Small clean, green switches with Big benefits

Easy-peezy, cleaner, greener switches you can make to enjoy a cleaner, greener life:

{Self / Conserving Energy} -- washing your clothes
Swap out those perfumed, covered in beef fat (refer to previous entry), dryer sheets and soften&scent your clothes instead by adding 1c. of vinegar to the rinse cycle of your wash + an essential oil scented strip of fabric in the dryer. You'll decrease your exposure to hormone-disrupting pthalates, and if you throw in a full-size clean, dry towel to your dryer spin cycle you'll get a quicker more energy efficient dry! (Wash clothes in cold water for bonus points.)

{Self / Pollution} -- best produce to buy organic
Farmers use tons of weird chemicals to keep the bugs off your vitamin & mineral packed healthy choices, resulting in organic produce being the cleanest, greenest choice. But organic produce is pretty darn expensive, so here's a list of the top 12 to buy organic - these fruit&veg have the highest pesticide residue (aka the highest amount of chemicals coating & absorbed in 'em), so if you're going to buy anything organic, these should be on your list!
The Environmental Working Group's 'Dirty Dozen': apples, celery, strawberries, peaches, spinach, imported nectarines, imported grapes, sweet bell peppers, potatoes, domestic blueberries, lettuce, kale. For more information (including 15 fruits & veg with the lowest pesticide residue, and therefor with the least organic-status priority) click here.

- Support local farms by buying their seasonal produce & decrease your contribution to around- & across-the-world shipments which emit toxic crap, damaging the environment.

{Natural Self} -- making up your face
If the task of switching out all of your fave chemical-laden makeup products is too daunting, consider aiming to switch out just the couple you use every single day, like foundation & mascara. Its the chemicals you are exposing yourself to on a regular basis that are accumulating in you, so feel good about a clean, natural foundation, and don't stress over that favourite MAC eyeshadow which you only smear on for occasional nights out. (My favourite mineral powder foundation is free of synthetic colours, parabens, nanoparticles, and other bad ingredients & my favourite mascara doesn't smear, flake off, or clump my lashes.)
It's probably a good idea to look at the moisturizer you are putting on your face every day, too (stay away from retinyl palmitate - vitamin A, when applied topically, has been linked to the growth & formation of tumors).

{Green World}
- Unplug electronics you are not currently using to save energy - like that blow-dryer that is still plugged in from this morning, or the cell-phone charger constantly attached to the wall.
- Take a walk instead of a drive! Your health, gas tank (read: pocketbook), and mother earth will thank you. It's raining?... Sweetie, you're not going to melt (some of my mother's wisdom for ya).
- To remind you of the obvious: Turn off lights when you leave the room! Same goes for heaters when you're not home, or when you've got a window open. & that barely-leaking tap in your bathroom? Fix it pronto.
- Cut 5 minutes off your shower-time: you'll save 15-25 litres of water per minute. Set a timer for yourself to make sure you keep within your limit (my bathroom light can be set to turn off after a certain amount of time, and if I don't wash fast I'm stuck shaving my legs in the dark). & turn off the tap while you are brushing your teeth.
- Be conscious of the products you are washing yourself with, which are then washed down the drain. Use shampoos, conditioners, soaps, & washes that are biodegradable.

"Don't think of it as inheriting the earth from your parents, but as borrowing it from your children."

What are your top tips for a cleaner, greener self & world?
PS if you have anything you'd like to see me write about, let me know! My creative juices have not been flowing lately! :p

the Beautiful Skin Regime... for spotty skin & spot-pickers

Although I'm ashamed to admit it, I'm a picker (& I'm not talking about my nose). If I get a spot (or even a non-spot that is the same colour as my complexion and looks like it could maybe possibly become a spot), I can't ever seem to keep my hands away from my face - always, always, making my visage's situation worse. However, after years of: pimples & blackheads, trying to make them go away, and then having to follow-up with damage control when I make the situation worse, I have come up with a near full-proof procedure which I follow when one of those unsightly bumps strikes (& I proceed to pick)... *this is also a great preventative treatment:).

