A blog dedicated to natural skin care, chemical facts, home made DIY recipes, product information & reviews and other interesting, healthy, good for you, tidbits. Enjoy!
You will need:
185g butter, chopped
2 cups (440g) caster sugar
200ml lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon rind
3-4 eggs, beaten, strained
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in top half of double saucepan or in heatproof bowl.
Stir over simmering water until mixture is fully melted, dissolved, thickened and mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon.
Pour into hot sterilised jars; seal while hot. *Strain if there are any eggy lumps in mixture.
Makes about 3 cups (750ml) - Recipe best made a day in advance.
Recipe from: The Australian Women's Weekly Cookbook
A general rule of thumb is: if it sits on a store shelf there is usually (always) something in the product(s) that make this possible. Usually it is synthetic preservatives and a mix of hazardous chemicals. At best it is a low lever alcohol or sodium based ingredient.
The main reason for these preservatives is so products can be stored (sitting on shelves) for long periods of time before being opened. Also so products can be stabilized (i.e. unaffected by heat, cold, bright lights etc) and shipped world wide; because the aim of the game with cosmetic corporations is world wide domination to increase consumer consumption.
JOLI Natural Skin Care products cannot be found in stores for this very reason, they don't contain all those skin irritating additives. Though you may be wondering does this mean JOLI products are inferior to store bought products. Will they not last as long?
It might surprise to you know that store bought products don't last as long as you think once opened. All skin care and cosmetics have 'use by / best before' dates (whether they're included on the labeling or not). And how one person uses and stores a product differs to the next which means these dates can vary from person to person. It all depends on how you treat your products. Sharing with a friend or using a product on an infection (conjunctivitis, cold-sores) for example can reduce the product shelf life.
General* period mainstream products last after opening:
Perfume - up to 3 years
Powders, eyeshadow, blush - 1 to 3 years
Foundation - 1 to 3 years
Sunscreen lotion, SPF cosmetics – up to 1
year [one season only]
Bronzer – 6 months
Lipstick, lip gloss – 1 year
Pencil liners, eyes, lips, eyebrow - from 6 to 12
months
Liquid eyeliner - from 3 to 4
months
Mascara - 3 to 6 months
Skin care products, moisturiser, anti-wrinkle,
eye creams, sealed container with dispenser - about 1 year
Skin care products in a jar - from 6 to 10
months
Nail polish - 1 year
Natural/Organic products – up to 6 months
*This information may vary depending on your source. Info from: checkcosmetic.net
You might have a mascara, eye liner, lipstick or
moisturiser that you've had sitting around for over 10years thinking it
looks alright therefore is still OK to use. To look at the product you
can't see any bacteria growing and that is the beauty (or not) of all
the chemicals added to skin care and cosmetics. All those toxins hide any signs of an ageing product.
JOLI products aren't any less superior than store bought products. JOLI products contain natural blends of herbal extracts and essential oils, as well as antioxidants, to preserve. Depending on how you use and store your products they can last for up to 12months, and if refrigerated products can last up to 3 years. Below is a Recommended Use By list for natural skin careproducts. These RUB dates depend on how you use and store your products, they also depend on you using the products as designed - i.e. daily, every 2 - 3 days, twice daily etc.
NAME
MONTHS
Bubble
Bath Crumble Bar
12
Bath
Salts Bliss
6
- 8
Bath
Salts Serenity
6
- 8
Bath
Salts Unwind
6
- 8
Deluxe
Bath Serum
6
- 8
Deodorant
Bar
8
Soothing
Salve
12
Enliven
Facial Scrub
6
Fluffy
Lime Eye Cream
6
Facial
& Body Wash
8
Fancy
Cuticle Oil
6
Hair
Styling Wax
6
- 8
Heavenly
Bath Milk
4
- 6
Light
Moisturiser
6
- 8
Lip
Balm
3
Luscious
Body Butter
6 - 12
Massage
Oil
6
Moisturising
Lip Balm
3
Purifying
Cleansing Toner
6
Rich / Whipped Moisturiser
8
- 12
Rose
Milk Bath Soak
4
- 6
Skin
Serum
3 - 6
Keep in mind if you still have products sitting around unused after a some time then you've either most likely not been using them in accordance with directions or you didn't like the product enough to use it often. Time to discard all those old out-of-date products and start afresh.
