Fabulously Cheeky

I just found out today that the EWG (environmental working group – cosmeticsdatabase) is flexing their political power by trying to get through a bill that will regulate the sale of cosmetics products in Colorado. If it goes through, you can no longer call your product natural or organic, or even sell your product in Colorado, if it contains any products that can be hazardous to your health.
I think this is a great thing! But everyone else who are selling products that can jeopardize your health are extremely upset. They are trying to justify the use of hazardous ingredients simply because they refuse to change. From what I have read in different blogs, they even try to justify the use of preservatives containing formaldehyde, saying that it is easy for the body to get rid of this type of toxin, and lead, which they claim occurs naturally in the water in many places, etc, etc.
Their arguments simply don’t make any sense, except if you look at it from a monetary perspective. Why would someone choose to use a preservative that contains formaldehyde if healthier alternatives exist? Only one reason – it is cheaper than the more natural preservatives.
So, does that mean that monitary profit should be more important than the health of the people who purchase the product? I hope not! That would be simply heartless!
One problem that consumers have is that they trust that whatever is on the shelves in a store is safe to use. NOT SO!!! Presently, there are no regulations as to what you can and can’t put into your products. Even so called “organic” products can contain up to 30% poison and still be called “organic.” But this new law, if it is passed, will not only regulate the kind of ingredients that will be allowed in skin care and makeup products, the companies that break the law can be fined anywhere from $5,000.00-$10,000.00!!! And, if this law is accepted in Colorado, there is every chance that other states will follow.
Needless to say, every company out there, who has fooled people into thinking that their products were totally natural and safe to use, are now screaming very loud because they will either have to change, or they’ll basically be out of business (or get fined).
I am very excited about this development – it is time that the truth about skin care products are exposed. People have the right to know what they are putting on their skins, and people should also be able to trust that the products that are sold in the stores are safe to use. So, the wind of change is blowing in the New Age…
To visit my Green Beauty Cosmetics site where all the products are rated green by the cosmeticsdatabase, CLICK HERE!

Tags: cosmeticsdatabase, safe cosmetics

A few days ago, I found out that Physician’s Formula has made a new product line called Organic Wear. Two products caught my attention and I ended up buying them. One was the Organic Wear mascara, and the other was the tinted moisturizer.
The mascara claimed to be all organic and paraben free, and the first ecocert certified organic mascara in United States. So, I thought “I better give this a try.” I know how much it costs to ecocert certify a product – something like $500.00 pr product. They also spent a lot on product packaging. The container tube has a very earthy look with a fancy, schmanzy green shiny top etc. Obviously, nothing was spared in making this product. So I ended up buying it.
After I bought it, I researched it on the cosmeticsdatabase, but I couldn’t find a rating for it. Maybe it is just too new. But, on amazon.com, I found a review that said that it only lasted two hours before she looked like a racoon.
So, I put it on at 8am, and by 10am I looked in the mirror, and sure enough, two racoon eyes looked back at me! I wiped off the black stuff, and every time I went to the bathroom that day, I had to wipe a little more. In the evening, I had a shower. A few drops of water dripped on my eyelashes, and by the time I got out, the racoon eyes had slid all the way down to my cheeks. Now, I looked like I was ready for halloween!!!

It is amazing to me, that a company who put that much money and effort into creating an organic, certified formula, packaged in the latest high tec recyclable packaging, would’nt let a few women wear the stuff first, before they went to all the effort of certifying it! Two or three ladies, wearing the stuff for one day, could have instantly told them that this formula is useless and that it needs a lot more work before anyone will actually use the stuff! So, save your money. The only good thing about the product was the brush – I liked that very much. The rest is being returned to the shop the next time I’m in town.

The other product I tried was their tinted moisturizer from Organic Wear with SPF 15. This one rates at a 4 at the cosmeticsdatabase, which isn’t really impressive for a product that is supposed to be totally non-toxic and organic, but oh, well. Good foundations or tinted moisturizers are hard to come by, so I thought I’d try it anyway.

One of the reviews on amazon said that the cream wasn’t rich enough, and that it caked before the day was over. So, I decided to use my own Green Beauty Cosmetics products under it. First, I moisturized my skin with hydrating spritz and acai serum. Next I added the hand, face and night cream to create an emollient barrier that would keep the moisture from evaporating. And, then I topped it with the tinted moisturizer from Physicians Formula.

