I have a thing for lemons.

It’s pretty rare that I don’t have a couple lurking in the fridge. Lately, I’ve been finding more and more ways to fuel my addiction. Lemons are not only packed with antioxidants and rich in vitamin C, but they are detoxifying for the body and are said to contain cancer fighting compounds. You can read much more about them (along with limes) over at World’s Healthiest Foods.

Today, our mission is to compile the world’s biggest list of the many ways to use lemons. Or at least a long one! I started us off at the bottom of this post, but it’s up to you to add to it if you’d like.

But first, I’m sharing with you one of my all-time favourite ways to use lemons with a couple ingredients you probably have lurking in your pantry. I’ve been making variations of this hand scrub for a couple years now and it never lets me down!

My hands (and elbows, feet, knees, etc) can get very dry and this scrub exfoliates and seals in moisture like nothing I have used. I like to keep a jar in the fridge and whip it out a few times a week to give my hands a good scrub. It also makes an amazing facial scrub and body scrub too!

You can make a basic scrub using just a few ingredients. I personally like using:

• 1 part oil
• 2 parts sugar
• lemon juice + zest

Glowing Lemon Sugar Hand Scrub

Print, Email, or Text this recipe. (update: Sorry guys the recipe isn’t loading in Recipage at the moment!)

Adapted from my previous scrub.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup olive oil (or oil of choice)
• 2/3 cup sugar (see tip)
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon (about 1.5 tbsp)
• pinch of two of lemon zest

1. In a jar or small container, stir together the oil, sugar, lemon juice, and zest. Store in the fridge with a lid for maximum freshness. Feel free to use this scrub on your hands, feet, elbows, knees, face, and total body whenever it needs a burst of moisture and shiny glow.

Tips:

The finer the sugar you use, the less rough your scrub will be. I like using a fine white sugar if I’m using it on my face and hands since those parts tend to have thinner, more delicate skin. If I’m making a body scrub, I like using a coarser sugar like brown or turbinado or even coarse sea salt.

If using this on your face, be sure to use a cleanser afterwards to remove the oil.

You have to try this.

Rub it all over your hands and give yourself a good massage!

My hands aren’t normally very soft, but this scrub makes them feel like a baby’s bottom! Or maybe even softer…

I used it yesterday morning and I can still feel the difference on my hands this morning. Truly amazing.

Looking for others fun uses for lemons? Check out this list I compiled below. Special thanks to Green Living Tips and Eco Knowledge for some of the tips.

Other ways to use lemons:

1) Homemade detox drink. Juice a lemon and mix it with water. Drink it on an empty stomach as soon as you wake up. It will aid in digestion and give you a great start to your day. Just be sure to drink it with a straw as the acidic nature of citrus can wear the enamel of the teeth.

2) Clean silver, chrome, and tarnished brass.

3) Clean your microwave: Juice 1 lemon and add to a bowl of water. Place in the microwave and heat for about 5 minutes on high. The steam will help soften any gunk on your microwave so you can easily wipe it down afterward.

4) Freshen your garbage disposal. Instead of throwing out your lemon scraps, toss them into your garbage disposal to freshen it up and deodorize.

5) Make potpourri.

6) Scrub your kitchen. Mix lemon juice and salt together for an all-natural kitchen scrub.

7) Deodorize your humidifier. Add some lemon juice to your humidifier water to deodorize.

8.) Prevent spoilage. Add some fresh lemon juice on an avocado or fruit salad to prevent browning.

9) Homemade fruit and veggie wash. Mix 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp vinegar, and 1 cup water together to make a natural fruit and veggie cleaner.

10) Chop, chop. Use lemons to clean your chopping boards.

11) Baking and cooking. The obvious one here, but lemon is a fun ingredient in many recipes. One of my favs are these Tropical Lemon Cranberry Chia Bars! I also have 53 recipes that contain lemons!