Recently I asked the question: "If you had cancer or thought you might get it what are some of the things you would avoid because you think they might cause cancer?"
I wanted to see the types of things people associate with cancer, especially after my little blurb about pink washing and the statement: "many of thepeople who attend or participate in these (cure for cancer) eventsUSEproducts laden with chemicals."
Here are some of the things people listed:
Bleach
Fire retardant products
Cigarettes
Air fresheners
Spray on cleaners
Dry-cleaning ones (trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, or PERC)
New no-iron linens and drapes (may release formaldehyde)
Processed meat
Obesity
Lack of ventilation in the home
Unfiltered water
Cooking (charcoaling) meat - it becomes carcinogenic
Chemicals in our food
Stress
Fast food
Package / ready made food
MSG
3 or more alcoholic beverages (a day / a week?)
Eating out of aluminum packaging
Eating / drinking out of plastic packaging - plastic bottles
Cooking in the microwave
Prevention:
No more than 3 servings of red meat per week (I've heard it should be no more than 1 serving per week)
Daily exercise
Low alcohol consumption
Low fat diet / keep weight down
NO cigarettes
Keep exposure to chemicals at a minimum
There are some very good points raised and many things people are aware of which is great. Air fresheners can kill pet birds and cause asthma so they can't be good for us to breathe in. Meat and even fresh vegetables contain chemicals and hormones. Drying cleaning chemicals are hazardous to our health, as are plastics and aluminum.
Interestingly... no one mentioned skin care or cosmetics which I find fascinating. Considering skin care and cosmetics are multi billion [1,000,000,000+] dollar industries, meaning we BUY AND USE HUGE amounts of these chemical laden products, I would hazard a guess that we expose ourselves to more chemicals via skin care and beauty products than anywhere else (though this is supposition, not fact).
Here is what our resident scientist explains about cancer:
"Every cell in the body has an oncogene that controls the rate and number of times that a cell can replicate. Each time a cell replicates, it loses a little bit of its oncogene, so the oncogene is like a fuse – when the fuse reaches zero, the cell cannot replicate anymore. Old age manifests itself when a sufficient amount of cells have ‘timed out’ and cannot replicate anymore.
Cancerous cells have a malfunctioning oncogene that allows the cells to replicate indefinitely at an uncontrolled rate limited only by the amount of energy the cancer cells can rob from the body. Often, these cancerous cells do not have a well defined form. For example, cancer cells growing in muscle tissue will not be muscle cells but rather an amorphous lump in the middle of the healthy tissue.
The problem with the idea of finding a ‘cure’ for cancer is that cancers are constantly evolving. Thus, even if a genuine cure was found today, it would be useless ten years from now (possibly even sooner). When healthy tissue undergoes a genetic change, this will only be an evolutionary improvement if it helps the healthy tissue to survive for longer. However, because cancer cells can already survive indefinitely (assuming an indefinite supply of energy and nutrients), any deformity in cancer cells will potentially benefit those cells by affording resistance to anti-cancer treatment. Therefore, not only is cancer constantly evolving, it can evolve faster than any healthy tissue, and faster than science.
Many have sought for the illusive ‘fountain of youth’, a substance or treatment that prevents the cells from aging (i.e. the oncogenes never time out). However, we already have the fountain of youth… it is cancer. Unfortunately this fountain of youth will kill by a means other than old age. What scientists should be searching for is not a way to stop cancer but a way to control it.
As for drawing a cell, it is like a round egg with a soft shell, filled with fluid (mainly water) with a mass of proteins and genetic material in its centre."
* * *
What things do you avoid so that you won't get cancer? What things do think cause cancer? Love to hear your views.
Skin Serum is quite good for treating blemishes and breakouts. Even though it is an oil based product the rosehip and other regenerative oils and essential oils aid in healing and reducing scars, flaking skin and scabbing.