The color and texture was very nice. It was neither too yellow, nor too pink. It covered lightly and just helped smooth out the skin color. It made my cheeks look very satiny, and even though I spent most of the day outside in the freezing cold, it still didn’t cake by the end of the day.
I think the key was the emollient barrier that I applied under the tinted moisturizer. It just kept my skin soft and nurtured, and probably blended nicely with the moisturizer.
I can recommend this moisturizer – it wasn’t bad! Hopefully, I’ll make my own version some time soon, but for now, this is definitely worth trying! Just remember that if you have mature skin, you need to put a proper moisturizer and emollient barrier under it, since mature skin has less oils than younger skin.

Department store moisturizer, such as this one, isn’t made for mature skin. It just isn’t rich enough to be applied directly to the skin because we don’t produce enough natural oils to stop it from caking. That is why you’ll have more luck if you apply a moisturizing serum and a rich emollient barrier cream under it first… (I guess making products for menopausal women isn’t anyone’s priority – too bad. I’ll just have to do it myself…)

Tags: physicians formula organic wear

Enter discount code save2mf to get $2.00 off!

The first time I tried it, I put it on 3 of my biggest moles first, since I didn’t know how many moles I could remove. The container was sooo tiny, but I tell you, this stuff goes really far. So, I did 7 moles, just to see what would happen, and there was still more left in the container.

First they burn and sting for a few minutes, then you wash it off. Very simple! The moles will disappear after only ONE 20 minute application!

After washing it off, the moles looked very dark and kind of flat. By the next day, there were scabs on all of them. About a week later, the scabs were coming off, and under the scab was just a small reddish spot. Now, about 2 weeks later, some of the moles have completely disappeared, and a few are still in the process of disappering.

So, I took the rest of the stuff and put it on another 8 moles, small ones. That is when I discovered that the small ones don’t sting too bad. It seems that it stings more if the mole is very big.

So, that tiny bottle was enough for removing 14 moles, some of them quite big and raised. Not bad!

I got very excited about this product – this really works! Can you imagine how much money I saved by doing it myself rather than seeing a dermatologist? We are probably talking hundreds and hundreds of dollars. And I didn’t have to be anesthesized, cut, or stitched!

So, I decided to share this info with the rest of you. I even made an agreement with the company that anyone who comes from my blog will get a $2.00 discount if they add the code “save2mf” at checkout.

If you want to order this product, you can either click on the picture in this post, or you can use the permanent link on the left side of my blog.

Tags: mole removal

Christmas is here, and people often invite friends over for a delicious meal. We often spend extra time cooking and creating a nice atmosphere. However, some people are extremely rude. They come late, eat the food, and then leave!!!!
What do you do with people like that? They act as if your place is a restaurant where you come, get served and leave – but this is not what the idea of inviting people over for Christmas is about. It is not just about consuming food – it is also about hanging out with your friends and enjoying each other’s company!
So, what do you say to people like that? Do you say anything, or just stop inviting them? Perhaps it can be as easy as saying “I’d love to spend some more time with you, do you really have to go?”
But, then you have the people who have already scheduled other arrangements before they even arrive! They already have an excuse to eat and run.
Don’t anyone understand what a disappointment this kind of behavior is to the host? I guess not. I have heard from other friends that this is something that happens quite frequently. We could get analytical, I suppose, and speculate that perhaps people are so afraid of intimacy that they can’t allow themselves to settle in and get too cozy anywhere. It is so much easier to just connect on facebook! But facebook is not the real thing. Real people are.
So, enjoy Christmas – WITH your real friends, and don’t be stingy about sharing your energy with people. The company of good friends is worth way more than gifts wrapped in paper.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tags: Christmas

We have become a culture of bacterio-phobic beings – hand sanitizers, anti bacterial soap, bleach and so on. It’s important, isn’t it? We must keep everything kleen if we want to be healthy, right? Clean, yes, but can all this cleaning be too much of a good thing?

I just found an article on MSN today that talks about the benefit of having a certain amount of bacteria on the skin. Did you know that there is actually a benefit from bacteria? If you don’t, go and check out the MSN article – very interesting reading!!! Evidently, not enough bacteria on the skin will cause immune problems, allergies, eczema and inflammation!

Once you have read this article, I can also add that the use of antibacterial ingredients in consumer products are getting out of hand! Previously, I wrote an article about the use of Triclosan in toothpaste. Triclosan is an antibacterial compound that can make the body oversensitive, or even allergic to potassium. Since bananas contain lots of potassium, you may find that you get a belly ache every time you eat bananas. If this is the case, go and read the label on your toothpaste! And, remember, too, that potassium is what makes your nervous system work properly. So, becoming allergic or oversensitive to potassium can potentially cause serious health problems!

