SPF

July 21, 2015

Birchbox June 2015 and EWG Skin Deep Cosmetics Database Scores

Posted in Makeup / Cosmetics, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

I’m a little behind on posting this – oops…

Marcelle Mini Waterproof Eyeliner – Ok I’m not believing the ingredient list on Birchbox. “C11-12 Isoparaffin. May contain: Ferric ferrocyanide, carmine” is not the full list of ingredients. The ingredients are printed on the side and it’s a much longer list. Tiny print but longer. I don’t see any cones, fragrance or parabens at a glance so I may try this but it also might be awhile before I type it all in to get a score.

TOCCA Eau de Parfum, Bianca – Fragrance, synthetic fragrance. Just a NO.

Dr. Jart+ Dermaclear™ Micro Water – I see nothing here that’s bad which is why this was my choice of product for this month’s box. That said, let’s see if EWGEWG Environmental Working Group - an organization focused on research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment. brings any other ingredients to my attention. “GALACTOMYCES FERMENT FILTRATE” is “natural yeast extract” but I still couldn’t get EWG to recognize that ingredient. It shows up as a healthy 2 however. I picked well. 🙂

ewg-skindeep-cosmetics-database-score-unknown

Kérastase Masque Chroma Captive – Treat – cones rule this one out for me. Lack of online ingredients for me to copy and paste rule out me bothering to look up what the EWG score is at the moment.

COOLA® SPF 50 Sport – Mango – Fragrance is the biggest downside to this. Coola is actually one of my preferred SPF options but I go for the unscented version. This ends up being a 6 with the fragrance. Without fragrance it would be a 4. Some of their other products rate a little bit better even then. This is still probably one of the healthier sunscreens out there. So much of it is super toxic.

Then add in the number that are now aerosol so you’re breathing it in as well (I know your kids are impatient and you feel the need to hose them down before they jump in the pool but please stop hosing down the rest of us.) Rant for another day…. 🙂

Pura Vida Lace Headband Set – My head is not the right shape for elastic headbands. Even one with a grippy backside won’t stay in place more than a few seconds on me. HOWEVER I think that I can cut this and turn it into some hair ties.

Still not signed up for Birchbox?

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May 28, 2015

My Ipsy Glambag May 2015 – and EWG scores

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Subscription boxes

My Ipsy Glambag May 2015 - and EWG scores

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on Lip Pencil + BONUS Revolution High-Color Lipgloss no cones, no fragrances, no parabens … let’s see how this breaks down 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. Well BHT didn’t catch my attention and it’s alone is a 6. But the overall ingredient score is a 3. Not too bad. I’m assuming the ingredients is for the lip pencil only and so I’m not sure about the bonus.

Chella Eyebrow Color Pencil So this is one that has great ingredients but I’m not likely to use it. Have you seen my eyebrows? I have plenty of eyebrow so unless I somehow over-pluck I’m not likely to use this. Yes, I know, you can have even prettier eyebrows with a eyebrow pencil even if you have thick brows, but this is just one too many products for me. AND I just see myself accentually smearing it as I type at the computer. I don’t touch my eyeliner but I do touch my face more than I should. That aside the EWG skin deep score is good, it’s a 1 so it’s really healthy. If eyebrow pencils are your thing you might want to try this. Actually I might try it as an eyeliner…

NUXE Rêve de Miel® Facial Cleansing and Make-Up Removing Gel … fragrance … if this didn’t have fragrance this would be fairly healthy. It’s a 4 with the cosmetics database. I suspect it would be a 2 if it didn’t have that one ingredient. I may still try this one depending on how it smells.

Luxie Beauty Tapered Blending Eye Brush 205 so no ingredients here and I personally don’t have a preference on animal hair vs synthetic as long as the brush is good and suited to the type of application I want to use it for. For those who care, this is synthetic. 🙂 I’ll give it a go. It’s not my favorite shape brush so it might not get the same kind of use.

