Thrifting

Dr.Bronner’s Shikakai Hair Conditioner Review

As promised, I said I’d do a review on Dr.Bronner’s Shikakai Hair Conditioning Rinse.

Here’s why I decided to try it:

If you’re a consumer, the world of beauty and personal care can be extremely daunting and intimidating! have you ever bothered to read some of the ingredients in shampoo and conditioner?

Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate,  Butylparaben, Sodium Laureth Sulfate… no thanks! This Shikakai conditioning rinse is made without the synthetic and chemical ingredients found in most cream rinses or conditioners (yes, even the high-end, professionals ones).

Dr. B’s Citrus Conditioning Hair Rinse is certified by the same National Organic Program that certifies organic food-the USDA (look for the logo on your bottle; it means organic). You probably haven’t seen this certification on your other hair care products.

Organic Shikakai (pronounced “Shee-kah-kye”) comes from the seed pods of a small South Asian tree called Acacia Concinna. Its popular in India because it’s known for making hair soft and shiny. Organic lemon juice, used traditionally here in the west, rinses throughly and tightens hair shafts for better manageability. And my favorite, organic coconut oil and hemp fatty acids, moisturize.

Cons: My hair is naturally oily, so I don’t typically care for moisturizing hair care products. This conditioner left my hair weightless in the fact that there is no build up whatsoever; my hair always felt clean. But, its awesome moisturizing properties work a little too well; they weigh my hair down and make it a little lifeless.

So, I don’t need a conditioner that adds moisture to my hair (because it makes my hair flat), but I’m convinced that if I find a shampoo that compliments this conditioning rinse, my hair will retain its bounce.

The Pros:

The conditioner was extremely nourishing to my hair. It made my hair softer to the touch and I could tell it was protective because it visibly strengthened my hair. By this I mean, for the first time ever, I consistently have no split-ends! I could care less about the appearance of split-ends (if someone’s close enough to notice, they’re too close!), except for the fact that apparently split-ends are a sign of weak or damaged hair. Well, I’ve been using this conditioner for a few months now and pleasantly, no breakage. To me this is a sign that the conditioner works to strengthen and protect my hair (must be the coconut oil!).

Overall, my hair just seemed more nourished. And of course, I’m kinda partial to this product since it’s made from food, it smells delicious! My theory is: if the ingredients are healthy for the inside of your body, you can probably use it on the outside of your body.

All that said, everyone is unique. No matter what, the same product will work differently on each person. I highly recommend this stuff because of its countless benefits. And, moreover, it’s safe! I plan on continuing my use of it.

Enjoy! And if you try it, send me an email and let me know what you think.

Where to buy: Online, your local Co-Op, Target, or Whole Foods.

Do You Know Where Your Products Come From?

The reason I post this video is simple: it’s to get you thinking about where do the products you buy come from? How are they made? Were they made ethically? Did the people who make your product have passion about the product and its origins? Did their hands, physically inspect the product? Is the product organic? Did the same company oversee the product from beginning to end? Did they care about the people who made their product and were the people who made it happy to?

There are a lot of videos I could have shown, but what struck me about the particular video was the passion the French have for the product (linen). I bet you’ve never seen so many people care so much about a plant in a field… It’s hard to say after watching this video that there’s no difference in the quality of a product that’s produced by people who care and companies that have social responsibility, as opposed to companies who don’t practice these qualities. Do you think the things you buy were made by happy workers, who were treated well? Do you think these people cared about the outcome of the final product? Furthermore, was your product produced in a way that was sustainable (safe for the environment and safe for the people creating it)? Research where the things you buy come from. I bet you won’t find these same qualities in products made by big corporations.

Videos like this serve to reinforce the importance of buying local and/or supporting companies that practice social and ethical responsibility.

Know of any companies or products that practice making goods the way they do in this video? Mention it in the comments. The more availability we can find, the more we can support buying things we care about.

The Best Hair Gel for Women or Men

This stuff is flexible, leaves my hair feeling light-weight, and doesn’t leave any build-up or make my hair feel unclean after having it in all day.

• I don’t always need to use hairspray or any other product in my hair since I use this. And best of all, it’s relatively inexpensive and comes from nature.
• It’s rich in B12, Vitamin C, essential fatty acids, and minerals.
• It’s great to tame frizz or it can shape curls.
• It can also be used for Hair Shampooing or Conditioning

Can you guess what I use for hair gel?

Clean Anything. DIY: Make Your Own Cleaning Solutions At Home

There’s a lot of reasons why it makes sense to make your own cleaning ‘products’ at home:

-The Safety of you, your family, and pets.

