Why Go Green? JOLI Natural Skin Care Guest Blog

Q1: Tell us a little about your business.

JOLI Natural Skin Care have their own unique brand of skin care products that can be tailor made to suit individual needs.  JOLI sell genuine natural skin care as apposed to companies who claim to be natural and organic yet aren't.  

JOLI wanted to offer the public a skin care range that truly does not contain hazardous, nasty ingredients, many of which are the cause of skin conditions such as eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis, skin irritation, rashes etc. 

JOLI have been making genuine natural skin care since 2005 with tried and true natural skin care formulations, and are Australian Made and Australian Owned.  JOLI are also approved by Choose Cruelty Free and are part of the Safe Cosmetics campaign (which means they're animal and human friendly).

Q2: When did you decide you wanted to go green?

After my second child was born I noticed a pattern; that my children were unable to use mainstream skin care products without developing rashes and skin irritations.  I, myself, was also suffering from overexposure to chemicals in my skin care and makeup.  Upon investigating this I found that many products on the market contain certain ingredients known to cause allergies and skin irritation, plus a wide range of other side effects. 

This was around 2003 to 2005 when my research into the way corporations use chemicals and toxic ingredients began.  I started looking into greener options, primarily for my family, and this grew into wanting to go bigger and larger and help many more people aside from my beautiful children and other family members and friends.  

Q3: What prompted you to make the move to go green?

The move to go green was almost accidental.  After researching skin care ingredients and realising they can be carcinogenic, endocrine disrupting and cause young girls to bud and bring on puberty I realised there is something drastically wrong with modern day skin care companies / corporations - who are more concerned about making millions than the care and wellbeing of the population, animals and our earth.  

From there I learned these chemical additions also affect our food, our water, our clothing, our cleaning products, our farm animals, the earth etc. and I knew I had to do something very special (I had a calling you could say) to help save our earth and people from these harmful ingredients.  By creating a product range that does not contain nasty and hazardous ingredients JOLI reduce the amount of chemicals people (who use our products) come into contact with on a daily bases. 

Q4: What difficulties have you found with going green?

Family support, primarily my husband.  Whilst he is very supportive of my endeavors to save the world he just isn't as passionate about it as I am.   From time to time he will still come home with some awful chemical filled product that he is convinced does a better job than green brands (i.e. washing powders, liquid soaps).  Educating him has been one of my biggest challenges because hubby is yet to realise my expertise on the subject.  

Also sharing my 'green' message with the public (especially when it comes to natural skin care vs mainstream products) has also been difficult.  Many consumers love their chemical filled products purchased conveniently from shopping centers and don't want to hear the truth about how damaging those products are to them and the environment.  Though the good news is awareness is growing :) 

Q5: Is there one area you’re still yet to go green?

Packaging!  I have found plastic packaging almost impossible to get away from entirely.  For example we can't purchase a loaf of bread that isn't wrapped in plastic (that flimsy, non recyclable plastic).  Although I have made major reductions over the years by using fregie sacks at the supermarket, purchasing fresh foods instead of packaged or frozen foods, making our own produce at home when we can, I still find (non recyclable) plastic a hard one to avoid. 

Luckily our council offers a great recycling program so much of what we use gets turned into reusable products. 

Q6: Can you list some of the benefits / positive effects going green has had on your life?

Family health would be top of the list plus the savings - never having to go down the cleaning or beauty isles in the supermarket.  What we save on money there we are able to put towards organic food choices.  My children's skin, with their lack of skin irritations and rashes, plus the bonus of having great skin and looking younger because natural is so good for our skin.  Gotta love that! 

Q7: What suggestions would you make to those wanting to go green but not knowing where to start?

Going green is a process.  There are so many areas to go green: skin care, makeup, cleaning products, food, clothing, packaging, menstruation, toys, electronics (not consuming or purchasing things you don't need to survive).  Start small and take one step at a time.  You can try to do it all in one hit, however, I find it's easier to tackle one area at a time.  For example start with skin care (or what you feel is most important to you) then move onto cleaning products, then food etc. 

Consult experts and read and follow green, earth friendly, natural blogs.  A vast many people are making moves to go green and have infinite knowledge to share.  

Q8: Any other advice / comments regarding going green you’d like to share?

Don't think going green is not important and can be put off.  The truth is 'our earth depends on you making good, green, eco friendly choices'!  You can be one of the masses, burying your head in the sand and pretending that purchase you made has no ill effect on the earth or other people... but you'd be wrong in your thinking.  Start now and spread the word.  GREEN is the new black ;)


Author BIO

Jodi is the lady behind JOLI and when she's not busy working on skin care products or pampering people in her salon she is joyfully tending to her garden and veggie patch, teaching and educating her children on sustainable ways of living.
  

Starting a Vegetable Garden: Pumkins

At the time of writing my first blog about starting a home vegetable garden I had planted some pumpkin seeds not really expecting they'd do much. I've had so little luck when it comes to growing food (not that I'd previously put in any big effort) that I didn't have confidence in those seeds growing.

To my surprise pumpkin plants sprouted up and soon pumpkins were beginning to grow. At the time of harvest (in June before the cold weather really hits) the plant had supplied 10 healthy pumpkins.

As you can see by the picture the pumpkins we've grown have slight differences, some are squat and round, others are elongated and difference colours. They are JAP pumpkins and the seeds came from a lady who gave me a pumpkin she had grown herself.

One pumpkin accidentally got cut off early in the grown stage and that one was used for roasting, risotto and soup, while the seeds were dried out to snack on.

Another pumpkin was used to make pumpkin pie, the first time I'd ever made pumpkin pie, and it was delicious.

The next stage is preparing the remaining pumpkins for storage. Research suggests sitting the pumpkins on a sunny windowsill or other place where the sun hits and leaving them there for two weeks to harden their skins. Rotating once at the end of the first week.

Then they go into storage in a cool ventilated place out of the sun (I'm still yet to figure out where that will be). Put on a wrack that allows airflow around the pumpkins, not touching so they don't rot. Apparently the skins can be rubbed in oil for more protection.

It's all very exciting to have some home grown pumpkins and to be able to feed the family a number of dishes with food we've grown ourselves.