When I say 'treating' I don't mean in the same way as Clearasil or tea tree essential oils treat acne. Skin Serum doesn't do all that germ killing, cleansing stuff. I save that for Facial & Body Wash.
Skin Serum is regenerative, replenishing and rejuvenating. Perfect for healing wounds quickly and that's what you want when you're in the middle of a breakout. Sure other products treat the pimple causing germs and that's fine however then you're left with a nasty red scar, skin flaking and scabbing and looking icky for a while.
Skin Serum heals quickly and allows your skin to be softened so that when you apply makeup it's not being applied to harden scabs and looking a little bit yukky.
Another thing you can do is mix Skin Serum with mineral makeup powder to make a cream concealer. It works a treat and heals while providing optimal coverage. BONUS!!!
Mix about a .5c piece worth of mineral powder with 3 drops of Skin Serum to make a nice paint effect (see above) and apply concealer to affected area.
Store in an air tight container.
Only make very small batches, as per above directions.
Use within 3 days.
Wash container and brush thoroughly after 3 days.
Make another batch when needed.
Clean your mineral makeup brush regularly.
As you can see from the above pic the coverage is really good which is exactly what you want.
A lot of the time I'm sad
to say the answer is NO. Many companies use words like nature, organic, botanicals, made with natural... etc. Quite often I'll be watching TV or
listening to the radio and some ad will come on claiming some brand is natural
(or thereabouts) when it's NOT, and I cringe when I listen to
these ads worrying that people are being fooled into believing what the ad is claiming. Ads by Garnier, Dove, Nivea, Herbal Essence... and ALL the rest...
A general rule of thumb is:if it sits on a store shelf it
is NOT natural!!!!
There is always something in the product (usually synthetic) that allows it to be left sitting on a store shelf for long periods of time.
Ok, so lets look at some
brands who claim to be more NATURAL than the rest:
~ It's worth a note that research shows Abonne use to
use parabens and propylene glycol. As you can see from the below product
ingredients none of those are in this product. It does contain
urea though, a chemical compound found animal urine, although is is also made
artificially. Urea is a preservative that often releases formaldehyde which causes joint pain, skin reactions, allergies, depression, headaches, chest pains, ear infections, chronic fatigue, dizziness, and loss of sleep. Exposure also irritates the respiratory system; triggers heart palpitations or asthma, and aggravates coughs and colds. Other side effects include weakening the immune system and cancer. ~
Use methylparaben, propulparaben, propylene glycol and sodium lauryl sulfate. Not so good.
Jurlique aren't too bad. They use small quantities of SD Alcohol 40-A, Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate and phenoxyethanol as preservatives ( which have a low/moderate hazard rating of 3-4 out of 10).
Sukin are pretty good, they use small quantities of phenoxyethanol as a preservative.
Use natural preservatives made from a blend of herbal extracts. An effective preservative that is 100% biodegradable and doesn't have the same adverse effects on your skin as other harsh synthetic preservatives. To be a clear and completely open book - the only product that contains anything remotely iffy is Facial & Body Wash (not made by JOLI) which contains .05% of phenoxyethanol. All other products do not contain anything synthetic, man made or potentially hazardous.
* * *
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I know this subject is far removed from natural skin care. Still I had to share it with you because I'm the type of person who likes to look out for others and don't like to see people being taken advantage of.
Recently I had to change my Facebook profile picture because it seemed to be causing a stir with the single men on Facebook, sending messages "Are you single?", one even tried to talk to me about what sex is like with my husband after umpteen years of marriage. Um... sorry mate, you're out of line. I got a request to meet for coffee and when I said no he asks if we can meet at a hotel instead. NO!!!!
I had a friend who was part of an (official) online dating site and excitedly shared with me a new man she'd met online. He was remarkably handsome which instantly made me dubious. His messages to her were alarming to me, whereas she was positively smitten. Within two or three messages he was professing love and a desire to marry and have babies with her. He was moving way too fast which made me wonder why he's working so quickly. What does he hope to get out of this?