Hand sanitizers also contain triclosan. The cosmetics database group have disclosed recent findings from hospitals which shows triclosan in the bloodstream of hospital workers. But this isn’t the only place you find triclosan.

The last time I went to the supermarket to buy dishwashing liquid, I started reading the labels, and every one of the brands on the shelf contains triclosan. The only one that doesn’t is Clorox’s new brand greenworks – but of course, our local Walmart doesn’t carry it, even though they are supposed to…

What people don’t seem to understand is that it isn’t bacteria that make us sick, it is our susceptibility to the bacteria, or in plain English, our lack of immune response, that allow the bacteria in. If your immune system is strong enough to ward off bacteria, we simply don’t get sick. By wiping out the bacteria in our environments, our immune system doesn’t get to practise its magic, and we’ll get weaker and weaker as a result.

When I was little girl, people were of the opinion that a little dirt never hurt anyone. And, maybe, just maybe, they were right. Maybe a little dirt was just enough to make us strong enough to survive a few bacteria here and there.

Vaccinations and triclosan are certainly NOT the answer. The answer lies in strengthening our immune system naturally, and if a little dirt is needed, we just have to throw away all the products with triclosan in them. Remember, bacteria are natural beings that live on our skin. They are supposed to be there, and if there is a balance between good and bad bacteria we don’t get sick. It is only when we use antibacterial soaps that kill both the good and bad bacteria that the natural balance is upset, and the bad bacteria gets a foothold.

Since everything in life is about maintaining a healthy balance of some kind, forget about antibacterial products. In fact, anything with “anti” in front of it is against life. So, be careful, and read the labels of anything you buy.

Tags: anti-bacterial soap, triclosan

When Christmas is getting closer day by day, the question is what to buy for your friends and family. Do you sit there with a blank mind, wondering where help is going to come from? Don’t worry, help is near.

Last year, my husband and I spent weeks looking for great gifts, and when we realized that many people don’t have weeks to spend Christmas gift hunting, we decided to make some Christmas gift websites to make it easier for people to find cool things to buy for that special someone. So, we made two sites, one for last minute christmas gifts, and one for inexpensive christmas gifts under $30.00.

On these sites, we put the coolest, most creative gifts we could find, and they are all put into categories which make it easy to find what you are looking for. Check it out – I hope you’ll enjoy what we put together.

Tags: inexpensive Christmas gifts, last minute Christmas gifts

It’s that time of year again – Christmas is coming and it is time to give gifts to the people we love. One of the popular gifts to give women is fragrance, but oh, what a two edged sword that is! Women love fragrance. It makes us smell good, is makes us more attractive and alluring, it is our “signature.” But that’s not all, there is so much more to fragrance…

Because of a loophole in the labeling law, fragrance is exempt from disclosing what is in the scent they are using because it is considered a trade secret. The problem with this is that some of these synthetic fragrances can disrupt the hormone balance, cause birth defects and enter breast milk. The environmental working group EWG recently released a study where they found 232 chemical contaminants in the umbilical cord blood from 10 American babies!

If we don’t use safe cosmetics and natural fragrances, such as essential oils, we can put both ourselves and our children’s health at risk. Is it worth it? No way…

So, think about it – before you send your mate of choice out to buy you something wild and wonderful that you don’t really need for Christmas, think twice. Is it going to be good for you? Is it going to keep you healthy? Without health, life is not much fun! And, if you are in menopause, your hormones can still be affected.

I have always wondered why women get all those hot flashes. Is it the food we eat? The creams we use? The fragrances? All of the above? It could be anything! If the hormones are affected by even the smallest amount of fragrance, such as synthetic musk, why wouldn’t it affect our hot flashes in menopause? The hormone balance is very delicate, and even the slightest imbalance can affect us deeply.

So, it is a fact – my favorite white (synthetic) musk must go, and patchouli, amber, cedar and sandalwood will take its place. This is a very small sacrifice to stay healthy…

Tags: fragrance, hot flashes, menopause, synthetic musk

In one of the skin care blogs that I keep an eye on, they described a test that they had done about aging. They put a whole bunch of pictures of women of different ages in front of a group of people and asked them who were the prettiest. And, to everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t necessarily the youngest ones. They also found that some of the people with wrinkles were considered pretty, inspite of their lines. So, what was it that made them look pretty, regardless of age and wrinkles? They found that it actually had to do with skin texture.

Basically, people with nice skin texture were considered prettier than people with breakouts and dull skin texture or color, and it seemed that skin texture was way more important than wrinkles around the eyes.

