Green Beauty: Pick of the Week

Hello lovelies...I've got another green beauty pick for you and this one you can whip up tonight in about 5 minutes. You may even have everything you need already in your kitchen cupboard!

The lo down: Dry Shampoo is my secret weapon. I was horrified when I discovered the ingredients I was letting soak into my scalp and even more horrified that going green would mean having to ditch my beloved Klorane. I'd have to either start washing my hair everyday or looking like a grease ball? Neither of those options works for me. A little internet searching brought up some DIY's and now I can't believe I used to pay almost 20 bucks for a bottle of Klorane Dry Shampoo when all I needed was in my kitchen cupboard the whole time! I apply with an old blusher on my roots and anywhere else that looks particularly greasy... It's a life saver especially now with a babe. It can be a tad messy if you aren't careful so I'd put it on before getting dressed.

How to make it: Fill up a jar with organic arrowroot flour (I use Bob's Red Mill) and add enough cocoa powder to turn it a nice shade of brown to match your hair. If you're blonde, you can skip this step. Add in a few drops of your fav essential oil if you want to get fancy, but if you're using cocoa powder it will smell like chocolatey goodness already. (note: you could use cornstarch instead of arrowroot, but cornstarch is genetically modified so it's up to you how green you wanna go)

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading...

Love Desiree

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Green Beauty: Pick of the Week

Hello lovelies...time for another green beauty pick! So happy to hear you're finding these picks helpful...I love hearing from you! Today's pick replaced the Loreal foundation I had been using since high school...it was a sad day when I read the label....(f%^k you Loreal!) I needed a replacement asap so with the help of my green beauty bible No More Dirty Looks and lots of internet reviews I went searching for Jane Iredale. I wasn't sorry. My skin has never looked better. I use the BB cream and the mineral powder but the BB cream was a real game changer.

The lo down: I'm glowing for real. It looks like I have an effortlessly flawless complexion which is definitely not the case. It's not too oily, not too drying, you don't need much, it stays on all day, and it's SPF 25.  Need I say more?  I use the mineral powder pure pressed base with it as well which is also amazing. The only draw back...the cost. The BB cream is 56.50...steep I know. The way I justify this expense is that now that I've gone green I use far fewer cosmetics, so the ones that I do use I can afford to splurge on...and the BB cream lasts a heck of a long time.

Where to find it: Pure and Simple on King St. or in Yorkville, Toronto or online at Jane Iredale

Thanks for reading!

Love Desiree

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Green Beauty: Pick of the Week

Hello lovelies...time for another green pick from yours truly! Red lipstick is kind of my thing.  I feel naked without it so you can imagine my horror when I read the list of ingredients in my favourite shades.... There was no way I was going to kiss my daughter with this dirty mouth so I immediately began searching for natural red lipsticks. I started out trying plain old beets...I had heard that beets would turn your lips red but that experiment turned everything red BUT my lips...I came across Ilia at The Detox Market and my life was changed.  This is by far the best lipstick I have ever owned.

The lo down: Ilia lip conditioner is the best lipstick I've EVER tried and the fact that it's all natural is pretty much the best thing ever. It's build-able colour so you can go for a more natural tint or a bold hue depending on how much you put on...It's long lasting and very moisturizing plus it wears off really nicely. I always hated getting the lip liner look as my lipstick wore off but this stuff just fades away...Another wicked thing about this stuff is that you can use it as a cream blush too.  I use it everyday on my face and on my lips. My colour,pictured above, is Crimson and Clover. It's 29 bucks (a recent increase, ugh)but it lasts me the better part of a year so I say it's worth it...at least until Eloise starts day care, then I may have to resort to the beets. :)

Where to find it: In person or online at The Detox Market located on King St. West Toronto or freshfaced.ca

p.s Fresh Faced also sell samples so if you can't get to The Detox Market you can buy samples online to try out all the shades. Not really worth it if that's all you're buying just because of shipping...but a good option since buying lipstick online is a risky business.

Anyhoo, thanks for reading! Hope you guys are enjoying these little testimonials...let me know how your quest for green is going!

Love Desiree

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Green Beauty: Pick of the Week

Hello lovelies...I'm starting a new feature to help us all on our quest to find green alternatives to harmful cosmetics. I started this a while ago but then I got pregnant and lost all motivation.You may remember this post from last year when I trashed every dirty cosmetic I owned and since then I've tried A LOT of stuff. Some expensive stuff, some cheap stuff, and some DIY stuff. I'd like to share with you my findings...It can be a bit daunting and expensive to get rid of everything all at once so lets start slow.  My first pick is deodorant cos it's getting hot out there and just because you're going green doesn't mean you have to smell like a dirty hippie.

The lo down: My pits are sensitive folks. I tried some DIY stuff but I was finding it irritating so I decided to leave this one to the experts and after reading a helluva lot of great reviews I ordered Soapwalla. This stuff is the best natural deodorant I've ever tried. I went to the gym for an hour yesterday and I was pouring sweat...I definitely had some pit stains...but remarkably I didn't stink!It is much more money than your used to spending but I think 16 bucks is a small price to pay for the piece of mind that you aren't putting carcinogens in your armpits.

