce dishwashing liquid soap, dishwasher tabs and laundry soap. The dishwasher tabs I'm in the middle of trying out so stay tuned for my review. You can find this in most big box supermarkets and hardware store. I think I bought mine from Canadian Tire for less than $10 from what I remember.

Back to the multipurpose cleaner. Appearance wise, the bottle is a standard spray bottle but not very sturdy since the neck snapped off as soon as I brought it home. So I wasn't really able to test out the spray nozzle. I ended up transferring it to another spray bottle that I had used for something else. It's a clear liquid but has a bit of a strong smell...perhaps it's in all cleaners to have that super chemically smell. Not very impressed with that aspect of the cleaner. As for the cleaning capability itself, it actually does quite well. It's doesn't foam up as much as the other cleaners do but it does the job. No left over residue or scratch marks. Leaves the faucet and drain pretty clean and rinses well. I was quite impressed with this.

Over all, I'd recommend this as an environmentally friendly cleaning product and is comparable to other commercial product...now if they could just make the smell a little less chemically. Then it would be perfect.

Well, try it out and tell me what you think.

That's my two cents :)

http://www.bio-vert.com/en/nettoyant-usage.php

The Story of Stuff

My husband sent this link to me and I kind of ignored it. Then after a little while I clicked on it and it was quite the eye opener. As a women who loves her make-up, The Story of Cosmetics was even worse...some things you just have to watch out for.

Click on the link. You'll thank me later.

The Story of Stuff

Kleenex Hand Towels--my thoughts

Most recently Kleenex came out with their cure for the dirty, germ infested hand towel. The Kleenex Hand Towel. They’re free of inks, dyes and fragrances. According to their website, they use 100% virgin fibre and yes, you can recycle the box containers. Kimberley-Clark, who owns the Kleenex name goes on about how they donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to environmental causes for an “environmental project will have environmental benefits for the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, a major global pulp producing region that provides 30 percent of our fiber”. They also claim that “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for hand washing recommends hand drying with a single-use towel to help reduce the spread of germs.”

My thoughts?

I don’t think we need another unnecessary product out there that contributes to deforestation and our landfills. I think it’s wonderful that they donate to the recovery of the earth’s forests. But for a company that uses “100% virgin fibre” for it’s disposable hand towels, it makes you wonder if they’re just donating to help themselves feel better. But trees and garbage aside, why waste money on disposable hand towels when you can just wash your hand towel and re-use it? Can we become any more disposable? I used to laugh at the thought of disposable underwear. Well, this goes along with it. Disposable hand towels in the home are a huge waste to the trees that they were made from and a waste to the money you’re using to buy them.

After hearing about this product I googled it and found a fellow blogger writing about the same thing (http://goodgreenwitch.blogspot.com). In fact they found a very interesting fact. The CDC never made any sort of recommendation about hand drying with single-use towels reduce the spread of germs. The CDC denies ever making such a recommendation. And when Kimberley-Clark was written to about this, they were yet to receive a response...Very interesting Kimberley-Clark. It’s amazing what companies will do to sell a product...even falsify claims from the CDC.

So all in all. Kleenex Hand Towels are a waste of money and not needed in any household. That’s my 2 cents.

Shiny, Happy Hair

For a while now I've been on a mission for long, healthy, shiny hair. The long part is just genetics and perhaps diet, but I'm not there just yet. As for the healthy shiny part, I've been doing a couple things for the last year and it's been proven to actually work.

My hair used to be very prone to split ends once it hit the shoulder mark, and pretty lack-lustre near the ends. I would also end up with a ring of dry scalp around my crown which often looked like dandruff and not the dry skin that it was. So following some research on the web, and some advice from a beauty expert friend of mine, I've put together a bit of a routine to help feed my hair to be shiny and so far, split end free. So I thought I'd share this with those of you who were having the same issues or wanted a little something to add to get that shiny, commercial hair look.

I found that using the typical commercial brand shampoos really dried out my hair and scalp. They were too strong and definitely stripped the moisture out of my scalp. So since changing to an organic/natural brand of shampoo it's gotten better. I use the Jason brand of shampoo. I can't really comment much on that shampoo just yet, but I'll be sure to blog a little more about it in the future.

After shampooing, I add 1-2 drops of jojoba oil to the conditioner and leave it on for the duration of soaping and rinsing the rest of my body. That way it gives the conditioner and jojoba oil some time to set in. Jojoba oil is actually very similar to the natural sebum that your skin naturally excretes. So it's pretty close to what your scalp is used to and needs to keep moisturized.

After you're done rinsing your body and hair, towel dry (not too rough) and then add a squirt of Moroccan Oil to the ends. This seals the ends and helps to prevent any split ends from developing. Warning: it might not seem like a lot of oil that you're using especially if you have a lot of hair, but a little goes a long way. You'll find out how little you need once your hair dries. A little too much will make your hair quite greasy. Comb through and if you have to, blow dry on med heat or cool, if you can handle it, from the top of the hair shaft. Style as usual and you'll notice shiny, healthier looking hair almost instantly.

This seems like a lot but with all the physical and environmental damage, and chemical damage depending on your shampoo, your hair will thank you for it.

Try it out and tell me what you think!

Til later :)