What are your favourite ways to use lemons? Do you ever make any homemade scrubs or other beauty products?

Can you believe it is already Week 5 of the Farmer’s Market? It makes me sad because that means summer is flying by too quickly! I can not believe that it is July 17th. I just can’t! *sniff.

Last night, Eric and I were running a couple errands and we had the windows down in the car and the music cranked (Billionaire! bahaha). It was one of those ‘I love summer so unbelievably much’ moments. There was a gorgeous sunset and the air was crisp and fresh. I felt like sticking my head out of the window, but I restrained myself.

Today’s Glo Bar flaaavas:

Chocolate Peanut Butter macaroons!

Truly unbelievable…I wish I could give all of you one!

NEW this week…

Presenting Crunchy Peanut Butter Maple Macaroons…

The crunch = rice crisp cereal. Oh gosh they are so good. They also have maple butter in them! Mmmm.

I also modified my Cherry, Banana, and Coconut Butter Bread recipe and made Dark chocolate chip banana bread…

Modifications:

• Added 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips
• Used maple butter in place of coconut butter
• No cherries (they didn’t have any organic at the market last week)

Awesome.

I sliced it up and wrapped them up for sale individually.

I woke up with the song ‘Stay’ by Lisa Loeb in my head. It’s still in my head as I type this. We heard it in a store last night and I sang every word to the song and Eric goes…’What song is this and why do you know all the words…?’ LOL, men….I tried explaining to him that the song was the anthem of my 90’s, but he didn’t get it.

This morning I had to pull out all of the ‘wake me up’ stops.

Wake me up 1)

Tea in a CAT mug.

It’s the little things.

Wake me up 2)

Breakfast this morning was Vegan Overnight Oats (1/2 cup oats, 1.25 cup almond milk, 2 tbsp chia seeds, 1/4 scoop Amazing Grass Chocolate Amazing Meal) along with a chopped banana I added in afterwards.

So thick and doughy!

Couple things to note:

• I doubled the chia seeds from 1 tbsp to 2 tbsp for more satiety today
• I whipped the VOO for about 3-4 minutes with a whisk before placing it in the fridge. I swear this made it thicker!
• If you are having problems with your VOO being too liquidy, you need more chia seeds! I had to add an extra 1/4 cup of milk this AM because mine got too thick!

Wake me up 3)

My favourite MAC Select concealer for the eyes

I resorted to cutting open the end to get it all out. Ladies, don’t try to act like you don’t do this! If you have tried this MAC cover-up you will know why I did that.  :biggrin:

I also packed a couple In a Jiffy Curry Chickpea burgers for us to snack on around lunchtime! I love these so much I am thinking of turning them into a Savoury Protein Breakfast Bar.

Well, I better pack up the car and head to the Oakville Organic Market..see you later!

PS- Don’t forget to enter the picture poll- there is a tie right now…it’s going to be a close one!

Sorry about the comments not working this morning..I’m not sure what was going on, but it is now fixed!

Time for another Project Natural Glow review!

I was out of conditioner, so I picked up this Jason Body Enhancing Conditioner:

It was rated a 4 out of 10 on the Skin Deep website, which isn’t great, but it could be worse I guess. There is a fragrance-free conditioner that has a score of 2 out of 10, so this seems to be a better option if you are concerned about your product ratings.

What did I think of it?

• I didn’t care for the fragrance of this conditioner. I wish it was fragrance free- I’m not big on smelly things that I put on my hair or skin. The conditioner went on pretty thick so I was pretty impressed because body enhancing conditioners are usually on the thin and watery side. It was easy to rinse out too.
• The biggest downfall of this conditioner is that it left my hair extremely tangled! I have had this problem with other body enhancing conditioners before, but this left my hair more knotty than usual. The trade off however was lots of volume. I did notice that my hair had a bit more bounce to it.
• Given the so-so rating on Skin Deep and the fact that it did make my hair tangled and hard to comb out, I probably would not buy this product again. I will however continue to use it until it is finished, but I may have to mix it with another conditioner so my hair isn’t as tangled when I comb it.