Read the warning labels on the products you buy, they caution about safety when using. Common sense may tell you that if the directions say “do not inhale” or that you should “open a window to let air in while using product”, that perhaps the product your using imposes risks to the safety of your health. The use of these products with ingredients like formaldehyde, triclosan, fragrances, ammonia, can cause illness, allergies, skin problems, etc. Products (like bleach) not only kill the germs on your counter, but they kill the cells in your body too. Your immune system can manage the everyday germs in your household. But your body can’t always protect itself from the effects of dangerous chemicals in the long run.

Ditch your toxic cleaners for good.

-Save Money. By using ingredients you already have in your own home/kitchen, you won’t have to go to the store to spend extra money on product.

-Sustainability. Using natural/food products in your cleaning means the environment isn’t being harmed (because your ingredients in your cleaning supplies come from nature). So  you don’t have to worry about disposing of bottles/containers that once held your toxic cleaning chemical. Or dumping out excess cleaning product down your drain or into your local water supply.

Here are recipes and solutions for you to clean your home safely with. (Remember, if you have a food allergy or are allergic to oil ingredients, you obviously wouldn’t want to use those ingredients, but you can always substitute ingredients).

Here’s my Shopping List~

These are basically all/the main ingredients I use in all my home, car, or outside cleaning:

-Essential Oils: Jasmine, Rosebud, Lavender, Almond, Lemongrass oil, Tangerine oil (whichever scents you want your home to smell like).

[*Note: Be sure you're buying certified Organic, Essential Oils.

There's a lot of watered-down, commercialized products on the market. For oils, I love Thieves, Young Living Brand, but I can rarely afford to buy this brand, so I buy mine locally at my Food Co-Op. You can find essential oils in the health market section of your grocery store, at health food stores, or online.

Also, be a conscious consumer. Look for certifications like USDA, Fair Trade Certified, or made in the USA].

- Tea Tree Oil. Tea Tree contains terpenes and other phytochemicals that are naturally powerful antiseptic and fungal killers. Tee Tree oil is often added to natural soaps because it is considered a safe germ killer.

-Lemon Juice from Lemons.

- Baking Soda

- Tap Water

- 1 Bottle Club Soda

- Dr.Bronner’s Liquid Soap

- Table Salt

- Distilled Vinegar

- Recycled Newspaper for polishing away smudges and cleaning glass surfaces.

- Rags from old tshirts or repurposed clothes.

- Recycled Pouring Containers, glass bottles or Spray Bottles to hold your cleaning solutions. Here’s how I mix mine:

If you have a few of these ingredients on hand, now you too can learn How to Make Your Own Green Cleaning Supplies; read how after the jump

Earth’s Berries: Laundry Review

Introducing,

Earth’s Berries, Soap Berries.

If you’re searching for an environmentally-friendly or healthy & safe laundry line, search no longer. You can’t get much closer to nature than Earth Berries. Earth’s Berries successfully clean your clothes all while helping people across the world.

Economical, Eco-Friendly, and Humanitarian, it washes my clothes over and over again beautifully~

I have no reason to go back to using commercial laundry detergent. Earth’s Berries remove scents and stains from my clothes and allow my clothing to hold its color longer. One bag of Earth’s Berries lasts me months longer than a standard bottle of [Tide] laundry detergent. Not only do laundry detergents have ingredients that aren’t good for you or your children’s health, they also pollute our water systems. Using Earth’s Berries means I don’t have to worry about detergent on my skin or allergies. Plus, I’m not contributing to filling up the landfills or polluting water supplies.

Earth’s Berries has such a nice website explaining their story & philanthropy, I wanted you to see for yourself:

“I am loving the Soap Nuts! Economical, ecological, village building, planet saving, people saving! Karen’s story about a whole village being employed touched my heartstrings – a small change in my habits could mean a huge change in someone else’s life. My clothes come out clean, soft and with no fragrance and a family is able to put food on their table – it’s a win-win situation.”
-Jan

“I was amazed to discover that those natural little nuts where able to take the stink out of our our workout clothes. I have noticed that our clothes are softer without having to use a softener and keeping one more bottle of chemicals out of our home is wonderful. It’s a very cost effective way to do laundry especially with our HE washer the commercial detergent is expensive, plus no big plastic bottle to throw out every month, and it’s earth and body friendly. Everyone should try them.”
Sarah

 

Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps: A Product Review

FOR Cleaning Everything: from your dishes to your pet to your hair!

Lucky you, you’ve just hit the jackpot of Beauty World. I could write a whole book on this incredible company. Throw out all your old toxic products, because you won’t need them anymore.

