My Favorite Beauty Products in February

One way I figured I could share my nature beauty journey was on Instagram every Friday. Have you seen it? Well, I figured it would be good to share here on the blog in a roundup for you at the end of each month. And if someone could please explain how it's already the last day of February, I'd highly appreciate it. Overall, I hope this helps you on your natural beauty journey (or at least exposes you to some great brands).

When I made that commitment to swap out my conventional brands to those with clean ingredients, I knew perfume was the first to go. Fragrance is something that brands tend to keep secret, but can contain all kinds of unknown ingredients. There's just no transparency. The major concern is this can cause hormone disruption. So I made peace with not having perfume, and figured I wouldn't find a replacement for a really long time. Turns out, it wasn't that long. At my previous job, we received a PR package with Skylar, a natural perfume line based in LA. Meadow, a soft floral, was my introduction to the line. I've since picked up Isle, a clean and fresh scent. I know I probably wouldn't have bought Isle if I didn't already smell Meadow, but they do have a sample pack to test.

I'm pretty sure the cure to everything is a good face mask. Well, this face mask didn't disappoint! My skin is always dry and I didn't know what to expect from this mask. What I got was extremely hydrated skin that gave me that youthful look I effortlessly had in my early twenties. Yup, I'm sold! It is called Radiant for a reason. Svati Organics is a new non-toxic line I discovered at the Indie Beauty Expo last month. It's owned by a single mom and was inspired by her trip to India. 5% of the brand's profits are donated to send orphaned girls in India to school. 

Oh, Osea! It's an OG brand in the natural beauty world, that derives seaweed as the key ingredient to their entire line. Their Anti-Aging Hand Cream is one of their newer products, but lives up to the rest of the line. Again, my skin is dry. Painfully dry might be a more accurate description. My hands suffered from scaly, cracked patches that were desperate for help. After realizing I had been sent this cream, I gave a desperate try. A couple days later with daily use, I found my hands looking normal again. This definitely is a splurge, but a little does go a long way and it actually works.  

This is one of those things that I can blame Instagram for making me buy. After seeing these fun sticks from Cocokind a bunch of times, I figured at $9 each it couldn't hurt to test them out myself. And let's just say that they are on heavy rotation now. The Turmeric Stick has been a game changer for that time of the month when my hormonal acne decides to show up. Nothing ever cleared it up so quickly until this! The My Matcha is great to add moisture anywhere on your face, but I use it at night under my eyes. Again, this girl needs all the moisture.

Have you tried any of these? 

The Best Dry Skin Remedies

If you're sitting there hoping this dry skin will disappear as soon as Spring hits, you're not alone. Let's face it, Winter is almost over, but your skin has taken a beating. I know mine has. I'm no stranger to dry skin. Dry flaky patches and chapped lips are standard. Anyone else dealing with that too? Only this year, I didn't want to deal with all this dry skin like I normally do. The best part is I've got you covered from hands, feet, body and lips! Oh, and you know they have to be natural and non-toxic around here. 

• Honest Organic Healing Balm - I would have not survived without this! It's very thick and moisturizing in the best way. It is greasy, so I recommend using this at night. It's gone on my feet every night and my feet have never looked or felt better. 
• OSEA Anti-Aging Hand Cream - Not going to lie, this is a splurge. But, hey, it works and really gets the job done. Don't be fooled by the light texture (I know I was)! You're hands will get instant moisture, but used consistently you'll see all those dry patches disappear. Because of the texture being light, you can use this day or night. Oh, and a little goes a long way. 
• Lansinoh Nipple Cream - All I can say is I never want to live without this stuff! Yes, it is meant for those breastfeeding. It just happens to be the best for chapped lips and gives a little gloss. Seriously, if you have the worst chapped lips, this is the magical potion you need. Nothing has ever worked for me and this is the game changer.

Hope these help get your skin ready for Spring! Let me know if you have any dry skin products you love!

3 Easy Steps to Transition Into Natural Beauty

When we think of skincare and makeup, our minds think of the beauty and appearance aspects. Both are completely valid. Who doesn't want to look their best? Except you might have heard that there's a lot of weird ingredients that beauty brands use and how all these ingredients can be absorbed into our skin impacting our health. I know, it's scary to think about. Sadly, the US doesn't regulate the beauty industry and there are way more ingredients banned in Europe than the US. So what can you do to take matters into your hands? After a year of detoxing my skincare and makeup I use, I found these three things made it easier to transition.

1. Think Dirty App

First off, get your mind out of the gutter. While it's a work in progress, this is the app you need to download ASAP! It has a database of thousands of products that you can enter by name or scan the SKU to give you a rating of how clean or dirty it is. Is every product in there? No! But you can submit the item for review. The best part is if something does rate dirty, it will give suggestions for cleaner options and breaks down the ingredients. Not going to lie, it's addicting and shocking.

2. Swap Your Deodorant

If there's one thing I wish everyone would swap, it would be their deodorant. Is it freaking hard (not to mention stinky)? ABSOLUTELY! But not only starting with the hardest swap in this whole natural beauty journey, it's the one I find extremely beneficial to our health. The reality is we are meant to sweat. That's healthy. It's normal. We have been conditioned into thinking we shouldn't sweat there. These conventional deodorants are just plugging up our pores and not allowing our bodies to detox. Deodorants are applied so closely to our lymphoids, which carry blood into our entire bloodstream, that it makes sense to try to use the most natural ingredients we can. If I can do it (girl with the worst armpits ever), you can do it. I shared my absolute favorite natural deodorant here.

