Birchbox March 2015

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

Dear Clark Volumizing Tonic – ok I was most excited to try this product just because of the ingredient list and rightly so. It’s amazing and actually does what it says it will do. It gives your hair a little extra boost and it does it without a lot of the unhealthy junk that so many other products use. This is what I keep expecting dry shampoos to do and feel like. More volume, a little texture to help style your hair. I’m in love! And Volumizing sprays aren’t even the type of product I usually get excited about. And honestly I don’t want hair the size of Texas so the volume is very reasonable and fairly controllable for those worried about that. You can got big if you want or just give your hair a little oomph. It is not scent-free but it is scented only by the ingredients it uses. That does mean though that you will smell lightly of patchouli. No one else can smell it and after half a day I don’t even smell it really. So yes, if you sniff the bottle your first thought might be “hippie” but your hair won’t look that way.

Now here’s why I’m going to remind you to take the EWGEWG Environmental Working Group - an organization focused on research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment. score with a grain of salt. This product got a 4. But the ingredients are amazingly good and healthy! Clove oil alone gets a 5. I LOVE clove oil! It’s amazing. It’s healthy. I understand that if you put essential oil directly on the skin it could be a bad thing if it’s not diluted but that’s not what we’re doing here. Alchohol 40B … again … we aren’t drinking this in quantity so there’s less concern here. There are three ingredients I can’t identify as natural that are between a 2-3 each that aren’t great but are mostly contamination concerns so I’m not even really worried about those either. No parabens, no synthetic fragrances, no cones, this is a healthy product and not one that I’m going to avoid because it got a score above a 3. So I’m going to say that unless you have an allergy to one of the ingredients, you should just ignore the score on this product and really look at the ingredients here.

I’ve used this product pretty much every day since I’ve received it! Between this and my new hair brush, every day seems to be a good hair day! I’ll stop gushing now… 🙂

Laura Geller Beauty Baked Blush-n-Brighten – the first three ingredients are Talc, Mica, Mineral Oil, and Dimethicone. 3 of those are ingredients I avoid (hint, mica is the good one.) Two just feel weird on my skin (talc and mineral oil) and one seems to cause my skin to break out for some reason (dimethicone.) It also has parabens and “Imidazolidinyl Urea” which is a formaldehyde releaser. I haven’t even run it through the EWG skin deep database yet! However I thought it was going to be a lot worse than a 5.

Whish Three Whishes Body Butter – I have not been thrilled with any of the Whish products. They all contain fragrance and the scents have been … just not good in my opinion for the most part. If they would ditch or go with a natural fragrance though their products would be a lot better. However it’s most unhealthy ingredient is the fragrance which makes it a 3 with the EWG skin deep cosmetics database.

Supergoop!® Advanced SPF 37 Anti-Aging Eye Cream – dimethicone rules this one out for me. This is not the worst sunscreen though at a 4 but there are also healthier sunscreens out there. Also I think one of the active ingredients may be one of the sunscreens you want to avoid in the ocean due to how it can damage coral reefs. I’ll have to go back and look at that. I wrote a previous post on this.

derma e® Evenly Radiant® Brightening Day Crème SPF15 – you may already know that I’m a big fan of Derma e. Honestly it took some samples to get me to fall in love with them because the only thing I’m not a fan of is the packaging. I hate products I have to dip my fingers into! Despite this I have actually had some Derma e products that I’ve used the entire product and repurchased. That said, I’ve already tried this and while it’s good, it’s not my favorite moisturizer from this company. But it is good and it’s WAY better than many moisturizers from other companies. I think the real test will be when it’s summer. This seems like a better moisturizer for the summer months when your skin is less dry. Right now I’m actually using a night cream during the day because the winter has been harsh. When it comes to the ingredients though, the list on this product is great and scores a healthy 2 with the EWG Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. Yay!

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March 25, 2015

Ipsy Glambag March 2015

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

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

March 2015 – FLORAL FANTASY

Mary Kay At Play® Eye Crayon – first ingredient is dimethicone so this product is out for me personally. Reminder, cones cause my skin to break out for some reason. No parabens, no fragrance but it does contain aluminum powder. It ranks a 4 with the EWG skin deep cosmetics database. Not great but not bad.