Based out of Escondido California (only 1/2 hr away from where I used to live, when I lived in California!), Dr. Bronner’s is one in a million. Dr.Bronner’s uses pure castile soap mixed with herbal ingredients to give you a great all-purpose product. I use their Classic Liquid Soaps for everything! And I mean everything. Just this-morning, I used it in the shower as Shampoo and I ended up using it later to clean my entire stove after I let my pot of boiling water/food over-flow. I should have taken a before and after photo, because my oven/stove looks like a brand new appliance after washing it. This soap can clean anything and make it look better than ever.

Pros: I use the Hemp-Almond Soap in my kitchen as hand and dishwashing soap, and to clean my counters and appliances. 

I use the Hemp-Lavender Soap in my bathroom. It’s super gentle on skin. I use it for bodywash, and I also dilute it with water and have also used it for shampoo and face wash, as well as hand soap. It’s great for removing makeup, but be careful about getting it in your eyes. Castile is nature’s gold-medal winner of soaps, so it’s strong.

Moms, if you’re reading this, put your chemical Dawn dish soap down, and get this stuff. You only need 3 or 4 drops per use, unless you cleaning something large, a little goes a long way.

They’ve also come out with a new line of Shikakai Conditioning Rinse treatments for your hair. I did a review on it here.

Critiques:
If you’re using it for your shampoo, only use a few drops and dilute, dilute! Or it will leave your hair greasy. This is because a little goes a long way and if you use too much, it’s hard to wash out. This also goes for cleaning anything, make sure you wipe your counter or whatever down after cleaning to remove soap residue.

PROS:

• USDA Organic Certified & Fair Trade Certified.
•  These Soaps have 18+ purposes. Since they’re just made from castile, hemp, and essential oils, the peppermint can be used to brush your teeth or as a deodorant, you can also use any of them for shaving, as a body rub, as a pest-spray repellant, a dishwashing soap, or as laundry detergent. They also make baby soaps. You can use this soap for washing pesticides off your vegetables, for aftershave, for giving your pets a bath. Since this soap is from vegetable oil (not animal fat), there are no harmful ingredients and they’re environmentally friendly- completely biodegradable.

• It’s safe. Forget about spraying weird chemicals all over your house to clean. If you have children, pets or allergies, you’ll have a lot less to worry about when using this stuff.
• No Synthetic Foaming Agents, Thickeners or Preservatives.
• 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Bottles and Paper Labels.
• #1-Selling Natural Brand of Soaps in North America.
• Made in the USA!
• And, as an extra bonus: I’ve found that it cleans jewelry! My jewelry looks new, everytime I wash it with Bronners. I bought jewelry cleaner awhile back and stopped using it once I realized I could just use my castile soap.
• It’s a money-saver. College student on a budget? Single & Saver? Dad or Mom and looking for a way to stretch your dollar?                                                                 Price: $15.99-16.99 for a 32. oz. Also, your local health market or store may offer a bring your own container policy where you can refill at the store instead of buying a new bottle. The 32 oz. will last you at least 2 months with daily use. You’ll be able to stop buying other cleaning & beauty products when you realize you can use this one product for everything.

Staple Ingredients: Extra-Virgin Coconut oil, organic Olive Oil, Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba, Citric Acid, Vitamin E, are mixed with different essential oils (like peppermint, lavender, natural almond, etc), Potassium Hydroxide.

* Transparency: Potassium Hydroxide is an inorganic compound; it is used in the saponification (the process of making soft soaps as opposed to the more common sodium hydroxide-derived soaps). While the process of making this soap involves the ingredient Potassium Hydroxide, this company claims that this ingredient does not remain in the product once the soap is actually made. I’ve talked a lot about companies using harmful ingredients or masking ingredients or trying to pass ingredients off as safe. I trust this particular company because they are open about their ingredients and the process in which they make their product.

Where to buy: I get mine at my local Food Co-Op and my local health food store.

Or Target.

Otherwise, get it online.

Dr. Bronners sells internationally too!

“Our soaps are available in Australia, Canada, England, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. We have listed the information for our international distributors for you to consult. Depending on the distributor, they may sell to you direct or refer you to a retailer in your area.“

Health & Beauty: Knowledge is Sexy! Navigating the World of Consumer Safety, Part III

If you haven’t read the first part of this post, go here.

Stay away from harmful or chemical ingredients. Want to know which ingredients to look out for in your products?

I’ve compiled a list of some of the most common harmful ingredients I’ve found in regular products (unfortunately, this list is only the beginning of a long list of harmful ingredients. If you would like more info, please email me or comment below). The list contains the product name and the reason it may be harmful to your health.

