Oil Cleansing Method

Recently, my friend Christy posted about something new she was trying for facial cleansing. My initial reaction was, “Ewww.” Getting over that, I was intrigued.

Have you heard of the Oil Cleansing Method? Basically, you combine caster oil with either olive oil or sunflower oil and clean your face with it rather than your normal, most likely chemical based facial cleanser.

Sounds simple, right?

It totally is! The hardest part was finding caster oil. Let me save you some time, head for Walgreens because I live in a fairly large city and they were still the only place that carried it.

You can experiment with how much of each oil you’ll need. I have crazy skin that’s oily in some places and flaky dry in some so I started with mixing a small amount in case I needed to adjust. I started with 20% castor oil and 80% extra virgin olive oil and that seems to be working well for me. Read the article to find out what mixture will work best for you.

I had some fears going into this. First, that I’d smell like an Italian hoagie. Not at all! While I’m massaging the oil into my skin, the smell of the olive oil drives me batty. As soon as I’m done, the smell is gone. I have even asked my husband if he can smell it and he says that he can’t.

I was also afraid that I’d have problems with this making my skin really oily. Sure, I’d read that the castor oil actually breaks up the oil on your skin but the thought of rubbing oil on my skin seemed contrary to taking the oil off. Believe it, friends. It works!

My final fear was that I'd have to use a seperate product to remove my mascara. This works as well as any cleaner I've used in the past (and I think I've used them all!) at removing all of my eye makeup.

I have been able to eliminate my nightly moisturizer since I started using this method just over a week ago. On top of that, I hadn’t yet found a “green” facial cleanser and this keeps me from having to try out all of the expensive ones.

If you have tried this method, please let me know! I’d love to hear how you like it.

**Photo credit: Liv Friis-larsen - Fotolia.com

Apologies

Folks, I haven't forgotten about this blog or you. I promise! I'm still trying each day to make strides in a more green lifestyle but I haven't had the energy to tell you about them. We have had one crazy summer and these past couple of weeks have just gotten crazier.

I will tell you that the big strides that we have taken lately are going really well. I'm still using the re-usable cloth bags on shopping trips. I've even take recently to refusing bags at places where I'm just making small purchases. We also haven't purchased paper napkins since I shared with you that I've made the switch to cloth! I've got to say that this is the biggest thing for us because I loathe laundry. But, I haven't noticed any extra laundry and I just throw them in with whatever load I'm working on. I've gotten comments from friends who are dining with us about how great they think it is. Of course, the follow on is that they don't think they can make that switch and I get to explain how easy it was for us.

Another thing I've noticed recently is that I cringe when we are out and I see a lot of unnecessary packaging. Restaurants are notorious for this and an overuse of Styrofoam. A year ago, I wouldn't have given it a passing thought but now it really grates on my nerves.

So, there you have it. I'm still around and posting will pick up here very soon. I've just got to catch my breath first.

Bad Hair Day

Hi, I'm Heather and I'm addicted to hair products. A lot of hair products. My basket overfloweth.

I'm at your mercy, Internets. I can't go green in the area of the hair products. I've tried several greenish shampoos and conditioners and they just leave me ugly. Like, frizzy and Frankenstein ugly. I haven't even attempted to change in my old hair styling products for the green version because I'm scared.

Yes, I said it. I'm scared. I don't like to be ugly, frizzy and Frankenstein.

Come on, you know you don't like it either.

This is where I turn to you. For the love of all things healthy and green, please tell me if you have a product that you use and love. For the record, I have naturally curly and dry hair. I straighten it a couple of times a week. Help me.

Cloth Napkins

I've been hoping for some time now to start using cloth napkins for our family. I didn't have big hopes of completely replacing paper napkins with them yet but I figured as with most things, we'd move towards the goal slowly. Within the past two weeks, I realized that we are using more paper napkins than ever before and it started to bother me. It bothers me to the point that every time I hand out the napkins for a meal, I cringe a little on the inside. People, this is a major step for me.

Last weekend, I was doing some shopping with my Sisters and I ran across some beautiful cloth napkins on clearance. They are well made and I loved the way they looked. I decided to pick them up and give them a try with our family. My kids thought we were celebrating something! They looked nice and my Son didn't need to go through three of them in one meal to keep his hands clean. (He HATES being dirty!) I've decided that I can make them just as easily myself because I like to sew and I have lots of material left over from various projects that will be just the right size. If you don't sew, check out Etsy and Ebay because I found some great deals on both of those sites. My thinking is that if I keep enough on hand, I won't have to scramble to keep them washed up and it will be easier to resist the temptation to use paper napkins. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

I've told you before that I'm not an all or nothing girl. I'm also not someone who you'd consider totally green. I'm getting there. But daily I'm seeing changes in myself and my way of thinking that I know are for the better. I'm liking it! This is one thing that I'm hoping to be all or nothing about. I'd love to not have to buy napkins again!

What about you? Do you use cloth? Make your own or buy from other places?

Junk Mail, Part 1

There was a time when I loved getting catalogs. I loved to browse them and marvel at all of the pretty things that I would never have. It didn't occur to me that those catalogs that I'd peruse and then toss (and not even in the recycling bin...GASP!) were going to a landfill to sit. I never considered that thousands of trees were being wasted on my desire to window shop from the comfort of my couch.

I'm now disgusted with the amount of junk mail that comes into our house and I've been looking for a way to stop it. One obvious way to stop getting massive amounts of junk mail is to call or email individual companies and ask to be removed from their mailing lists. You may also call your bank and credit card companies and request that your information not be released for marketing or sales purposes. The Financial Modernization Act passed in 2000 gives you the right to do this.