Night-time treatment for a blotchy face (aka the Beautiful Skin Regime)
1) Wash your face good & clean - I like using Rocky Mountain's natural soap with grapefruit because it is mildly astringent and makes my face feel squeaky clean.
2) Follow up with a moisturizing oil that doesn't clog your pores (if you're looking to buy one, Rocky Mountain has one with rosehip oil which is ah-mazing. Alternatively you can use pure sweet almond oil, apricot oil, or grapeseed oil, among others... do some research for what sounds best to you!) In my experience even if I feel like I've put on too much & that my face is 'oily', by the time I wake my face is happy as a clam (and soft as a... not-clam?)
3) Spot treat with pure tea tree or lavender essential oil - dab it on & it will moisturize as it kills bad pimple causing bacteria. Pure steam-distilled essential oils are the greenest & cleanest - don't waste your money on ones diluted in alcohol or other weird ingredients that don't need to be on your face.

Stay away from drying facial cleansers with sulphates (synthetic de-greasers) & other yucky ingredients which strip your skin of its natural oils (throwing off your face's natural oil balance) and can result in spottier skin. Fact: your face produces oil to moisturize itself, so when you strip those natural oils you cause it to go into overdrive to reproduce the oils your washing off = opportunity for newly produced oils to get trapped & give you a spotty complexion! Alternatively, using a cleansing oil (there are certain types of oils which will not clog your pores) to wash your face, and/or a facial oil to moisturize brings your skins natural moisturization system into harmony. It does this by mimicking your face's natural moisturizer (sebum), while dissolving the grime that has accumulated on your face over the course of the day. This means your skin can focus on healing and looking great instead of occupying itself attempting to meet its moisturization-happiness quota... and because your skin will have time to do things other than hyper-moisturize a natural-oils-stripped-by-facewash face (since your new oil-based regime will keep your skin's moisturizers in place), those spots disappear a whole heck of a lot faster!

A couple mornings / week, scrub off the dull, dead, surface skin cells of your face with a gentle facial exfoliator to promote healthy turnover of skin cells, + a healthy glow :).

DIY cleansing oil/moisturizer: last week I made my own moisturizing facial oil, and to my delight I seem to be preventing spots from appearing at all! Result: instead of treating them, they aren't there to begin with, so I don't even have the opportunity to pick & make my situation worse! Hallelujah!
Here's what I mixed in a small glass jar: 50mL sweet almond oil, the vitamin E from 3 Vitamin E capsules (natural preservative, good for your skin, & will help minimize appearance of scars over time), ~10 drops of tea tree or lavender essential oil (I add both!). Try to find a jar which has a pour-top so you don't have to dunk your fingers in (which can contaminate it).
I also use this moisturizer on my neck & decolletage, and if I pour out too much I'll use it on hands, arms, legs, wherever. It's great, inexpensive, and gives ya beautiful skin all over.

Yahoo for naturally beautiful skin :).

PS please tell me you are not following up your natural Beautiful Skin Regime by slathering on chemical-laden makeup products... What chemicals in my makeup? you say... maybe I will lecture you on that later! In the meantime check out my fave website, The Cosmetic Database (& search the ingredients in your current moisturizer or foundation).

Beef fat in your dryer sheets?

"Excuse me?" "What!" "No way!" "Gross!" you might be thinking. Me, too. This is information I came across in my daily email from Healthy Bitch (pardon the language), an awesome website that has tons of green & vegan tips. The silver lining to today's learning? I gained a new DIY to try...

Dryer sheets are commonly coated in animal fat (tallow - stearic acid derived from beef fat, yuck!) which is used to soften your clothes. And if that's not reason enough to steer you clear of them, consider the synthetic fragrances (read: gross chemicals!) they contain, which get on your clothes, and on your skin, and in your body.

Here's an idea! Grab a piece of fabric (maybe a strip off that old cotton t-shirt you no longer wear), give it a nice, safe scent with your fave essential oil, and then throw it in the dryer with your clothes! Who doesn't want laundry that smells like lavender fields, or fresh peppermint, in place of weird factory produced fragrance? The real deal is also the best deal - save yourself the couple dollars on store-bought dryer sheets, and treat yourself to a new natural soap instead ;).

While the scent won't be as strong as you are used to, it's a lot better for you, and after a couple of weeks following your switch you'll find off-the-shelf perfum-y dryer sheets to smell strangely chemical.

