Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle Conditioner: A Review

Man I love Trader Joe's.

This conditioner is 3 bucks. It smells fabulous, it is organic, cruelty free, and it makes my hair soft. My scalp loves it.

The "tingle" is very mild, so don't expect to feel like you're washing your hair with Listerine. The peppermint, tea tree, and eucalyptus ingredients make for a really pleasant fresh fragrance that guys won't think is too girly and girls won't find too masculine.

I use it as part of my curly girl method routine in conjunction with Shea Moisture Restorartive conditioner (as a leave in). The one thing I learned about adopting this no poo/ curly girl lifestyle is that you really have to experiment to figure out what works for you. Be patient and talk to your girlfriends. If you can find a hair twin, use her wisdom!!

I feel like Trader Joe's Tea Tree Tingle is one of those products that will work great for a variety of hair types... and the price is right.

TWO THUMBS UP!!

Coconut Oil Eye Makeup Remover

I'm  a total coconut oil junkie.

I just discovered how fantastic it works to remove eye makeup and I'm just that much more obsessed! I luuuuuurv makeup. Thick winged eyeliner, smokey eyes, fun colors... I dig the dramatic eye. That said, I'm always struggling to remove all the war paint without tugging and stretching the delicate skin around the eyes. I've tried dozens of makeup removers and so called gentle cleansers. Owwwww they make my eyelids sting! I swear I have it all off and the next morning I look like a raccoon. ugh.

But not anymore!! With a tiny dab of coconut oil I barely have to wipe my eyes and bam... the makeup is gone baby gone. Simple. Organic. Safe. Cruelty free. Cheap. Already had it in my cabinet.

This was 3 swipes with a cotton ball and some coconut oil:

YESSIIIIRRR

*** Just be careful if you have oily/acne prone skin. If I'm not careful to keep the coconut oil just around my eye area, I will break out in a gnarly under-the-skin zit.

Buycott App

I'm befuddled.

How is a crunchy girl supposed to navigate the murky waters of marketing and hype?

Most of my life I naively thought animal testing wasn't even happening anymore. I thought it was this archaic bonehead idea. So, so wrong.

I also can't keep straight fair trade, GMO's, organic, sweatshop labor, fluoride, MSG, Toxins, sustainability, etc etc etc etc....

If label reading has given you the kind of headache brought on by exasperation, then join me on Buycott. Its' free.

With this handy little app you can explore every cause near and dear to your heart and even some you've never heard of. Create your profile, then scan a product's barcode and voila! You are an informed consumer. 

Grapeseed Oil for Your Face

I have oily skin.

Like, super oily. When I worked at a spa the estheticians used to gather around and inspect my skin under a magnifyer ooooing and aaaahing over how "tough" and oily my face was. I knew better than to get offended, because, they assured me this meant wrinkles weren't going to be a problem for me any time soon.

Luckily acne hasn't been an issue since my teenage years, but blackheads on my nose and a shiny face are my deal. This was all under control when I worked at the spa and got discounted high end skincare, but these days I don't have that luxury.

Soooo I'm still working on the whole blackhead issue, but my shiny face is just as matte as I want it!

The trick is my moisturizer. It's an oil, and some people bake with it. You guessed it...Grapeseed Oil!

I originally bought it for my hair but only use it for an occasional deep conditioning treatment. I kept reading about how great it was for skin and so I decided to test it out. Very few moisturizers have ever worked well for me.... Lord help me I was using leftover Oil of Olay I grabbed from the guest bathroom at my parents' house (times are tough)!

So I trashed that poison ... it literally stung my eyelids when I put it on... uhhh.. that can't be good.

So the past few days I've tried Grapeseed Oil and I loooooooove it! Two thumbs up. Not greasy. Not runny. No breakouts, no clogged pores. Simple, one ingredient moisturizer. I think I paid around $7 for 16 fl oz.

Shea Baby!

So I haven't used shampoo in 14 weeks.

There are a gazillion blogs/posts out there about how to go no-poo, shamphree, and some other catchy names for ditching this stuff we have convinced ourselves is totally necessary.... but I have come to the conclusion that no matter how you dress it up, there is no easy transition. HOWEVER it is well worth that awkward phase, so I urge you to grab a hat and commit to getting healthier hair.

At first, your hair is just yuck. Ya nasty (Raven voice).

No way around it. BUT your scalp gets over it and before you know it, you are so proud of your crunchy progress and you love the looks you get when you tell people you don't wash your hair. (OK, maybe that's just me.)

Obviously it's different for everyone, because hair is unique. Sometimes you find a more knowledgeable hair twin and you learn all kinds of info. I just recently found out about words like porosity and botticelli.

I am still learning.... but alas, I'll share my hair journey on another day. What I want to tell you today is that I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Shea Moisture products.