Coolway Glow Oil Treatment – second ingredient is dimethicone, also out for me. Along with dimethicone it also includes fragrance and ranks a 5 with the EWG skin deep cosmetics database. There are a lot of better oil and hair treatment options out there. Also one of the things about cones (for those that aren’t allergic) they may make your hair look good the first few uses but they can be not so great for your hair over time.

NYX Cosmetics Butter Lipstick – no cones, no parabens, but it does have fragrance/parfum. It also doesn’t have mineral oil or parafin which, although not toxic, are ingredients that don’t feel right on my skin. So I could technically use it but it’s also a VERY purple shade. Going back to 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 score on this one and it’s just not healthy. It’s a 7 due to many of the other ingredients used. So nope, not using this one.

LANEIGE BB Cushion – more cones so again this one is out for me. No parabens but it does include fragrance again. When I started to run it through the cosmetics database custom score builder I ended up with it having problems finding the following:

CROSSPOLYMER
ETHYLHEXYL
POLYRICINOLEATE
ACRYLATES/STEARYL
ACRYLATE/DIMETHICONE
DIMETHICONE/VINYLDIMETHICONE
CROSSPOLYMER

So the score does not reflect these ingredients. And yet still it’s a horribly unhealthy 9. Nope, nope I would not use this product.

skyn ICELAND Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels – no cones, no parabens, no fragrances/parfumes added. So far so good here. And an EWG skin deep report shows this as a healthy 2 and a closer look at the ingredients and everything looks pretty good. Healthy and gentle is something you want with the more delicate skin around the eyes. Definitely going to give these a try.

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March 16, 2015

Synthetic fragrances are the new second hand smoke…

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin, Clothing

PLEASE READ!! 🙂
http://branchbasics.com/blog/2015/01/fragrance-is-the-new-secondhand-smoke/

March 10, 2015

Natratouch by Apropos organic feminine products review

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Skin Care

To continue the discussion I started about natural feminine products I went in search of a better healthier pantiliner and I decided to purchase these from Amazon. A lot of natural products had poor reviews with regard to either staying put or with regards to actually protecting underwear. These didn’t have a lot of reviews but they weren’t all bad so I bought them.

However there is something off about these. Maybe I’m just sensitive to scams but I’m finding it sincerely hard to believe that these are organic and are chlorine free. They are perfume free … or at least lacking any obvious scent. But there IS a chemicallyness to them. Enough that I’m not going to use them. Enough that when I opened one up just to check it out Tim turned pink (which he does around certain chemicals) and then felt bad the rest of the evening. Eeeeee.

I did go ahead and take some photos though for those of you who are interested in shape and size and adhesive. Click any of the below for a larger view.

So I started researching based on the information on the box.

Made by Apropos – which is a company based in the US. Ok so far so good.
USA material – that doesn’t tell me what they do to the product once it’s out of this country so even if it starts as organic cotton pulp then who knows what they do to it later.
Korea Technology … what does this even mean?
and made in Shanghai – China … these are made in CHINA

So here’s the deal and why I’m really skeptical. There’s this thing with Chinese manufacturing where if they can get one up on you it’s your loss and their gain, too bad for you. So much so that there are stories about people asking what a product is made of and the manufacturer’s response is “what do you want the box to say it’s made of?” So for a product to come from China you need someone who is working on your behalf to ensure that the product is in fact what it claims to be if that’s your goal.

So going back to the pantiliners I bought from Natratouch / Apropos…

So I started looking for certifiers. Things that would be 3rd party approval of a product where the product could be verified. Organic verification? Nope.

So what kinds of certifier or codes do we have that we can research?

Certified number CU-810251

What does this bring up?

http://certification.controlunion.com/ But neither Natratouch nor Apropos exist in their database of products certified. And the next link might be why:
http://www.kr900657490.fm.alibaba.com/product/124458913-102986238/Organic_pads_Pantiliner_sanitary_pad_.html This is a listing for wholesale pantiliners on Alibaba which is a giant international marketplace. The certified number applies to a selection of products from and Unverified Supplier – J2LFA CO LTD. So this leads me to:
http://ocbons.com/ So here we have the actual company. Apropos Natratouch is repackaging and rebranding a Korean product. This isn’t the end of the world but it does give us more detail than what we started with.

