As I’m sure you know, I’m a fan of natural body care. The skin is the body’s biggest organ, so whatever you put on your outside eventually gets absorbed inside. With that in mind, I try to avoid coating myself in chemicals: parabens, glycols, sulfates, etc. On the flip side, I love the spa-like feeling you get from body lotions and oils, bubble baths, face masks and more. So I’m always on the hunt for organic, natural products. Here are three that I’m into right now.
- RMS Beauty Lip and Skin balm. I just purchased this in the vanilla flavor, and so far I really like it. It hydrates and smoothes, and can help erase fine lines when used on the skin. It also smells and tastes yummy.
- RMS Beauty Living Luminizer. I haven’t tried this yet (it’s been sold out!), but I like the description: “Instantly ads life to the face, a must have product. This formula is the ultimate illuminator to create a healthy, sheer, glowing look to the skin. Best of all, it enhances the skins natural youthfulness without being sticky, greasy or glittery.” It’s definitely on my must-try list.
- Frangipani Organic Bronze Shimmering Oil. Delicious tropical scent? Check. Hydrating oil that gives you a sexy, bronze glow? Check. On sale? Check. Count me in.
One Lucky Duck raw chocolate crispies + a sprinkling of raw cacao nibs + rice milk = yummiest vegan breakfast ever. It’s probably even tastier if you replace the rice milk with raw vanilla hemp milk. Yum!
I’ve mentioned Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe before. Based in a suburb of Atlanta, it’s a primarily online company that offers all things vegan: beaked goods, shoes, purses, shirts, vitamins, jerky, soap, shampoo…it’s a pretty good one-stop-shop if you like your products to be cruelty-free.
The fun doesn’t stop there. In addition to being socially-conscious, the products are also completely adorable. I have my eye on three things: two stickers and a shirt. Check out the cuteness:
Want.
There are a few things about Rihanna that are undeniable: she’s cute, she’s talented, she likes risky fashion choices and she’s having a tough year. She’s made only a handful of public appearances since the Chris Brown incident, and canceled her comeback performance because she hadn’t fully recovered.
But if looking good is the best revenge (as Anne Hathaway effortlessly proved when her ex was sentenced to prison), then Rihanna’s hair needs help. This is what it used to look like:
I realize the image quality isn’t great, but you get the idea. Short, sassy and adorable. She really owned this look, and separated herself from all the other starlets with long, blond, boring hair.
But in the past few months, her hair has gone from sexy to shaggy, crazy, shaved and weird. The sides keep getting shorter while the top gets bigger, but instead of being mohawkish, it just looks like there is a messy cock’s comb on her head. Seriously:
This is not fierce. This is not sexy. This is not cool. It’s just crazy. Her hair needs help.
I’ve mentioned Natalia Rose before, and now she’s back with a new book. There are a lot of detoxes and cleanses out there, and for every alternative healer who thinks detoxing is crucial, there is a doctor who says detoxing is bunk, and that our bodies are designed to detox themselves. I think I actually agree with both opinions. On one hand, our bodies are designed with several elimination organs: the liver, the kidneys, the skin and of course the intestines/colon. The body is designed to remove waste and hang on to nutrients. And in the past, I’m sure that’s exactly what it did. The body is also designed to eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and some grains. It was not designed to eat Big Macs, french fries, Krispy Kreme donuts, Doritos, triple-cheese pizzas, bacon bits and garlic bread. But that’s what most people (at least most Americans, anyway) eat. And when the food you consume is so different from what your body needs and expects, then I don’t think it’s so far-reaching to think that it might need a little help eliminating all the crap we constantly shove into it.
However, a lot of cleanses out there are scary or intimidating. The Master Cleanse might help you lose weight, but I keep reading about people who got sick on it. Juice feasting sounds wonderful, but it takes work, dedication, money and a LOT of produce to make and drink a gallon of fresh green juice every day.
This is one of the things I like about Natalia’s Detox for Women method. For most people, it seems very do-able. Natalia’s main point is to take 4 weeks to starve off the yeast and bacteria that form in the bloodstream so that you are working with a fresh slate, and then only eat clean, healthy, natural foods. Although I tend to associate Natalia with raw foods, her plan is neither raw nor vegetarian. For four weeks, participants can eat all raw vegetables (and juices), baked starchy vegetables, organic fish, raw goat cheese, millet and quinoa. Once the bloodstream is detoxed, you can begin to add fruits and some nuts back in. Natalia really recommends avoiding (pretty much permanently) other grains, sugar, red meats and more. Her book is filled with helpful tips, brand suggestions, and testimonials from women who have completed the program, as well as ways to speed up the detox, including skin brushing, colonics, epsom baths and more. I’m not quite ready to give up fruit, but if I ever decide to detox, this is probably the plan I will choose.