The government and corporations aren’t going to go out of their way to help you, but I am!  Pass this information onto your friends and family. Check back periodically for updates. I’ll continue to add ingredients to this list. Read more after the jump

Smart + Sexy Consumer Check List Health & Beauty: Knowledge is Sexy! Navigating the World of Consumer Safety, Part II

   

Here's how I organize my list when I shop for products of any kind:

*(Note: If you haven’t read my post on consumer safety, go here first).

1) Ingredients: Can you recognize most of the ingredients in your product? Do they come from nature? Or are they man-made?  Do you recognize any chemicals or toxic ingredients I’ve mentioned on this website?

2) Certifications & Safety: Is your product certified by the USDA? If it is organic, it’s possibly safer and has more health benefits than other products that claim to do the same thing. Some products may contain all natural ingredients, but are not certified. In more cases, it is probably still a better product for you. While the origin of the ingredients aren’t assured, natural ingredients found in nature are generally safer and provide health benefits, as opposed to those that are man-made.

3) Origin of Product: Where do the products you buy come from? Are you purchasing products that are imported or shipped across the nation, that you can find locally (at a farmers market or local store)? If so, support your town and buy local instead. Or buy Fair Trade.

4) Product Claims: Does your product have ingredients that you react to negatively? If so, this probably outweighs the claims of your product (if for example, your product promises to reduce wrinkles, but causes your skin to break out at the same time). Know how to identify those products and ingredients that harm and benefit you.

5) Success of use (according to its claims) & Satisfaction of Product: Are you truly happy with the benefits of your product? Does it have health benefits and is it really worth your money? Just think about how often and how much product you use each year. If ingredients in these products are causing you harm in the long run, it’s not worth it now to continue use. Try looking for alternative options.

(The reason I put success of product at the end of my list is because what the product does for me means nothing to me if my product contains harmful or synthetic ingredients).

Now that you’re more empowered, clean out your bathroom and bedroom. Throw out those toxic brands and start new!

Is the Grass Really Greener? A NonToxic Pesticide Alternative! A Wake Up Call to ‘Always Eco’

Do you use pesticides in your garden or on your lawn? Do you hire a lawn care & maintenance company to spray your yard or manage your plants? What about the pesticides sprayed throughout your community (parks, schools, churches, businesses)?

“I am third generation military, a former U.S. Marine officer. I don’t know how to quit. I must complete this mission to save lives even if it takes the rest of mine to do so. I know that I have protected generations of children by helping protect just one child today. I have a worthy mission and I make my mission part of my being – the essence of my existence – my call to arms. An army of my nemesis out number me 30,000 to 1, but I have helped save thousands of lives over the years and each life may create four more healthy ones. Therefore I have the greatest army – the army of proof.
Unlike other outfits in pest control, we did not start AlwaysEco because we thought we could spray pesticides better or smile bigger or be friendlier than our competitors could to get your business. We’re the first pest control company in America to fight against the very industry in which it is licensed.” -CEO of Always Eco

Here’s some important information that might change your mind about pesticide use. In my research I’m seeing similarities in the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food/Drug Administration.

Check out the video below about how the EPA fails to require disclosure about the dangers of pesticide products.

In an interview, Dr. Mitchell tells his personal story of loss of his mother to breast cancer due to her exposure to everyday pesticides. Mitchell also uncovers lies and the truth of how the EPA conspires with chemical pesticide and household insecticide companies who continually expose hundreds of millions of people to cancer-causing chemicals everyday, right in their own backyard.

What chemicals and pesticides has your yard been sprayed with? You should know that most pesticide and lawn care companies operate with products that are completely unsafe for humans and animals alike. So next time you step onto some grass that looks too green to be so, think about why this is. Chemical use in lawn care was extremely common in the 60s and was controversially linked to illness and fatality. The same is still occurring today! But this danger continues because most people don’t realize they have a say in the products they use.

Well, you do.

What a cool organization. Here are just a few things AlwaysEco can do for you:

• We will terminate your existing pest control company for you if they have ever sprayed a single drop of toxin on your property;
• We will decontaminate as much of your home as possible and remove as much toxic pesticide residue as possible;

• We keep unsanitary disease-causing insects away from you, your baby, and your family with our all-natural, non-toxic products that are effective at controlling all the same insect pests and “Safe Around Children and Pets”.
• If you have synthetic pesticides in your home or garage, we will remove them and dispose of them for you at no charge.

Psst! P.S. They also offer Military discounts for all Service Members and their families!

Stop over at AlwaysEco to find out more

and stop here to purchase your 100% safe, organic, alternative, pesticides. And spread the word to your family & friends!

“Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT now
Give me spots on my apples but leave me the birds and the bees, please
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” -Joni Mitchell