NOW the certifiers again: I’m impressed that they have actually linked to these things because that will speed up the research process. http://ocbons.com/01_company/03_certification.php

Texas organic cotton: this is actually a marketing cooperative, not a certifier. It does however require members to be certified organic under the United States Department of Agriculture National Organic Program (USDA-NOP.) So bonus points here. BUT back to two points: 1) is the cotton really from this cooperative 2) what is done to the cotton after it leaves the supplier?
Control Union: so then we’re back to this certifier. And this time we should be looking for J2LFA CO LTD. (or maybe their product: Organic Bon or OCBon or OC Bon.) It does turn up with two types of certification: http://certification.controlunion.com/SearchResult.aspx?Project_Name=J2LFA&Project_ID=0 but then I ran into a dead end because it wants a username and password to get more info than this:

So now my next question is Control Union, is IT a legit certifier or is it one of those companies intended to look like a legit certifier exists so that people are more comfortable buying products?

More research is needed….

But bottom line for me is that although this might be healthier than some of the feminine products on the market, I just don’t trust it to be what it says it is. Or at least don’t trust it to not have other harmful chemicals in it. These products aren’t required to list their ingredients like food is. And like supplements, there’s no safety check to even see if the ingredients listed are the ingredients in the product. Or no check on the organic either. Labeling fraud isn’t uncommon. H&M was caught labeling clothes as organic when they weren’t by an organization in Germany. I don’t at this point in time have the means to get these products tested by a lab so if there’s anything off I’m just going to have to trust my gut. My gut and nose says that these aren’t healthy.

PS – and Natratouch is NOT the same brand as Natracare!!! Nartracare is a brand that many of the co-op groceries carry. I haven’t researched them to know for sure but they are clearly a more mainstream brand than this is. And Natratouch is clearly trying to be mistaken for this other brand. They have clearly mimicked another brand here.

So the next thing I think I might explore … cotton reusable pantiliners combined with fashion tape. Since one of the main complaints about the cotton reusable liners is that they don’t stay put. The adhesive and toxicity of that is something else to address BUT in small amounts and not against the skin, a less toxic adhesive might be an appropriate compromise.

UPDATE – I gave up on pantyliners entirely. I’m starting to use the diva cup a little bit before I think I’ll have my period and I bought a few more pairs of underwear and wear the ones that are already kinda too old around that time of the month. No problems and not even any underwear that needed to be trashed. I’ve also bought a pair of period panties to try but still haven’t done that. I know that doesn’t really help those of you just getting started with the diva cup and in need of something during that learning period (haha get it) but this was what the solution was for me.

March 8, 2015

Ecotools Haul

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Clothing

#ecotools haul from last week. There are another pair of the exfoliating gloves in the shower because I already knew I loved those and bought 3pairs! The hairbrush I bought on a whim but it’s really made drying my ?hair faster and better. Also shown: dry brush, and two of the travel makeup brushes. I would recommend all of these. 🙂

ecotools haul • via ClothingCult.com ?

March 3, 2015

Simple but different – gold triangle screw stud earrings

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Jewelry

I found these really cute geometric earrings. They have a little bit of a tribal boho look to them without going overboard. I like that the backs screw on and are flat triangles like the front. But man are they hard to put on. Nothing like trying to hold a tiny tiny triangle and screw it onto a post … on the back of your ear. Once they are on though they are comfortable enough to sleep in.

A good all day earring that would work well if say you wanted to go swimming and tend to forget you have earrings in. Or maybe if you wanted to wear earrings but still go camping or travel and forget about the jewelry you are wearing.

They have a few other shapes in both gold and silver – I’m thinking about at least getting the silver triangles too. Super simple but different at the same time. They’re only $9 including shipping if you have Amazon Prime. This is not the point of this post but if you want to buy them I am going to include an amazon affiliate link below.

One other thing I want to point out is that the post is just a tiny bit thicker than most of the earrings I’ve been wearing. They remind me of the size post on the earrings that were originally used to pierce my ears. Not huge, but not as thin as a lot of earrings on the market.

If you are familiar with gauges, the average earring is 18 gauge and this is probably more like a 16-14 gauge post (the smaller the number in gauges, the bigger/thicker it is. Here’s a great gauge reference chart on wikipedia. Or a visual gauge chart here.)