CoTZ Face Natural SPF 40 off to a good start touting “100% Free of Oils, Chemical Sunscreens, Preservatives, Fragrances, Oils, Parabens, PABA, Gluten, Phythalates” so dimethicone rules it out for me personally. But if you don’t have any issues with cones, this is a really healthy product that comes in at a 2 with the EWG skin deep cosmetics database.

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}

April 23, 2015

My Birchbox April 2015 – and EWG scores

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

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

First let me say I LOVE the Rifle Paper Co. box here. Even though it’s just a cardboard box, it’s lovely.

Jouer Tint in petal – Again, not a huge fan of blush or in this case cheek tint. That aside though this has paraben, bht and petrolatum in it. It’s not horribly bad for you but it’s also not great for you and there IS better out there on the market these days. This ranks a 4 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 (reminder, 0 is the healthiest, 10 is the worst.)

Liz Earle Eyebright™ Soothing Eye Lotion – I’m already addicted the Liz Earle Hot cloth cleanser and I think this is the reason I chose this box over the Mad Men themed boxes. I wanted to try another Liz Earle product because of the quality and ingredients of the first I tried. I’ve lost count on the number of times I’ve emptied and re-purchased the hot cloth cleanser! Right off the bat though there are a couple of ingredients I’m not keen on – parabens. But there’s not much else in here to worry about so other than that it’s pretty close to being healthy. It ends up ranking a 3 with the EWG cosmetics database. I’m going to try it but they could make it healthier by working on a more natural preservative.

Beaver Professional Hydro Nutritive Moisturizing Shampoo
Beaver Professional Hydro Nutritive Repairing Conditioner
I’m going to group these two together since Birchbox didn’t put the ingredients online. Cones rule BOTH out for me. Fragrance is strong and these and hurts my lungs (that’s a new one.) And they also contain parabens. I don’t want to have to type up the ingredients list on these tonight but I can tell you already I won’t be trying them. In fact the scent hurts me enough from within the bottles that I don’t want it on someone else’s hair and I’m throwing them out. Toxic. Gross. It’s making me feel bad and I haven’t even opened it. Gah!

MDSolarSciences™ MD Crème Mineral Beauty Balm SPF 50 – several kinds of cones rule this one out for me personally (causes me to break out) but the rest of the ingredients look good at a glance. SPF 50 is a bit overkill however. Unless you’re surfing and need something on your nose or are super fair skin and visiting an island for the first time ever, this just seems a little extreme. We need to allow our bodies to get a bit of sun and produce a certain amount of Vitamin D in order to be healthy. Also at 17% zinc, I wonder if this will be a bit calky despite the color – anyone want to give me feedback on that, please post in the comments. That aside, lets check out the full ingredients for anyone not sensitive to cones. This is actually very healthy – it ranks a 2 with the EWG cosmetics database. So if you’re looking for a strong SPF facial cream (I suspect this will be like a BB Cream instead of a foundation) you might want to give this a shot. Also does anyone know if it’s water resistant? Might make for a good day at the beach lotion for those who hate going without any makeup at all. (Again, cones and I don’t get along so if you can post a comment that’d be great!)

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! }

March 25, 2015

Birchbox March 2015

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

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!

Still not signed up for Birchbox?

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July 19, 2014

Ipsy glambag July 2014

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin, Hair, Makeup / Cosmetics, Nail Polish, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

bareMinerals 5-in-1 BB Advanced Performance Cream Eyeshadow Broad Spectrum SPF 15 – holy cow, a BB cream with no dimethicone! YAY! Granted it’s eyeshadow instead of a foundation but I’m still excited. No fragrance or parabens etc. Ranks a healthy 2 with the cosmetics database. (ps: I have checked and the bareminerals foundation style bb cream has cones. As mentioned in the past, this might be a personal allergy but cones cause my skin to break out.) So the only negative here with the eyeshadow BB cream is that I can’t seem to find a shade name on what I received! I THINK I got the “Divine Wine” but since all of the shared are neutral and very similar it’s hard to tell (as I know print runs are not always perfectly accurate as well.) There’s a chance that I received Barely Nude as ipsy says “ipsy subscribers who receive this product will receive shades Divine Wine or Barely Nude.”