I use the curl enhancing smoothie and raw shea butter restorative conditioner just to name a few. This company is organic, cruelty free, and affordable! I love that Walgreens and Target carry the Shea Moisture Line because it means I don't have to go all thew way across town to the hippie grocery stores (wow that sounded lazy). If I'm traveling and I need some product, I'm not sent into a panic because I can't get my hands on any.

In addition to hair care, they have soaps, body washes, manscaping products, and stuff for babies and kids. They've recently expanded to makeup and I'm so very excited! Imagine being able to get cruelty free organic makeup at your drug store. I guess in some parts of the country this isn't a big deal but for the South East it's damn near impossible to get quality organic anything at your local drug store.

Zoya, Non Toxic Nail Polish: A Review

I did it. I dumped all my nail polish.

I figured it would take entirely too long to transition slowly, and I can only paint my toes anyway (thanks to nursing school). So I ditched every last bottle. It was liberating, actually. Like tossing junk food without the regret.

I had never used non toxic nail polish and was skeptical it even existed. I've never been a fake nail kinda girl and it honestly boggles my mind that young girls get manicures and acrylic nails these days. I also work with tons of brides via Stella Clare and I always secretly cringe when they stick these ultra awkward looking faux nails on their fingers. Also, the dead giveaway that a girl knew her man was about to propose? French manicured fake nails in her obligatory engagement ring facebook photo upload! hahahaha! How is that even a thing? (<--- I ask that question way too often)

The fact that nail salons are in Wal Mart is reason enough to steer clear. Am I the only one that thinks these poor salon workers are in danger? The flimsy little masks should be our first clue that this stuff is not safe. I also see long fake nails and automatically think bacteria-fest. You know those girls aren't scrubbing under those talons every time they use the potty. Ew.

Anyway no offense to anyone that finds acrylic nail art attractive. I certainly love a good manicure. I don't find it in my meager budget to get pampered like that, either. I have never had a manicure I thought was worth THAT much money. A massage? Yes. A facial? Of course.

Manicures? I think I'll just keep it DIY. So Zoya is what appealed to me as far as color selection and the fact that it is a legit non toxic polish. Apparently there are some liars out there that market safe polish but aren't. Shocker.

No formaldahyde. No toluene. No DBP. <-- That's what they call the "toxic trio." Also, no camphor. So when I have a mani pedi party with my precious nieces, I don't have to worry about toxins. When my crazy cat licks my fingernails, I don't have to worry she's melting her brain cells. I also don't have to worry that I'm applying scary chemicals directly onto my body.

The color I chose was charisma. LOVE! It smells different than regular polish.. still strong, but not nearly as awful as the other stuff. It also just feels very different. Fast drying & a bit matte, which I like. Color was exactly the color of the bottle, which never seems to happen with the other stuff. Price was $7, which isn't cheap but many of the other non toxic brands I looked into were like $20!

However, I highly recommend using a top coat. 12 hours and one shower after the above photo was taken, this is what my nails looked like:

Let's Talk Arm Pits...

Who doesn't love a good arm pit discussion?

OK so I have always been reluctant to switch to a "natural deodorant" because in my experience rubbing dirt in my pits would have probably been more effective.

I sweat. I'm not one of those girls who has to be on the tread mill for 20 minutes before the sweating starts. I sweat if it's a little warm and I have clothes on.

So needless to say when I get nervous, drink to much coffee, exercise, or any combination of  the above, I sweat and I just have to live with that. For me the idea of a natural deodorant working was just laughable. For most of my adult life I was looking for some kind of miracle prescription stuff to keep me from sweating through my clothes all the time. Sexy, I know.

However, my crunchy heart wouldn't let me go that far. I hated thinking about all the chemicals I was shoving under my arms on a daily basis just asking my lymph nodes to get poisoned.

I am aware that the evidence for a link between deodorant and cancer is shaky, but I'm not going to wait around for these researchers to get it together. Doctors used to be in smoking commercials, let's not forget. It took an embarrassingly long time for published studies to definitively link smoking to tons of awful health problems. Regardless of whether traditional deodorants cause cancer, I know they always stop working. I end up with yellow stains from the chemicals and I smell like sweaty flowers.

I've asked my crunchy friends to recommend a natural deodorant because I've struck out again and again. Turns out most of them are dealing with the same issue. So I decided it was officially my mission to find a safe deodorant that actually worked.

I'm happy to report I have found my miracle arm pit saver. Drum roooollllll.....

I mean, the name of this stuff is Perfect Pits. Found it on etsy at Hippie Chick Herbals. I ordered lavender, and I gotta say that after a few intense clinical rotations in critical care units and state mental hospitals, some big exams and presentations, and even working out.... my arm pits smell like a spa.

I still sweat, but I always did no matter what I used. This time I don't have weird stains or funky deodorant balls... does anyone else get those? I can't be the only one. Anyway sweating is toxin elimination, so I am fine with it. I'm also very excited to smell good when I do it.