Well, this is actually good news. Wrinkles happen over time, and there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it, unless you have a money tree growing in your back yard. But skin texture is something we actually can do something to improve.

The easiest way to improve skin texture is to exfoliate with a gentle type of scrub. Here, I have to add, that anything containing ground up apricot seeds, is NOT gentle! The apricot seeds will actually scrape up the surface of your healthy skin cells, and the result is redness and inflammation, which is not flattering in any way. What you need is more of a polish, and less of a scrub.

Just think of your furniture – you wouldn’t use sand paper to polish the wood, would you? Sand paper, unless it was very very fine, would scratch the wood instead of making it shine. Same thing with exfoliants; they have to be gentle, or the skin will rebel.

Makeup artist Carmindy swears by finely ground white sugar. In India, where they don’t believe in heavy scrubbing, they like using oatmeal and different types of milk. Herbalists believe in rose petals and orange peel. So, I took all these pieces of information and created my own oatmeal scrub. It contains oatmeal, goatsmilk, yogurt, rose petals, orange peel, sugar and lemongrass, and it is gentle enough to use daily to improve skin texture.

The fact is, that the more mature your skin is, the slower your cell turnover becomes. This makes the surface of the skin look dull, and eventually, the skin becomes thin and translucent. By exfoliating with the right kinds of products, the dullness is removed, but there is also another added benefit – exfoliation actually makes the skin thicker. Why? Because by removing some of the dead skin cells on the surface, the skin is stimulated to produce more new skin cells. So by exfoliating you are doing yourself a huge favor, not only by improving your skin texture and color, but also by helping your body increase its cell turnover, which basically means that it starts producing younger skin.

What about acid peels? They are hugely popular these days. Well, those are far from gentle. A phenolic acid peel done at a dermatologist’s office can actually make your heart stop if it is poured on too fast, since it has a tendency to enter your blood stream. And it can make you blind, too, if it accidentally enters your eyes. But, I’m sure they don’t tell you this… And, on top of the risk, you have to live like a vampire (away from the sun) for 6 months afterwards while you are growing a new face. And, yes, your skin will be less wrinkled, but at what price???

For people who are less obsessed with being eternally young, gentle exfoliation on a daily basis is a perfectly good alternative. And, besides, the oatmeal scrub (polish) that I created for Green Beauty Cosmetics contains sugar, which is a natural source of glycolic acid, and yogurt, which contains lactic acid, so it actually does have some natural acids in it, too. It may not work as fast as phenolic acid, but it does work, and over time you’ll see a difference.

To read more about Green Beauty Cosmetic’s Oatmeal Face Polish with Rose Petals, CLICK HERE

Tags: exfoliation, oatmeal scrub, skin texture

Have you ever heard about triclosan? Neither had I, until my dad who is a dentist told me about it. Triclosan is evidently some kind of disinfectant or anti-bacterial substance that is supposed to prevent gum disease. However, the research that was done to prove this was done wrongly just to ensure the result that they wanted. This is often how things are done scientifically – when the researchers are attached to what the result should be, they subtly do things in ways that will produce the results that they are trying to prove.

Anyway, when they tried to prove the benefit of triclosan, they swabbed the top of the back teeth to check for bacterial growth and found that there was very little bacteria there after using triclosan. However, what they are not telling you, is that the top of the back teeth isn’t where bacteria collect. The top of the molars are what you chew with, and the food, saliva and chewing actually keeps this area fairly cleen. If you want to get a more representative picture of the effect of triclosan, you would have to swab the area where the tooth meets the gum, especially in the very back, since that is where you’ll find it.

What this means is that their arguments for using triclosan in toothpaste is based on false results, since they swabbed the wrong part of the tooth to prove the efficacy of this substance. Therefore, there is really no reliable scientific proof that the use of triclosan in toothpaste has any useful benefit at all. But, it does have side effects…

When using toothpaste with triclosan over a certain amount of time, it creates a certain sensitivity to potassium. Bananas contain lots of potassium, so if you start getting a belly ache every time you eat a banana, go and read the label on your toothpaste!

Normally, you’ll find triclosan in anything that is called “total,” such as Colgate Total. AVOID THESE TOOTHPASTES! It isn’t worth using this stuff if it is going to create allergy against harmless bananas! And, who knows what else it will do to your body!

After looking up toothpastes in the cosmetics database, Aquafresh and Sensodyne don’t have this ingredient added. If you prefer natural toothpaste, Tom’s of Maine is excellent!
To visit my website, go to http://www.greenbeautycosmetics.com for a healthy alternative to toxic skincare.

Tags: banana allergy, Toothpaste, triclosan