Befine Food Skin Care Daily Moisturizer with SPF 15 – another one I’m excited to try. Super healthy ingredients – so healthy it actually ranks a zero. Yay!

Hang Ten Dark Tanning Oil SPF 08 – no cones and again with the healthy ingredients! (Really hope we continue to see more brands using healthier ingredients!) But it does rank a 5 with with cosmetics database because of the OCTINOXATE and a couple of other ingredients (flavor? why does this need flavor? Or was the flavor for scent?) Octinoxate is NOT one of the top suncreen ingredients to avoid though. % could be worse but could be better when it comes to sunscreens. Check back to my previous article on sunscreens that includes the top ingredients to avoid: http://clothingcult.com/2013/05/19/find-a-healthier-natural-spf-sunscreen/ And EWGEWG Environmental Working Group - an organization focused on research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment. has a specific page to help you find healthy sunscreens here: http://www.ewg.org/2014sunscreen/

Pixi Beauty Mini Tinted Brilliance Balm in Unique Pink – no cones, no fragrance, no parabens. I’ve been really happy with about half of the pixi beauty products I have. Most wear really well but some shades are just really weird when applied which is the only reason I’m half and half on this company. I can’t remember which product looked chalky on me but one did. HOWEVER I have been regularly using the pixi pink lip balm I received in the May Birchbox which actually came as a surprise to me since usually I grab lip glosses over anything that’s a balm or lipstick. “unique pink” is a “pH reactive pink” but it seems to just be clear on me. Not sure if that’s just me or not. The cosmetics database ranks this as a 6. Mostly for the vitamin A and the limonen which are ingredients that don’t worry me as much personally. So although this ranks higher than I normally would go, I’m still willing to give it a try.

wHet Nail Polish in Facetious – this is a 3-free nail polish which is thankfully becoming the industry standard. It actually looks like it’s a dup for the color club Insta-This nail polish. We’ll see how well it wears!

Note on this month’s bag. When I opened my package I thought “what in here am I going to have to throw out?” It’s the cute scalloped bag itself that smells a little bit chemically and toxic. :/

Overall I’m really REALLY happy with this month’s ipsy glambag though! 🙂

June 12, 2014

Ipsy Glambag June 2014

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin, Hair, Makeup / Cosmetics, Subscription boxes

Be A Bombshell Lash Out Mascara – parabens, no cones (an ingredient that rules out makeup for me personally), but it’s not waterproof. Mascara as I’ve said before I will accept a little less healthy for the waterproof tradeoff. This is a 4 with the skin deep cosmetics database (reminder: low numbers are healthier! with 10 being the worst.)

DERMAdoctor DD Cream Dermatologically Defining BB Cream with Broad Spectrum SPF 30 – cones rule this one out for me. Ingredients aren’t too bad though with the skin deep consmetics database ranking it a 4.

Marc Anthony Dream Waves Beach Spray – no cones, but it has added fragrance. This ranks a 5 with the cosmetics database … and would rank lower if they hadn’t added the fragrance. I’m debating giving it a try anyway since I’m curious how it compares to the old discontinued John Frieda Beach Blonde Ocean Waves.

Nicka K New York Shimmer Eyeliner – cones rule this one out for me. It’s fairly healthy though since it ranks a 3 with the cosmetics database.

NYX Butter Gloss in Eclair – no cones but it has added fragrance. I’ll probably give it a shot since it’s only a 4 with the cosmetics database. It would be MUCH healthier if they hadn’t added the fragrance though.

(And a very cute patterned Rebecca Minkoff cosmetics bag!)