Product Review: Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm

I'm kind of obsessed with lip products. Lip gloss, lip balm, lip shimmer, lip tint, lipstick... I love all of it! Which is silly, since I'm not the kind of person that spends a lot of time putting on makeup. I think that's why out of all of the lip products I stuff in my purse, my current favorite is this Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm.

 

I picked up the shade "Hibiscus," which is a lovely pink/magenta sort of color. Whatever, it looks great.

There are countless things that I love about this balm. Number one is that it's a balm. Even with natural, clean products, lipsticks and other lip color tend to leave my lips feeling a little dry. Glosses by themselves make me feel like I'm in high school again. This balm is creamy, moist, and contains just the right amount of color for everyday wear. I'm pretty lazy when it comes to make up, so I hate standing in front of a mirror and attempting to expertly apply lip color. I can slap this baby on in the car or at my desk and it always looks great. Nice and natural, but with enough shine and color to pop. All in all, it's fantastic and I highly recommend it. I may even try some of their other colors.

A word about Burt's Bees and other mainstream brands:

Adventures in Hair, Part I: Or, How I Learned That Maybe My Hair Isn't Completely Crap

Okay, so here's the thing: I'm just not that into my hair. This isn't to say that I don't like it -- I happen to like it quite a lot these days -- it's just that I'm not gonna do much with it. I'm not going to blow dry it. I'm not going to curl it. I'm not going to use volumizing mousse on my roots and some other stuff on the ends. I'm not going to use a round brush in one hand and juggle a chainsaw and a flat iron in the other. I'm not going to take it out for a fancy dinner. There, I said it. This is something I have to explain every time I want a hair cut.

Not to say I haven't tried. It seems like every time I get a hair cut, the stylist somehow talks me into buying some new stuff that's soooo simple and easy and you can totally do it it'll take like five minutes. I'll try it for a few days, using the product, blow drying, attempting the bit with the brush and the blow dryer together... But eventually I just stop. Because here's the thing: no matter what fancy business I try with my hair at first, it basically ends up looking the same at the end.

Here's what I'm actually going to do to my hair: Step 1, wash. Step 2, towel dry. Step 3, comb and maybe arrange with my fingers a bit so I don't look like a homeless person. Step 4, occasionally brush throughout the day. If you're lucky, maybe I'll smoosh some product into it every now and then. And you know what? I'm finally getting to the point where I'm okay with this. Do you know why?

Because my hair has become (unbeknownst to me and without too much work on my part)... wait for it... fabulous. I will now regale you with the story of my hair. It's not that long and it has a happy ending, I promise.

Product Review: Jane Iredale Eyeliner Pencil

I dropped by the Beauty Store Salon & Spa the other day because it's the only place you can find Jane Iredale products here in Austin (that I know of). I've heard about this brand many times before, but I always seem to confuse it with Josie Maran. Note: they are not the same thing. I learned this the hard way.

I was actually on the look out for something similar to this little do-dad that was recently featured in an awesome Beauty by Britanie video. However, per usual, I forgot what I'd come for and got distracted by eyeliner. I've been somewhat underwhelmed by the natural eyeliner I've purchased before, which is sad because if I'm wearing makeup, eyeliner is a must. The liner I most recently tried out basically snapped in half and I'd been awkwardly attempting to keep using it, but was getting pretty fed up. That's when I met the Jane Iredale Eyeliner Pencil. Here's a picture from their website:

Pretty standard-looking pencil, am I right? But no my friends, this pencil is magical. Like I mentioned before, I've often been disappointed with eyeliners -- natural or conventional. I've tried using dark eyeshadow as a liner, but I can't get the definition I like. Even when I used conventional, chemical-filled eyeliner pencils (before I knew better), it was hard to find one I liked. I was committed to a drugstore brand called Prestige before I switched to clean products and nothing so far had lived up to that precedent... until now.

To Tone or Not to Tone?

I have a confession to make.

I am addicting to toning.

Growing up, I never really understood the purpose of toners or astringents. To be perfectly honest, I still don't completely understand their purpose. I think it has something to do balancing pH levels or the skin's acid mantle.