Be sure to check out Dr. Oz tomorrow- He investigates the dangerous ingredients lurking in your makeup! I have my VCR ready to tape!

Have you tried any Jason products? What were they and what did you think? Or better yet do you use an all natural conditioner that you just love- what is it?

I  believe you are your work. Don’t trade the stuff of your life, time, for nothing more than dollars. That’s a rotten bargain.

— Rita Mae Brown

Last night we ended up seeing Up In The Air.

[source]

This movie was superb!!

It far exceeded our expectations. Up In The Air was rated awesome too- 8.3/10 on IMDB and 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. Personally I would rate it 9/10 and I am a very tough movie critic!

Clooney was as handsome and charming as ever. I have a HUGE crush, not going to lie. I think this was my favourite movie that he has been in! I’m not going to say much about the movie itself because I don’t want to spoil it, but you really should go see this movie! It is so thought provoking with an inspiring message at the end.

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This morning I had another kick bootay workout at Nubody’s!

• 20 mins stepper (level 15)
• 15 mins elliptical (incline 10, resistance 10)
• 5 mins rower (awesome workout for the arms!)
• 15 mins treadmill (10 mins @ incline 15%, speed 4-4.2, then 5 min cool down)
• Core work (crunches on stability ball)

Whittle My Middle

I have been keeping up with my core work each day, doing about 2 minutes of planks and other core work.

I decided that I am going to do Whittle My Middle AGAIN for the month of January! I was so pleased with the results, I want to do another complete month of it.

Anyone want to join in on Whittle My Middle II? It will begin JAN 1st so bring your A game!!!!!

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I came home, showered up, and got ready for the day.

I tried these Alba samples. I can’t comment on the shampoo because I only used it once and didn’t really get a sense for it. It seemed ok though. I also forgot to use the body lotion this trip.

However, I LOVED the Alba shaving cream (shown right)!!!

This shave cream was thick and luxurious like a buttery conditioner. It wasn’t foamy at all and I loved that. It left my legs very smooth and it was quite moisturizing.

Blow drying my mop is my least favourite thing in the world. I always tell Eric how lucky he is that he doesn’t have to blow dry long hair. Men have it easy!

Fueled up for the flight home today!

For lunch, I had a delicious whole wheat pita with veggie turkey, tomatoes, guacamole, hummus, pepper, and romaine lettuce. Delish! I haven’t had the veggie turkey in ages and I can’t say I really missed it too much. It just tastes very processed to me now.

I also had a huge salad drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette:

And a yellow delicious apple…

Tea verte:

Now I have a huge food baby!

My dad, Eric, and Colleen enjoyed his homemade Caesar salad:

Eric and I are pumped because we get to watch the Canada Junior hockey game while on the airplane today! Yay for airplane TV! We arrive in Hamilton around 6pm, pending the flight is on time. Can’t wait to sleep in my own bed tonight.

~~~~

Time to finish packing…hopefully I am not over the weight limit on the way back!

Did you miss any holiday posts while you were away?

• My 10 in 2010 + A Life Changing Decision that I made
• Giving back over the holiday season- I donate blood
• Merry Christmas from our family to yours
• Calactus Cafe Take 1
• Calactus Cafe Take II + Blogger meet up
• Planning To Succeed
• Project Natural Glow: Everyday Minerals Review

Have a wonderful day!

GLO-Out!

Just a quick note to let you know that there are only 5 Healthy Holiday Lovers Variety Packs left and they are 15% off today!

These are the last of these packs for ever and ever and ever so get them while you can! They will ship out TODAY!

Next up for Project Natural Glow:

After reading your rave reviews about Everyday Minerals, I knew I had to give them a shot (read a ton of tips and tricks here!). I ordered them a couple months ago and have been testing them for about 4 weeks now!

Just a note: I am not getting paid or given product for this review!

You can try out Everyday Minerals for FREE! All I had to pay for was $5 shipping to CAD. Awesome.

I ordered the Try Me Base-Light:

I also ordered an eye shadow trio (review to come!)

Ingredients:

I liked that they have a much shorter ingredient list than Bare Minerals!

BARE MINERALS:

VS

EVERYDAY MINERALS:

I was happy to find out that most of Everyday Minerals products score a 1 on the Skin Deep Cosmetic database!

How to apply:

SWIRL, TAP, BUFF (From Bare Minerals website)

What did I think of the Everyday Minerals?

PROS:

• Much cheaper than Bare Minerals
• Shorter and safer ingredient list
• Good coverage
• Lots of variety to choose from (shades, skin types, different coverage levels)
• Blended well

CONS:

• MESSY
• Emphasized dry skin in big way (must must must exfoliate and moisturize very well beforehand!)
• You really need the brushes for it to work as it should
• Showed fine lines more than my foundation does

Concluding thoughts:

When I first tried the Everyday Minerals I was using a regular old powder brush. I had BAD results using a regular brush. I couldn’t figure out why my skin looked so dry and the powder looked so cakey. I remembered some of you saying that you really need to use the proper brushes, so I invested in the Long Handled Kabuki brush (only cost me $10!). This brush made the world of difference! It didn’t show my dry skin as much.

I had to be very careful to exfoliate and moisturize before each use or dry flakes would show up. I wasn’t thrilled that the minerals tend to exaggerate fine lines, but overall it is not a deal breaker for me.

The coverage was better than I thought it would be, but sometimes I felt like I had to put on lots of layers to get the coverage I wanted. I probably would not use Everyday Minerals for important events because I prefer the dewy sheer finish of foundation. However, I do see Everyday Minerals as a great day-to-day alternative to foundation!

The ‘Original Glo’ base is meant for dry skin and I preferred this one out of all of them!

I dislike the mess. I improved the clean up time by putting a damp paper towel underneath my area. The damp towel ‘catches’ the powder that escapes. It helped a ton!

I LOVED how quick and easy it was to put on. Anyone can do it. I loved using it before running out the door to the post office or grocery store. Often I am too busy to put make-up on during the day, so this gives me a polished and professional look in just a few minutes.

What do you use on your skin? Foundation, powder, nothing at all?

Do you use Mineral foundation? What has your experience been?

~~~~

Coming up on OSG during the holiday week:

• The healthy foods I am packing for my trip + airplane rides! What I am bringing with me to ensure I don’t fall off the healthy bandwagon!
• My 10 in 2010. Ten things I want to do in 2010
• A potential life changing experience that I signed up for!!!!! YAWHOO!

Have a great Tuesday!