Ok, so you can tell I'm not like most people, not very trusting perhaps, in fact you could call me cynical.
He had sent her a picture of his passport and drivers license reassuring her he was who he says he was. Again this made me wonder. Why the need to prove who you are before anyone's questioned it? If I was online dating, the LAST thing I would do is share those two confidential forms of ID. My friend emailed me a copy of his passport and license and I began an all night campaign to find out all about this guy.
Did I mention I'm not like most people ;)
Hours of searching resulted in me finding out he was not who he said he was and his ID was a fake. I let my friend know and she told him what I'd found out and he never contacted her again. Guilty as charged!
Recently I received this message from a man via Facebook:
Hello,
How are you doing i was searching by when i came
across your profile i
must confess you look beautiful on your pictures i will like
to know
more about you i really hope we can have a chat
someday and get to
know more better. If knowing you is the last thing i really
think it
will be more appreciative,hope to read back from you
because your
beauty is appreciated and cherished.I'm very curious if
you will be
able to email me through my personal email
(hisname) at y a h o o dot com
because i don't come on here all the time hope to hear
from you soon.
kisses.
Seems harmless enough right, even flattering. If we delve further into it we find some suspicious signs.
His profile shows a white man in his 50's, well dressed and for all appearances well educated. Yet the above message is grammatically incorrect. The message was displayed as it appears above which, you will notice on Facebook, happens when you cut and paste. I asked a computer savvy friend why the email address was typed out like that and he said this is done when people try to avoid 'spam' folders and again shows this message is a cut and paste (sent to many) type of message. If he is genuine why the need to avoid spam filters?
I ignored the message. However I wanted to share it here because I want people looking for online love to beware of the pit falls. Not all is as it seems xo
Do you reach for a cigarette? Head to the kitchen in search of food? Or alcohol? Do you fidget or pace? Pull out your hair (trichotillomania)?
I rub and scratch my face. I have done this since my late teens, early twenties.
The first time I recall doing it was in my early 20's when I had a really stressful job (working for a hard arse boss) and I would rub my skin on the way to work and on they way back home. It is a subconscious thing, purely compulsive and most of the time I'm doing it without really being aware of it. When I become aware I try to stop, and have even tried sitting on my hands or holding something, however, next thing I know I'm doing it again. I cannot stop.
It begins with rubbing my skin all over until I find a lump. This "lump" might be a tiny blackhead, or a really small pimple that hasn't yet developed, or a dead or dying pimple, even a small flake of skin. Sometimes it's purely imagined "lumps". What ever it is I hone in on it and rub that spot obsessively. Then I'll move on and find more lumps, imaginary or otherwise. After doing this for days I end up creating angry red sores on my skin (see pic - eeek!!!!). If I'm doing this it is a sure sign that I am feeling super stressed and it's interesting to note that this doesn't occur when I'm premenstrual. It's purely stress related.
I had a friend call me up on it once, saying how bad my skin looked, how for someone in my line of work she was surprised I didn't have 'better' skin. I was pretty miffed with her remark since she's known me for a couple of years and it was the only time she'd seen my skin looking bad. She has seen I have great skin for my age... I take good care of my skin and it shows... when I'm not stressing out. And to be fair my skin hasn't looked this atrocious since she made her comment way back in 2009. Something has triggered this latest stress attack.
It is a frustrating habit, one I'm yet to break - if that is even possible. I'm just thankful that I don't get stressed too often, I'd HATE to see what that looks like!! I'm really lucky also that I use Skin Serum (the precious!) often because this helps stop any scarring this rubbing and scratching could cause.
So what is it you do when you're stressed? Can you related to rubbing your skin? Do others do this? Let me know your thoughts.
~ and remember the reaction buttons at the bottom of the post ~ mwah!
Moisturising Lip Balm - tint and flavour of choice
Valued at $69.90 ~ retails for $62.90 online
To Enter:
Tell us in 50 words or less [by leaving a comment below] why your mum, or you, deserves to win this gorgeous natural skin care gift set for Mother's Day.
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Competition ENDS Sunday 28th May 8pm. Open to Australian residents only.
You will need:
