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