Author

Hilary Baumann

October 17, 2014

Birchbox October 2014 unboxing & ewg scores

Posted in Clothing, Makeup / Cosmetics, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

Lord & Berry Paillettes Eye Pencil soooooo this was the item I picked out this month and somehow it wasn’t in my box. I posted a photo on instagram and did contact Birchbox customer service and they’re shipping one out to me but it will be 10 days before I might get it. So without having it in hand to review let’s look at why I chose it. It doesn’t have cones (I break out with cones) and some of the other nasties I normally see. However I missed the parabens when I was checking this out and choosing it. So lets see how this scores with the EWGEWG Environmental Working Group - an organization focused on research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment. skin deep cosmetics database scores it. OUCH. Wow. I did horribly in picking this out. It’s a solid 10 from the cosmetics database. On a scale from 0 to 10 with 0 being the healthiest. UGHHH! And I thought this was going to be maybe a 4 based on skimming through the ingredient list and was the product I was most looking forward to trying!

Harvey Prince Petaly Noir – nope. Just no. No synthetic fragrances for me. Worse, I can smell the Harvey Prince perfumes just by opening the box and they typically give me a headache without opening them. I REALLY really hope that Birchbox will give us the option to opt out of perfumes. I particularly dislike the Harvey Prince products they have been on a roll with sending me each month too. September I complained about this. August same complaint. You aren’t going to win me over. Headaches just make me mean. Stop it. Pretty please?

ModelCo Party Proof Lipstick in Kitty – well another I had high hopes for but it fails. No cones but there’s fragrance. Also one of the ingredients that isn’t harmful I tend to avoid and that’s mineral oil. So with the EWG cosmetics database rating of a 9 I don’t think I’ll be trying this one. Do you know how much lipstick/lipgloss you accidentally eat? Ew.

BeeKind™ Body Lotion – The website claims “The BeeKind™ Collection features Gilchrist & Soames’ Signature formulations, which contain no parabens, phthalates, petrol-derived ingredients, mineral oil, urea, DEA, TEA or propylene glycol.” The bad news for me is that it has dimethicone in it which rules it out for me. Since I couldn’t find the ingredient list online I typed it up from the back of the sample:

INGREDIENTS: water; ceteryl alcohol; cocos nucifera oil; glycerine; ceteareth 20; helianthus annuus seed oil; parfum; dimethicone; honey; trifolium pratense flower extract; calendula officinalis flower extract; chamomile recutita flower extract; Cymbopogon schoenanthus exctract; citric acid; glyceryl dilaurate; steric acid; benzyl alcohol; dehydroacetic acid; acrylates/ c10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer; sodium hydroxide; tocopheryl acetate; citral; citronellol; geraniol; hexyl cinnamal; limonene; linalool

If they dropped the added fragrance that would do a lot to make this a healthier product. Despite all of the things it doesn’t have in it, it’s a 4 with the skin deep database. This is not terrible but it’s also not as healthy as they might be leading you to believe.

dr. brandt® Exclusive Clean Up Nice Kit – This is actually just “pores no more cleanser” as the sample. Paraben, paraben, paraben. If they just went with a healthier preservative this would be a healthier overall product. As it is right now it’s a 6 with the ewg cosmetics database.

So I’m a little underwhelmed with the products in this month’s box. Since Birchbox started giving us a choice of one product in our boxes I can’t believe I picked something that unhealthy out of what was available (and I can’t remember what the other options were.) Anyway…

Still not signed up for Birchbox?

http://birchbox.com?raf=3l3e7
{ yes it’s an affiliate link, I get 50 points which equals $5 credit – share the love! }

October 12, 2014

Hashtag Selfie #selfie

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Shirts / Blouses / T-shirts / Tanks

If it had fit better at my waist I would have bought it because I thought it was hilarious. Mirror image #selfie

September 26, 2014

#birchboxbrag – my #chella #realchemistry #lizearle order

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Skin Care

I just got in my order of #chella travel sharpener (less mess), #realchemistry luminous 3 minute peel (loved the sample), & #lizearle hot cloth cleanser (I’m addicted!)

September 19, 2014

Smart Sheep wool dryer balls

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Clothing

Giving these a shot. Wool dryer balls. They’re supposed to be a healthy natural alternative to dryer sheets and they’re supposed to reduce dry time too!

• Unscented / fragrance-free laundry
• Eco-friendly and not plastic
• No Xenoestrogens (and other unhealthy ingredients found in dryer sheets)

Mostly it’s hard to find unscented dryer sheets and every fabric softer I’ve tried doesn’t work well in my ancient washer (or at least clothes still ended up staticky and wrinkled.)

Fingers crossed!