Hey guys! Just a quick note to let you know I have added Renew, Refresh, Empower, and Awake Glo Bars to the Glo Bakery Store!

~~~~

I finally have another product to review for Project Natural Glow!

I was sort of in a limbo phase where I hadn’t run out of any products, so I didn’t have to buy anything for a while. Don’t worry I have not forgotten about it though! I am still using up my old make-up, so I haven’t had to make any cosmetic purchases yet either!

Next up:

Bare Minerals i.d. Mineral Veil Powder

I actually purchased this in Summer 2008. I was a bride-to-be on a mission. After a few uses, I decided that I didn’t like it. It seemed a bit chalky to me. It ended up in the back of my make-up organizer and I never paid it much attention since!

That is until my tried and true powder ran out several weeks ago. I was faced with purchasing a new powder for Project Natural Glow or giving this stuff another try! And because I am in the ‘use up what I have’ mode, I dug it up and gave it another whirl.

The result??

The Mineral Veil was better than I remembered.

Once I got over that the texture wasn’t exactly the same as the powder I had been using, I actually liked this powder.

My only dislike about it is that it goes on a bit dry. However, I just read online that they have a new Hydrating Mineral Veil powder out now. I will have to check it out.

Here I am with the regular Mineral Veil powder on:

Zooming in…

This picture was taken with my point and shoot so the clarity isn’t great. In natural light, you can see the powder on my skin (unlike in the photo).

I am also dying to try the Bare Mineral Foundation! Amy gives a great demo of it:

Bare mineral products provide a SPF of 15. Because I didn’t know what most of the ingredients were, I looked them up on Skin Deep website. I was a bit surprised to find out that a couple of the ingredients are considered moderate to high risk.

1) Zea Mays Corn Starch

• Absorbs oil. Low hazard according to Skin Deep.

2) Zinc Stearate

• I couldn’t find a description for this one. Low to moderate risk according to Skin Deep.

3) Magnesium Stearate 

• Magnesium Stearate is the magnesium salt of stearic acid. Low hazard according to Skin Deep.

4) Methylparaben

• Methylparaben is the ester of methyl alcohol and p-hydroxybenzoic acid. High hazard according to Skin Deep.

5) Propylparaben

• Propylparaben is the ester of n-propyl alcohol and p-hydroxybenzoic acid. Moderate hazard according to Skin Deep.

6) Iron Oxides

• Iron Oxides are inorganic compounds consisting of any one or combinations of synthetically prepared iron oxides. Low hazard according to Skin Deep.

Unfortunately, I did not find an overall product review on bare Minerals by Skin Deep (only for individual ingredients). The individual ingredient ratings by Skin deep have made me wonder if some of the other mineral cosmetic companies offer better ingredients? Such as this mineral powder by Jane Iredale Cosmetics. It seems to contain less hazardous ingredients according to Skin Deep. None of the ingredients in the Jane Iredale loose powder have a hazard score over a 4. Now I’m not saying that every product I use has to be 100% natural and ‘safe’, but I figure if I am going to use a mineral powder, why not use the best one out there?

The Bare Mineral products are also on the expensive side, even though I admit they seem to last a very long time. I think there are other mineral companies that offer better prices though..

~~~

So let’s have a little girl talk today!

I’m curious…

Have you tried Bare Mineral products? What do you think of them?

Do you use any other mineral products by other companies? What companies do you think are the best priced?

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

I’m getting my hair chopped this afternoon…can’t wait! Stay tuned for the before and after.

It is the trouble that never comes that causes the loss of sleep.
Chas. Austin Bates

Top of the morning to you!

First up I have another Project Natural Glow product review. I bought this facial cleanser after a tip from a reader who told me she fell in love with this face wash called Desert Essence Throughly Clean Face Wash.

I got this at Loblaws Superstore and they had two sizes. The regular size and this huge economy refill bottle. The refill bottle was much better value so I bought this for $18 CAD. It is huge! I have already been using it 3 weeks and I have barely made a dent in it. It will likely last me a year! It is just under 1 litre (32 fl oz.).

You may remember that the Tea Tree Oil I love is by Desert Essence.

It has a very short ingredient list:

As I mentioned I have been using this for about 3 weeks now. I wanted to be sure that I was confident in my review.

So what did I think?

THE PROS:

• Clean smelling
• Tingly feel when washing
• It had amazing suds
• You only have to use a tiny tiny amount to lather it up (great value!)
• It left my skin glowing and fresh looking

THE CONS:

• The first time I used this I followed it with my Desert Essence tea tree oil which was a big mistake. It burned like crazy!!! I believe that the peppermint in the face wash interacted with the toner somehow, but I’m not sure. It burned and it made my face all red and dry. Lesson learned! I haven’t done it since.
• I do not suggest following this cleanser with any toner!
• This part kind of sucks because now I don’t use the tea tree oil toner as much. I try to use it for mid-day touch ups or when I use a different face scrub that won’t interact with it.