3. Replace As You Run Out

Once you start scanning your items on Think Dirty, you might panic and want to throw everything out. That's normal. I just wouldn't encourage that. That will create overwhelm and that's not the goal here. So look at what you're running out of, do some research for alternatives and then toss and replace it. Repeat until you swap everything, which could take months. You might even shed some tears for your beloved item (or was that just me?) What can I say, but I get attached to products that have been working for a decade. Here are some of my go-to brands and places to shop:

• Skincare: OSEA Malibu, The Detox Market, 100% Pure
• Makeup: 100% Pure, W3ll People, Burt's Bee, The Detox Market

I hope these tips help simplify transitioning into natural beauty! It is a process, but starting this has been empowering to take responsibility of my health. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out because this is something I could spend hours chatting about and wish I had someone to help me through the process. You don't have to do it alone. 

The Best Green Beauty Products of 2017

Never in my life have I been into beauty products until last year. I was that one girl, who if she found something she stuck with it. Basically, I used all the same skincare and beauty products for a good decade. That all changed when cancer hit real close to home (you can read more here) and found myself head deep in trying to make some preventative changes for myself. While I kept replacing and discovering new-to-me brands/products, I came to find some I flat out hated and loved. Lucky for me, there were more loves than hates, but it's not fun wasting money. So after a year of discovering, these are my favorite green beauty products and hopefully helps you find a clean replacement!

Sway Deodorant
The first thing I tried hard to switch was deodorant and let's just say it was a very stinky year until November/December. This brand has only been on the market for less than a year, but it works like no other natural deodorant. It does come in a kit with the deodorant and dusting powder. There will be a full review coming this month, but had to mention it.

Lansinoh Salve (AKA Nipple Cream)
If there's one thing I learned from my former boss, it's nipple cream is the best chapstick of your life. I did work in the mom industry, in case your wondering how the heck this topic came up.Believe me when I say that you're looking at the girl, who had the worst chapped lips all year long. Nothing ever worked until I used this. They come in small tubes (practically lipgloss size) making it discrete and convenient to use on your face.

OSEA Vitamin C Polish
Not only is OSEA natural, but they are family owned and have been doing this for 20 years. While their Vitamin C Polish is one of their newer products, it's a splurge that is worth it. Powder based, it's a probiotic for your face and does the best exfoliating job. You always hear about glowing skin, while this is my glowing skin product rave. Again, it's an investment, but a little goes a long way for results you can see and feel.

Andalou Naturals 1000 Roses Daily Shade Facial Lotion
Obviously, I care about my skin and protecting it from the sun is equally as important as the ingredients I use. But finding an SPF moisturizer when your tan complected is no easy task! Just picture me walking around with a white film on my face--not cute! You don't get that from this affordable moisturizer. The rose scent is mild and no where near off putting.

100% Pure Lipsticks
We can all agree finding your favorite nude lipstick is a big task. After realizing that my conventional lipsticks were ending up in my stomach from eating and lip licking, I made it a priority to find replacements. Out of the one's I tried this year, 100% Pure's latest lipsticks in mojave and cassia are clean and the prettiest nude shades.

Skylar Perfume
One of the big giveaways that something is not clean and green is if it has fragrance. Finding a non-toxic perfume was one I thought would take me years to come by, but so glad Skylar landed in my hands. They were created by a mom, who wanted something clean and hypoallergenic. Besides having minimal packaging that I'm all about, the scents are fresh and unique. You can find my wearing Meadow everyday! While I feel (and smell) good wearing them, I do notice they fade quicker. My tip: spray your hair and clothes to make the scent last.

Defy & Inspire Nail Polish
While there is no such thing as a completely clean nail polish, there are better choices. Trust me, it was hard tossing my collection of beloved Essie bottles both for the money spent and plain vanity. But this brand is one you can find at Target making it easily accessible and affordable. They are 5-free (I've only seen 7 or 9-free), so they are middle of the green standard. They last just as long as your average nail polish and appreciate the range of colors.

Have you bought any green beauty items? I would love to hear your favorites!

Holiday Sales Worth Shopping

Let's face it, our inboxes are flooded with all the sales going on. It's exciting. It's exhausting. It might be a little too much. But then again there are some really good deals! And if you're anything like me, you might find these prices so good, you buy one as a gift and for yourself. So here's the sales that I'm actually shopping and think are worth your time:

MADEWELL (I mean how could I not?) // 25% OFF SITEWIDE except their leather transport line and third party items CODE: DONTSTRESS

TIP: This is the perfect time to shop the sale section because you get that additional 25% off. Normally, this sale does not include denim, so this would be the time to pick up some jeans for yourself.

ABERCROMBIE (dare I say this is Madewell's cheap sister) // 50% OFF SITEWIDE no code needed + FREE Shipping

TIP: Stock up on their basics like their cardigans, sweaters and tanks! Trust me, the quality is so good for the price!

LOFT // 50% OFF SITEWIDE CODE: THANKS

TIP: If there's a time to stock up on Lou & Grey, it's now. Their leggings are gold!

OSEA MALIBU (My go-to skincare I'm obsessed with and non-toxic!) // Get a FREE full-size cleanser of choice (value $48) + a large sample of the Vitamin C Polish when you spend $125 + Free Shipping

TIP: There sets are a great way gifts under $50 and a nice way to test the line, too!

Hope this helps you navigate the sales and gives you more time to spend with family!

Happy Thanksgiving!

P.s. We still have the linkup going! Hope you'll join us!

An InLinkz Link-up