Where to find it: freshfaced.ca or The Detox Market on King St. in Toronto.

Thanks for stopping by! Next week we'll talk lipstick.... : )

Love Desiree

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My Journey to Wellness: Beauty Discoveries I Found In My Kitchen!

I have not been this passionate about something since I don't even know when so you're going to have to put up with this blog taking a serious turn to green!  Some of my favourite discoveries so far have been found in my very own kitchen cupboards! These are my top 4 but I'll keep em coming as I find more...

1. Organic Coconut Oil - There is a reason this is number one. This stuff is AMAZING!  Thank-god for coconuts! I use it for cooking, I use it as a dry scalp treatment (by heating some up and rubbing it into my scalp and leaving it on for as long as I can stand it before washing out and it's been the only thing to clear up my unsightly flakes), a moisturizer for my hands, feet, and body, a cheek highlighter (it makes them shimmer better than any highlighter cream I've tried) , and most recently a facial cleanser! Yes, you heard me correctly.  I cleansed my oily skin with oil last night.  It was scary and I was skeptical but I think I may have discovered that oil cleansing is going to change my life.  Maybe. The verdict is still out so I'm not going to make any rash statements here but I'll let you know how it goes... It's definitely a great eye make up remover though, so get rid of the stuff you're currently using... like now.  It likely contains carcinogenic chemicals and endocrine disruptors.  Thanks again Lancome!  Really appreciate it.

2. Raw Organic Honey - Hmmm…it's not just delicious, it's also antibacterial and great as a face wash!  It's not going to take any makeup off, you'll have to do that first but it's lovely for a gentle morning cleanse or a weekend face mask.  Just wet your face to open up your pours and rub a tbsp of honey in your hands and then massage it in. It smells incredible and I like to lick my lips the whole time.  I even added a little bit of baking soda once to give it some exfoliating suds and my skin loved it.  This is where I got the idea and I trust anything these women say.  I'll say it again…. No More Dirty Looks changed my mother f$%&^ing life! Why do we use harsh chemically filled cleanser to strip our face of all it's natural oils only to put the oils back onto our face with moisturizer that also contains toxic sludge? Why not skip the harsh cleanser?

3. Aloe Gel -  It soothed my itchy scalp and calmed my frizzy hair... It's a miracle plant with so many uses...everyone should have one.

4. Corn Starch - A natural dry shampoo that works just as well as the toxic store bought ones.  This stuff is key in my routine! I think it actually works better than my Klorane Dry Shampoo (that by the way has propane in it which isn't even the worst part).  I'm trying to limit my hair washing to a couple times a week and this stuff really makes that possible.  I sprinkle it all over my roots..rub in, and brush…  Instant shine, no grease, and a volume boost!  I experimented with the "no 'poo" method of washing with water and baking soda and rinsing with apple cider vinegar and I think it was a good thing to do for a few weeks as a sort of detox for your hair but I like shampoo too much to cut it out altogether. Not a big fan of the scent of vinegar in the morning... There are lots of clean shampoos out there but make sure you read the ingredients cos a lot of them aren't what they claim to be…even at health food stores I've seen 'parfum' or 'fragrance' on the label which is often just a code name for a hundred toxic ingredients that they won't disclose. SHAME! You'd have to call the manufacturer to be sure...but I just avoid them cos I'm too lazy to make the call and if you're keeping ingredients from me I'm not interested in your product.

So much fun right? Right?? I love sticking it to the man! The cosmetic industry would never tell you that you can get the results that your hundred dollar face cream gives you with a jar of coconut oil! Give some of these a try and let me know how it goes… : )  Do you have any natural remedies we should know about??? Post them in the comments below. : )

Thanks for reading... : )
Love Desiree Pin It

My Journey to Wellness: My First Steps to Clean Beauty

When I first decided to go clean with my beauty routine my first worry (because worry is my first response to everything!) was that I'd look like crap. The chemicals in cosmetics are what make them work right? WRONG!  Thank-god! I'm so vain!

So the first thing I did was search the internet to find out where I could buy organic makeup in Toronto.  I didn't want to spend one more hour with this dirty crap on my face but I definitely did not have the confidence to go to work bare faced so I needed to find some cover up STAT! I found Pure and Simple, an all organic skin care spa that also carried Jane Iredale, a brand of mineral foundation that came highly recommended on lots of websites. I jumped on the street car and headed down to King and Shaw immediately. (I'm not exaggerating...I got up from my desk, grabbed my coat and was gone.) I came into this calm little shop and was greeted by a sweet girl with perfect skin who colour matched me and gave me a good how-to session on how to apply the stuff properly.  I won't lie to you...I spent an obscene amount of money.  A compact of mineral foundation, a blush, and an eyebrow pencil ran me close to a hundred bucks but it was definitely worth it for the piece of mind of knowing I was not wearing any hormone disrupting chemicals. I'm disrupted enough thank-you very much! She also let me take a sample of any of their other skin or hair care products so I grabbed a couple shampoo and conditioner samples to hold me over while I decided on what to do about my hair.  (More on my hair later)