Once I started actually caring about the state of my skin in my teen and preteen years, I happily scrubbed, polished, cleansed, oil-free moisturized, mattefied, and Biore pore-stripped, but never, ever "toned." The only toners I knew of seemed to made primarily of Listerine and flesh-eating bacteria. They smelled like alcohol, tasted like alcohol, and -- shockingly -- were mostly alcohol. No wonder I didn't like them. What sane person would want to slather artificially colored rubbing alcohol on their face? However, sometime around the same time I started reading labels, washing my hair with a lumpy soap bar, and using apple cider vinegar for absolutely everything, I reexamined my relationship with toners.

Oh, how wrong I was. Toning is awesome! Whether they call it toner or not (synonyms include astringent, mist, hydrating spray, clarifying lotion, etc.), it's a great way to refresh your skin, improve the absorption of your moisturizer, and add some great, skin-loving ingredients to your routine.

A Tribute to Soap

So I know that I've completely neglected this blog and I am truly, deeply sorry. It pains me at night to think of the countless anonymous internet users who may have missed out on my wisdom regarding grapeseed oil or exfoliation techniques. But have no fear! I plan on revving things up in earnest here. Partially because I need an outlet for my obsession with all natural health and beauty, but mostly because I have too much free time on my hands right now. Plus, whenever I try to talk to my wife about this sort of stuff, she gets this odd glazed expression on her face. I'm not sure it's healthy.

To really kick things off with a bang, I am composing a tribute to soap. Soap is amazing. It's simple, effective, and altogether incredible. Don't listen to those stupid Dove commercials.

Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse

There's a lot of talk about how great vinegar rinses are for your hair, and I'm here to tell you it's all true. Why? Well, your hair is made up of layers and layers of protein. The gentle acid in apple cider vinegar smooths those layers, making hair shiny and tangle-free. I've always had serious issues with tangles because my hair is so fine (and crazy-looking), but for the first time EVER, I don't have tangles! It's true that the smell is not great, but adding essential oils like tea tree, peppermint, lavender, or whatever strikes your fancy really helps. Once your hair dries, the smell will dissipate. It's not a perfect system, but it's better than nasty conditioners. Here's my recipe for an easy vinegar rinse:

Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse

1/4 c organic apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp organic honey
1-2 drops of tea tree oil
1-2 drops of peppermint oil

Combine ingredients well. Mix with 3/4 c water before use.

It's very easy to make this in larger batches. I usually just estimate by filling a small squirt bottle (a Go Toob, for example) with vinegar and a big squeeze of honey with enough essential oil to make me happy. I keep a big plastic cup in the shower and just do a 1:3 or 1:4 ratio of vinegar mixture to water when I rinse. It's super easy!

Head, shoulders, knees, and toes

When I began my green journey, one of the first things I did was switch my shampoo. I'm sure that everyone's heard of the "no poo" movement by now, so I don't feel the need to go into it in detail. Suffice to say, due in part to the modern convenience of a hot shower, most average shampoos are detergents. That's right, the same stuff that goes into your dishwasher and washing machine. It's pretty rough stuff, and not good at all to your hair.

Completely ignoring the dangerous chemicals and petroleum derivatives in most products, there is a fundamental problem with the way people wash their hair. We basically get trapped in this cycle where hard detergents strip our hair of nutrients and healthy oils, then we have to use heavy conditioners that coat our hair in silicones and other nasty stuff to calm it down, then it gets greasy from the conditioner, then we have to shampoo again... Not good at all.

I'm not cool enough to go completely no poo, so instead I switched to a safe (or "clean," as the No More Dirty Looks girls say) shampoo bar from A Wild Soap Bar. Let me just say that this stuff is awesome. Here are my reasons:

#1 - The company is local. I've even met the lovely woman who started everything at the Pecan Street Festival.
#2 - All of the ingredients are safe, effective, and natural.
#3 - It works! My hair has never felt softer, it's growing out more quickly, and when I use the recommended apple cider vinegar rinse, it's very shiny and not tangled at all.

I like to use the Yucca Root Shampoo & Body Bar. I've also used the Carrot Complexion Soap, which is very nice. I like the Yucca bar because I can use it on my hair and body and it smells very fresh and invigorating. It's also helpful if you're traveling... No worries about tiny travel bottles or liquids to declare to the TSA.

I shampoo my hair every day because I'm a crazy person. I like to condition with an apple cider rinse or Aubrey Organic's Green Tea Rinse. My hair is fairly oily, so I don't like to use heavy conditioners on a regular basis.

So that's that!