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 :)

NATURECLEAN’S LIQUID HAND SOAP

Have you ever noticed the run-on list of ingredients in your hand soaps? Have you ever bothered looking? Natureclean has come out with a liquid hand soap that we enjoy and I have used repeatedly when the others fail.

Natureclean is a Canadian company that was started by a gentleman for his wife who’s skin would react to shampoos and detergents. He decided to use more natural and non-toxic alternatives and created a formula for a soap that wouldn’t make his wife’s skin break out in rashes. Since then they’ve developed a large line of natural cleaning products from hand soap and shampoo to vegetable rinses and dish soap.

Today i’ll be reviewing the liquid hand soap but will be sure to eventually review the other products available and see what they’re really like.

The ingredients include just a few: water, potassium oleate (a natural coconut cleanser), glycerin (a vegetable source) and sodium chloride (salt). It comes in two scents: unscented and peppermint.

The unscented actually smells strongly of the glycerin and the peppermint (from peppermint essential oils) does smell like peppermint but still has that hint of glycerin. The glycerin isn’t the most welcoming scent so I’d suggest the peppermint scent instead.

Like a lot of natural soaps, it doesn’t contain lauryl/ laureth sulphates that creates the foam we associate with a good soap. Unfortunately laureth sulphates and it’s derivatives have been cause of skin irritation, eye damage and liver toxicity. For those who need that foaming action, it does foam up a little and cleans quite well at the same time. I’ve had paint, cooking oil and even door hinge grease on my hands and it’s washed off quite well without any lingering smells of the dirt or the soap. It also states on the bottle that it doesn’t contain any petroleum ingredients, 1,4- Dioxane, PEG Cocamide DEA, dyes, perfumes or any other suspected carcinogens.

The bottle is pretty standard and a bit generic as far as liquid soaps come. It’s about 7inches high and 3 inches in diameter at the base. The plastic bottle is clear and the pump is a white hard plastic. The labels are either clear with black and white writing or for the peppermint scent it’s an opaque blue with white writing. They’re not the most friendly to remove so for those of us that like that clean, no label look, you’ll have to work a little harder to remove these.

Overall, I like this product. It’s reassuring for me to know that it’s all natural and doesn’t contain any toxic artificial ingredients that may cause irritation to my sensitive skin hands.

Try it out!

organic? organ-not?

Amongst some of my co-workers, it’s well known that Justin (my husband) and I are trying to be more environmentally friendly. And that includes eating organically. We’ve had many discussions at work about organic foods versus non-organic foods. The debates continue with each work day regarding the toxicity in pesticides used, some myths and well, why we bother in the first place. But most of the time it’s about cost. And coming from a very money-conscious consumer, price is a very big factor.

As expensive as these foods are, we know intellectually that they’re better for us. So don’t go all out and change everything you eat to organic. Think about the vegetable and meat products that you eat most like apples and potatoes maybe even chicken. And start there. Try to avoid the higher pesticide-laden foods and use an alternative. If you take baby steps, it won’t hit your wallet as hard and you’ll feel better that you’re eating better. And yes, organic foods do taste better despite what they look like.

As grateful as I am to the big chain supermarkets these days for stocking and increasing their variety of organic foods, the prices still don’t compare to their genetically modified counterparts. And no, you won’t find that basketball sized head of orange broco-flower that your son loves so much for it’s cheese puff colour in the organic aisle. But really would you want to???

Here’s a good website that can tell you which foods have high pesticide concentrations and which don’t.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/pesticide-residues.cfm

Happy shopping!