September 19, 2014

Ipsy glambag September 2014

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Hair, Makeup / Cosmetics, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

Crown Brush Infinity Shadow/Crease Duet Brush – synthetic fibers double ended brush. I don’t have a preference over synthetic vs natural on brushes as long as it’s a good brush for the job. At first glance and feel this seems like a good quality brush and both ends I think I would be likely to use. I think the only thing I’m not sure about is that it’s double ended. I’ve been using brush guards on all of my brushes since I throw them in a bag. I don’t think I can use the brush guard with the double ended brush though. I’m excited to try this.

Hikari Lipstick in Cabernet – so one, I wear more lipgloss than lipstick. Two, I’m not big on red lipstick. It just looks weird on me (or maybe that’s just my imagination.) The good: No fragrance, no dimethicone. The bad: it has parabens and mineral oil. The mineral oil isn’t toxic but it feels weird on my skin so I avoid it. This lipstick is a 5 with the cosmetics database. Do you know how much lipstick and lipgloss you eat? Mmmm?

Pacifica Natural Water-Proof Eye Pencil in fringe (brown) – pacifica is pretty much a hands down winner brand in my opinion. A few products I can’t use because of cones but otherwise it’s a sure bet when it comes to healthy ingredients and a quality product. No cones in this (a reminder, cones aren’t unhealthy, they just break out my skin personally) so I’m excited to try it. Even better that it’s waterproof!! This is a healthy 1 with the skin deep cosmetics database.

Briogeo Don’t Despair, Repair!™ Deep Conditioning Mask – Let’s start with the fact that upfront they’ve said “This product is free of parabens, sulfates, phthalates, silicones, artificial fragrances, artificial dyes, and gluten. It is cruelty-free and contains organic ingredients.” WOW. A company that seems to get it. So let’s just check out the cosmetics database report on the full ingredient list. Sooooo EWGEWG Environmental Working Group - an organization focused on research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment. judges vitamin A just a little more harshly than I would and it gets an 8 … which makes this a 4 with the cosmetics database. I’m giving this one some slack since the vitamin A seems to be the worst thing here. My hair could use some deep conditioning mask after all of the swimming this summer.

LeeAnni Eco 3-in-1 Revolution Light – Toner, Serum, and Moisturizer in One … and I just ran out of my face moisturizer. No cones, no parabens, no synthetic fragrances, excellent ingredient list … done and done. The cosmetic database ranks it a 1. Trying this asap.

Sign up for Ipsy:

http://www.ipsy.com/?refer=u-h051sec1kqq5g8p
{affiliate link – I get 250 points which points equal products but it’s still a little unclear how many points to the dollar}

September 19, 2014

Birchbox unboxing September 2014

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Makeup / Cosmetics, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

Harvey Prince Hello – Hello seriously? I just said last month that they should stop sending me fragrances and products from this brand. Synthetic fragrance is an 8. Nuf said. Moving on (and Birchbox PLEASE stop sending me Harvey Prince!!!)

TOCCA Crema da Mano Luxe – Hand Cream – I had high hopes for this one but oh well. Anything over a 4 and I usually start questioning whether I want to use it and I definitely don’t want to use it regularly if it has synthetic fragrance as an ingredient (which this does.) It’s a little too unhealthy for a lotion for my tastes as it ranks a 5 with EWGEWG Environmental Working Group - an organization focused on research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment.’s skin deep cosmetics database.

.
Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish™ Hot Cloth Cleanser Starter Kit – Ok so I chose this sample deliberately even though I’ve received it before. I looked at the things I could choose from this month and nothing was appealing so I figured I would add this and have a travel version. I’ve been re-purchasing and using the full size of this since the first sample I received last October and I LOVE it. Since I’ve never done the EWG ranking for it (it has crazy healthy ingredients) I figured I should go ahead and post that info now too. The few ingredients that cause this to be a 3 with the skin deep cosmetic database do not concern me. There are no parabens, no synthetic fragrances etc etc.

Skin&Co Roma SICILIAN LIGHT™ SERUM Vitamin C Brightening Face Serum – so this has dimethicone in it which rules it out for me (cones break out my skin). This is also a 5 with the cosmetics database with fragrance being one of the bigger bad ingredients.

.
ewg skindeep cosmetics database score 5 TEMPTU S/B Highlighter – this has cyclomethicone which rules another one out for me personally. This is also a 5 with the cosmetics database.

ChapStick® Dual-Ended Hydration Lock Day & Night – Ok this one is going to be a weird one in that the two ends have completely different ingredients. At a glance the day side looks toxic to me and the night side looks healthy and perfectly fine to use. So let me run each set of ingredients through the cosmetic database separately:

Day side ingredients: is a 6 with the cosmetics database.

Night side ingredients: is a 2 with the cosmetics database.

So chapstick made half their product good and healthy. I’ll give that side a try. I’m not sure how much I’ll use it though because I don’t want to accidentally use the wrong side. Actually I’ve already solved this – I put some masking tape on the end I don’t want to accidentally use so it would be hard for me to make that mistake.

Still not signed up for Birchbox?

http://birchbox.com?raf=3l3e7
{ yes it’s an affiliate link, I get 50 points which equals $5 credit – share the love! }