My rating 4.25/5

All and all I am quite happy with this face wash. I love that it is all natural and that I am getting great value for this huge bottle! It also saves tons of wasteful packaging too.

Have you found any new Project Natural Glow beauty products recently? Share below!

~~~~~

More and more readers are facing their fitness fears…

I received this email from Sarah last night:

“Hi Angela!

I wanted to thank you for your Long Run post earlier today!! It inspired to take my barely-used gym membership, and run on a treadmill for the first time ever!  I can’t believe how good I feel after doing the run 1-minute, walk 1-minute, intervals you suggested, and I did 2 miles today.  Thanks again for sharing your tips, and the story from Katrin as well!”

Congrats Sarah! Way to face your fears and rock that run! I think the great thing about running is that you can see progress really quickly and it is really motivating.

I know you are all probably tired of my running talk lately, but it has been such a huge part of my life lately and such a source of happiness for me I just had to spread my joy!

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Want to see the new pets we brought home this weekend?

Somehow two of the wedding centerpieces ended up in our hotel room- two Chinese Beta Flighting Fish to be exact!

I didn’t want to bring them home, but Eric insisted.

Meet Snitzelfritz and Jezebal:

He said if we didn’t bring them home, they would have been flushed down the toilet and no one else wanted to take them.

I have to tell you, I am NOT happy about having these fish. It is seriously upsetting me every time I walk into the kitchen and see them. I am very much against captivity of animals in all forms (yes, even fish!!!!) and it actually makes me feel really guilty seeing them in fish bowls. I am also really against Zoos. I made the mistake of going to the Toronto zoo a few years ago and it left me in tears because all of the animals looked so unhappy and bored. I think that animals should be in their intended habitat. I know that zoos can do a lot of good for endangered species and rehabilitation, but I do not support wild animals living their entire lives in a zoo.

I don’t know what to do but they really look depressed in their tiny bowls. Unfortunately we don’t have a fish tank (or the money to buy one). Should we give them away? If anyone wants them and can give them a happier home email me.

~~~~~

On a brighter note…

Glo Bakery US SHIPPING ANNOUNCEMENT!!

The time is almost here! It looks like I will be opening up US shipping officially on October 1st! Mark your calendars! I will likely open pre-orders the week before. Stay tuned for details!

~~~~~

PS- Another Vegan PB + J Glo Bite spotting!

Have a lovely morning!

I keep discovering more and more ‘beauty’ uses for coconut oil!

I now use coconut oil for the following:

• Nighttime eye moisturizer

So luxurious and way cheaper than pricey eye creams on the market.

• Shave Oil

An all natural way to replace that mystery gel/foam lurking in your shower- makes my legs really soft!

• Body moisturizer

I’ve been doing this for a few months now and I will never go back to regular moisturizing lotion again.

• Knee Sleeve barrier

My knee sleeves have been irritating the skin beneath it (red, itchy bumps) so I have been putting a bit of coconut oil on my knees before putting them on to reduce inflammation. I am not sure yet if it works, but I will report back after a week or so.

• Frizz Tamer

A reader told me that they use a tiny bit of coconut oil to tame their flyaways, and I must say it works fabulous. Remember- less is more with coconut oil, so you only need the tiniest bit!

• Intense Foot Cream

I put some on last night and then put some socks on and when I took them off my feet were super smooth and no more dryness!

~~~~~~~~

Today’s question:

How do you use coconut oil? Share your secrets below! I’m sure there are hundreds more uses for it.

See you tonight for a special fitness post!

This is the second Project Natural Glow Product Review I am doing. You can find the last one here!

I got this Kiss My Face Olive Oil Soap at my Loblaws grocery store in the natural food section. It cost me about $3.95 CAD for this very large block of soap. I figured that it would be worth the cost seeing as it will probably last me a very long time!

I spent a while reading the various soaps and I was sold on this one because it had the shortest ingredient list and no perfume added to it. Much like my food, I like ingredients lists that are short and that I can pronounce! It contains no animal ingredients, has not been tested on animals, and has no artificial colours.

Here’s the massive block:

It’s huge!

Because of the soap’s size, it was difficult to hold. I popped it into our soap holder and it was so much better.

Not the actual holder, but you get the idea:

And then I use an exfoliating glove on my hand, and I rub the wet soap with the glove (or I also use my shower puff too). This way I am not trying to hold the large soap block and have it fall all over the place.

What I thought of the soap:

• Right away I noticed how moisturizing this soap was. Which I guess is not a huge surprise given that it is made from olive oil! It was like no other soap I have used. I guess I was used to the cheapie soaps my dad used to buy. This soap felt great going on and lathered quite a bit. The only downside is that it gets quite gooey when wet, and I noticed a bit of buildup on the shower. So I have to be extra careful to rinse the shower after each use. The first time I used it, I didn’t put any moisturizer on (coconut oil) because I wanted to test to see how my skin would feel with just the olive oil soap.
• To my surprise my skin felt so smooth and soft after my shower. It wasn’t dry or tight feeling unlike my skin using other bar soaps.
• While I don’t like how gooey this soap gets, it is a factor I am willing to overlook because I honestly feel so great using this all natural product. It is very similar to my coconut oil as a moisturizer, because I know exactly what I am putting on my body.
• This bar will probably last me a very long time…and I mean for under $4 bucks CAD I would say it is definitely worth it. The large sized bar also cuts down on packaging too. I like that the company doesn’t put the soap bar in a box, which contributes to further waste.
• I also used the olive oil soap on my face for about 4-5 days in a row to see how it was. It made my face very soft, but I think it may have caused a few small pimples on my forehead. I really don’t know for sure though, I mean it could have been from anything, right? Maybe the oil clogged my pores or something. I guess I will stick to using it on my body for now.

So there you have it, my first experience with a Kiss My Face product.