Other things that may help you reduce the amount of junk mail that comes into your house:

1. Send a letter to the Direct Marketing Association at P.O. Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512 and they can reduce almost 75 percent of the mailings you receive.

2. Call 1-888-567-8688 and go through the automated system to remove yourself from the mailing lists of major credit bureaus for five years. This means that those ridiculous pre-approved credit card mailings will stop. Thank you, Lord.

Tomorrow, I'll post some reasons we want to to eliminate the junk mail overload from our boxes. You know, aside from the obvious.

Parabens

It's only recently that I've become aware of parabens. They say ignorance is bliss and I was living proof of that until the past year.

Parabens are chemical preservatives that are very commonly used in cosmetics and other personal care products in the United States. Studies show that parabens can disrupt hormone function and are absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream without ever being broken down by our bodies.

I'm not a scientist but none of this sounds good to me. Like I, or any woman for that matter, need one more thing messing with our hormones.

As with everything, there are also studies that say that parabens are harmless and that we should stop being paranoid. I would have been in that boat until recently. Then I read that parabens were found in breast cancer tumors. That possibility alone makes me want to be more cautious.

Here's an article with some interesting information:

"Measurable concentrations of six different parabens have been identified in biopsy samples from breast tumors. The particular parabens were found in relative concentrations that closely parallel their use in the synthesis of cosmetic products. Parabens have also been found in almost all urine samples examined from a demographically diverse sample of U.S. adults."

Armed with all of this, I started looking through all of the products that I use on a daily basis. Almost every single product I use has at least one paraben listed in the ingredients. Even the yummy body cream I got for my daughter's eczema from Lush (a known earth friendly company) has two different parabens on the ingredient list.

Usually, they will be listed with the following prefix or suffix attached to paraben: methyl-, ethyl-, isobutyl. There are more but a good rule of thumb is that if you see the word paraben, think twice. The products on my shelf that were most likely to have parabens in the ingredient list were body lotions and cosmetics. Check yours out and let me know what you find!

Hand In Hand

I have mentioned before that my journey into a green lifestyle started more out of concern for my family's health than a genuine concern for the Earth. Though I'm sure some would say that these things are independent of each other, I believe they go hand in hand.

Most of the things that I have changed in our home that are considered "green" have major health benefits for our family. Switching to organic foods when possible, cutting out/back on chemicals used in our home and being cautious about the amount and type of plastics we use are some examples.

Another thing I realized while talking to my husband the other day is that this is the way things used to be. The things I'm trying to change in my home and family are things that my Grandmothers did regularly. Things that are now trendy and celebrities get paid big bucks to talk about were commonplace in their lives. My husband grew up on a large farm. For reasons of frugality, his family practiced (and still does to some degree) growing their own food, composting, using cloth diapers, using natural methods of cleaning and rarely eating over processed foods.

Though my Grandmothers lived this way as well, I can look back and see when it all started to change in my Mom's generation. We gave up what was good for what was easy. I read so much about how so many diseases are more prevalent now than 20 years ago. It's not difficult to draw a connection here.

So, on this blog and on this journey, you'll find that I'm not always going to post about things that seem to be obviously linked to cleaning up the Earth and making it last for our children. Sometimes, I want to focus on things that lead to good health and even frugality. I really believe they all can go hand in hand. I also believe that all of these things combined will make our families (and our Earth) happier and healthier.

If you have suggestions about things to discuss here, please feel free to share them with me and I'll do what I can to share them with everyone!

Welcome to My Journey....and a PRIZE!

Welcome to my new journey. For a little over a year now, I've been slowly becoming more "green" and conscious of my family's health and impact on our world. I'll admit that this journey started more as a result of wanting to take better care of my family and less because of wanting to take care of the Earth. As time has gone on, I'd say that I have learned that those two things can indeed go hand in hand.

I've never been one to jump on the latest trends in society and I once was a staunch cynic when someone started to talk about "going green" or buying things organic. Or recycling or using less energy. I gave little to no thought to what was in the foods I eat or the things we used in our home on a daily basis. Some things that I actually made fun of two years ago are now common practices in our family and I can't imagine life without them.

Don't get me wrong. I am no expert and I have a long way to go before I think I'm even well informed. That's where you come in. I know that if I'm thinking about these things and researching them, chances are good that other women out there are, as well. So, I invite you to join me on this journey as I try to go from grey to green, one step at a time. We can discuss, offer ideas to each other and share products that we love. We can share issues that we are having and help each other come up with solutions that fit our families.

I'll share more about the beginnings of my journey in the next few days. For now, I want to give two readers a chance to get a head start on this journey with me. I recently bought the book, Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life, by Sophie Uliano. Believe it or not, I bought it before she appeared on Oprah and impressed millions of other people in one fell swoop.

This book spoke right to me from the first page because I am a girl who loves being a girl. I love wearing make-up. I love hair products. Oh, how I love hair products. I don't have to stop shaving my legs or give up lip gloss to be healthier or help out our planet. Thank you, Jesus.

I have two copies of this book to share with you! Just leave a comment on this post before May 1, 2008 and I'll draw two random winners on that day. If you would like an extra entry, write about this contest (and new blog!) on your own blog and link to this post. Be sure to let me know you have done so with a link to your post. Also, if you don't leave me a valid email address, you can't win. Clear as mud?

I can't wait to take this journey. If one person takes it with me, I'll be happy. More than that will be icing on the cake!