Throw in a dryer ball for extra softness:). OH & throw a (clean) dry towel in the dryer with your load of wet laundry to save on energy & get a quicker dry!

How To: use avocado as a conditioning hair treatment

Today was a day of old fruit. I used up old apples & strawberries in a yummy crisp (+ oats, cinnamon, sugar, minced almonds, flour, & margarine), and proceeded to use up an old avocado by mashing it up and smearing it into my hair.

The first part is a pretty normal occurrence for me (love my crisp), the second part was a first! I read about it in No More Dirty Looks, an 'Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics" written by Siohan O'Conoor & Alexandra Spunt. In the section on conditioners they give a number of suggestions; I opted for the avocado conditioner, being as, well, that's what I had. Also, since avocados are awesome for you, I figured it'd be awesome in my hair, too.

Here's what I did:
~ took 1/3 of a soft avocado (less the humongous seed, people!) and mashed it up in a bowl
~ put a towel over my shoulders and wet my hair with warm water (warmth = open hair shaft = easier for the good stuff in avocados to get in!)
~ got my hands super mucky & smeared my avocado mush into my hair, massaging it into my scalp and making sure I got it all over my roots through to my tips
~ left said mixture in for ~30min
~ hopped in the shower to rinse...

I found my hair felt pretty oily in the shower, so I shampoo'd x2 (with my fave all-natural shampoo), then conditioned (roots to tips), and did a cold-water rinse (make it a habit! it seals the hair shaft & you'll find you have smoother, shinier hair as a result!)

I'm glad I did this conditioner treatment -my hair looks nice & shiny and is reaping the benefits of all the vitamins & healthy fats found in avocados- however next time I would add an egg for protein (good for colour damaged locks, like my own) & to help with the consistency of the mashed avocado, as it was a bit thick to smear throughout my hair. Also I'd add a couple drops of essential oil, so that my hair isn't left smelling like avocado! (I swear I can still smell it, however slight :P.) So, an awesome avocado treatment for YOU, would be:

~ 1/3-1/2 avocado, depending on length & thickness of hair
~ an egg, or a tbsp or 2 of extra virgin olive oil
~ a couple drops of your fave essential oil (peppermint and rosemary are both great for your scalp, tea tree helps with dandruff)

all mashed together in a bowl & applied to your hair (I left mine in for 30min), then shampoo'd & rinsed out SUPER well (or you'll look greasy) + conditioned. Voila! Don't forget to eat your leftovers to reap even more benefits from your friendly neighbourhood avocado ;).

How To: use baking soda as a shampoo

Baking soda... most use it in baking, I use it on my hair!

If you've ever tried natural shampoos before, you might have experienced a lack of that squeaky clean feeling (since there are no stripping sulphates!), oiliness, or 'dull' hair. Stick with it, this should pass after about a week (its just your scalp adjusting to not having to over-produce oil to compensate for the stripping action of chemical-laden shampoos) and you'll be happier once you reach the 'other' non-sulphate-shampoo side! Once you are established with your natural regime though, an awesome trick I recently came across, is to clarify with baking soda once/week! My hair has never been happier!

Here's what ya do:
1. grab a cup, and put 1tbsp of baking soda into it
2. jump in the shower, add some nice warm shower water to your cup, & douse your scalp
3. massage the baking soda into your scalp, scrub scrub scrub rub a dub dub
4. rinse, super well! the baking soda will travel down the length of your hair as you rinse out, and it will take any residue or guck (including chlorine!) or oils, etc. off your hair, leaving it super squeaky clean!
5. important: baking soda is basic in pH, while your hair is slightly acidic. If you were to stop at the end of the steps above, you're going to end up with dry, brittle  hair - boo, so not the point of this exercise. To avoid this, follow up with an apple cider vinegar rinse (try 1tbsp ACV : 1-2 cups water; you may have to play around with this ratio depending on your hair type). Alternatively I coat my hair (root to tips!) with my natural conditioner, which contains ACV, and leave it in while I wash the rest of my body, then rinse.
6. grin & bare it as you do a final rinse of cold water on your hair - this seals the hair shaft which will help it look, and be, great!

You'll have lovely, shiny, bouncy, flouncy, naturally squeaky-clean healthy locks that turn heads ;).