It is funny, I have only been doing this challenge for a week now, and I already feel so much better about what I am putting on my skin. It makes me happy each time I use a natural product because I know that I am not harming myself or any animals in the process.

~~~~~~~

A reader named Natalie also sent me this very helpful email about ingredients in our common cosmetic products:

“This link might help explain the confusing list of ingredients you see on bottles of shampoo, body wash, conditioner, body lotion etc.

http://www.ewg.org/chemindex/list

I keep a card in my wallet that came with a Burt’s Bees purchase which indicates which ingredients to avoid such as:

cleansers: sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, sodium myreth sulfate

petrochemicals: petrolatum, mineral oil, parrafin

preservatives: parabens (all of them), DMDM hydantoin

chemical sunscreens: oxybenzone, avobenzone, octinoxate

moisturizers: propylene glycol, butylene glycol, polyisbutene

I hope this was helpful!”

Thanks Natalie! I printed the pocket guide and have it in my purse for easy reference when buying future products.

My next big all natural purchase is probably going to be FOUNDATION! I love foundation and I am not willing to give it up. I have a feeling it is going to be a difficult process to find a good natural one though. Any suggestions?

Some of you may remember the Project Glow challenge I put together for Caitlin a while back. Well, I’m cooking up a similar challenge, but this time it has an all-natural twist.

The questions I am asking are:

Can I commit to switching to all natural cosmetics?

Will using all natural products improve the appearance of my skin, hair, etc.?
Will I be able to find all natural products without breaking my budget?

A little while ago, I mentioned that I wanted to start buying more natural cosmetic products to replace the current ones that I use. So far I have switched to coconut oil as a body moistruizer and I replaced my non-natural toner with Desert Essence Australian Tea Tree Oil.  I love this product. It is quite drying so you have to be prepared to back it up with lots of moisturizer before you put your make-up on though. I just love it. After cleansing my face, I swipe this product all over my face and then I moisturize. I find it really cuts down on shine throughout the day and it has cut my break-outs down so much they are virtually non existent! I think I first found this at Wal-Mart, but I also spotted it in the natural foods section of Loblaws/Superstore (where they have their natural beauty products located).

I will be the first to admit, I have never paid much attention to what ingredients I put on my body, but after some thought, I realized that it was a bit silly of me to be so careful about what I put into my body but not what I put on it. Afterall, skin is the largest organ in the human body!

A few readers pointed me to Skin Deep Cosmetics Safety Database.

I found this description on the About page:

In 2004 we launched Skin Deep, an online safety guide for cosmetics and personal care products. Our aim was to fill in where companies and the government leave off: companies are allowed to use almost any ingredient they wish, and our government doesn’t require companies to test products for safety before they’re sold. EWG’s scientists built Skin Deep to be a one-of-a-kind resource, integrating our in-house collection of personal care product ingredient listings with more than 50 toxicity and regulatory databases.

Now in its fourth year and third major update, our Skin Deep database provides you with easy-to-navigate safety ratings for nearly a quarter of all products on the market — 46,432 products with 8,582 ingredients. At about one million page views per month, Skin Deep is the world’s largest and most popular product safety guide.

After searching some of the products that I use, I was down right disturbed by the ingredients I put on my skin each and every day.

A few weeks ago, I purchased Yes To Carrots Pampering Carrot Juice Shampoo. It is not tested on animals and it is made up of many natural ingredients like dead sea mud, carrot, pumpkin, sweet potato, melon, and honey.

I was pretty pumped to try out this shampoo.

So what did I think of it?

Well, for starters it was sort of nice using a very mildy aromatic shampoo. I am used to using shampoos with a strong scent, so this was a nice change. Secondly, it was a bit hard to get over the fact that it doesn’t sud up a lot like most shampoos. I believe this is due to it not using common chemicals that result in lots of suds. After a bit of investigation, I found that this shampoo uses an ingredient called Sodium Coceth Sulfate which is “a semisynthetic detergent-like compound derived from fatty acids obtained from coconut oil, modified using ethylene oxide (oxirane). It is a milder foaming agent found in baby cleansers, gels, and cleaners.” (Source). So by no means does this shampoo contain entirely natural ingredients, but I guess it is a good start.

The shampoo seems to do a good job, despite myself having a hard time to accept the lather-less wash. I’ve been told time and time again that the lather and bubbles in soaps were created simply to make people think they were getting clean, when in reality it has nothing to do with it.

I find myself using a huge glob of this shampoo to ‘get the job done’. I think that because it doesn’t create a large lather, I feel like I need to use more to get my hair clean. This probably is far from the truth though.

It is a bit difficult for me to give this product a rating since it is my first time using any sort of natural shampoo, but all and all I was fairly pleased I guess. I will continue to use this HUGE bottle (another bonus) and then move onto another new product.

I must also admit that I have a lot to learn with respect to cosmetics, ingredients, and safety hazards. I kind of see it as a new challenge to do some reading on it and research some ‘friendly’ brands that I can test out and review. Unfortunately, this Yes To Carrots product has not been reviewed on the website yet, so I couldn’t check it out.

Of course, I won’t be going cold turkey on my current stuff. I am using up what I have now, and as I run out, I will be replacing the products with natural ones. This will be a gradual process that will occur over the next several months!

Now here’s where you come in!

I know many of you are so savvy in this department. And I would love your advice, tips, and pieces of knowledge that you have learned from using natural products.

Have you found any products in particular that you loved or hated?

Do you ever think about what ingredients you are putting on your skin?

Could you ever see yourself switching to natural products?

Will you join me in this challenge?

Share your thoughts below!

I would love to hear of some great natural brands out there. I think I have heard Burt’s Bees is a good one?

See you later…be sure to check Twitter for some fun updates while I’m away!