What I needed more immediately was a mascara…and a cheap one preferably.  No More Dirty looks suggested the organic line of Physicians Formula so I popped into Walmart and grabbed a mascara for 12 bucks and it works perfectly fine. In my opinion an eyelash curler is more important than the mascara anyway.  It will run on the first sign of water which is to be expected with natural products but it doesn't burn which seriously makes me wonder what in the world was making my eyes burn by the end of the day with my old stuff.

Next up: rouge!  After all, it is kind of my trademark and I think people at work were starting to worry I was dying after a week of seeing me without mascara or a red lip. After experimenting with beets I decided that was NOT going to cut it despite my high hopes and I started searching the web for lipstick reviews. I found Ilia came with some high praise and lo and behold they carried it at a shop minutes away from my work called The Detox Market.  It's like the Holt Renfrew of clean beauty.  I bought the Ilia tinted lip conditioner in crimson and clover and it's the best lipstick I've ever worn.  My lips feel great, look great, smell great, and even taste great.  Worth the ummm...26 bucks!  Fak! I also broke down and bought the un-concealer from RMS beauty because the Jane Iredale just wasn't enough to cover up some unsightly blemishes I was dealing with at the time. I won't even admit to you how much I spent on that.  But you know what? I don't even care, it's the best thing ever. I also splurged on some Infinite Love by Lotus Wei which is pretty awesome but not essential...but I felt like after the winter I've had I was in need of some serious love.

So ya, that was my big splurge for a clean makeup bag and I've not looked back once…my skin looks fantastic. I might try another kind of mineral makeup next time around just because I'm intrigued by Vapour cosmetics but all in all I am absolutely thrilled with my new stuff!

 I'm having a hard time not buying more but I need to stop! There's so many cool companies out there making really great natural stuff, it's very tempting.  Also tempting to start making my own! There's also this website  http://www.freshfaced.ca/ that has all the best stuff and it's based in Toronto so the shipping is cheap and quick.  I ordered some shampoo and conditioner from them (shhh) and it arrived the next day!

I hope this has been helpful...I'm always searching for advice on what to buy so maybe you are too.   Check out No More Dirty Looks Blog for more advice on clean beauty.  I love those ladies way too much.

Next up on the wellness posts will be my adventures in skin care found in my very own kitchen cupboards so stay tuned!

Lots of love,
Desiree

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My Journey to Wellness: An Introduction

Dear Readers,

I was inspired to write to you guys today because I am feeling pretty great for the first time in a while…2013 had a pretty rocky start for me. I came to a truly traumatizing realization that I am not as healthy as I thought I was, nothing life threatening, but this discovery launched me into a pretty obsessive lifestyle shift. It started off with ramping up my exercise routine to everyday and making  MASSIVE diet changes… Eliminating processed sugar, caffeine, cutting out dairy (except for the odd sprinkle of feta cheese),cutting out bread, pasta, rice, and white potatoes while tripling my veggie intake, only eating organic hormone free meats, and drinking enough water to fill a swimming pool by the end of the week… Sounds pretty intense right? IT IS…but it didn't end there…I started to look into cosmetics because I knew they were bad for me but I really had no idea how bad… Holy shit guys… I'm serious here.. It's scary and I truly do blame some of my current health issues on the crap I've been smearing all over my face, my hair, and my body for almost 30 years!

So anyway, fast forward a month... I went from feeling helpless, angry, and depressed to feeling empowered, energized and confident.  I finished reading 'No More Dirty Looks' and at the risk of being totally preachy here I have to strongly advise that you pick it up if you haven't already…I thought I had a pretty good idea of the evils of the world but no…there were more….and these ones hit close to home… READ IT.

The book gave me the knowledge and the reference tool that I really needed to make a change…  I have cleared out thousands of dollars worth of cosmetics (even ones that say they're free of bad chemicals) and I will never look back.  My view of beauty has changed too…I'm taking a more natural approach… that's not to say I haven't stocked up on organic cosmetics, but I went to the gym all weekend sans makeup which may seem like no big deal to you but I haven't left my house without makeup on since grade 7…so this was a big deal.  

So I'd like you to join me as I embark on this journey of wellness (don't roll your eyes)…I'm going to start sharing recipes again, but these recipes won't be quite like the ones I used to post… These ones will be RIDICULOUSLY healthy but still delicious I promise… : ) I'll also share some DIY beauty recipes, maybe a couple green product reviews as I start the hunt for organic makeup, shampoo, soap, nail polish etc…

So here I go….on my way to a healthier life…

I hope you'll come too….we can help each other.

Love  always,
Desiree Pin It