It turns out I was able to stop by Earthsong Village today as planned! It's a really amazing little shop located in Toronto on Kingston Rd.
Ilse the owner is incredibly friendly and passionate about what she does. She was extremely helpful and answered my questions and I fell in love with the items she sells in the store. She has great taste, the clothing is beautiful, the instruments are unique, there are beads and stones and so much more! When it comes to the products like shea butter, essntial oils, etc. she really has great stuff. All pure and organic, it's the real deal.
I was able to find not only the Black Soap that I went to find but Avocado Oil as well! So once my Aveeno is done, I will be using the Avocado Oil as my moisturizer and the Black Soap as my face wash. I'll feel good going back to these kind of products where the ingredients are so pure and I can recognize and pronounce them all. Supposedly just a pea size amount of Black Soap can wash your hair, body and face! For now I will use it just as a face wash, but will try as a body wash and shampoo and see how I like it.
Check out the site when you have a chance, I saw Belly Dancing and Djembe lessons on there as well! This was a great find. I'll definitely be going there again sometime in the near future.
The olive oil worked wonderfully for about six to eight weeks and then I noticed my skin was getting so dry. Again. I realized that the olive oil is a very surface moisturizer, and it really does work well for the top layer of my skin and really helped ward off blemishes, but after a few weeks of just using that, my face started feeling quite dry.
I was on the hunt for a more deep penetrating moisturizer. I looked up some positive things on avocado oil and drinking a lot of water. I failed to find avocado oil but took up drinking a lot of water as I learned that to hydrate your skin, it has to come from within. As in, drinks lots of water to hydrate your inside so in turn it hydrates the outside.
At the moment to wash my face I'm really liking this Green Beaver product:
it's a grapefruit and bamboo light exfoliate that cleanses really well and doesn't irritate or dry out my skin. I continue to use olive oil to moisturize the area around my eyes as I use it everyday as my make-up remover. I find it removes makeup the best!
This is my face regiment for now, will let you know when it changes! This week I'm hoping to drop by Earthsong Village to check out their Black Soap to see if it's a facial cleanser that can work for me.
My face officially loves me. I've been using olive oil as my face moisturizer for the past two weeks and my face has never felt or looked better.
I was doing some readings the other week for my Classical Studies class on Hellenistic and Roman Egypt and I read how Egyptian mothers used olive oil on their babies. I knew about putting olive oil in your baby's bath to moisturize their skin, but I had never thought about applying olive oil directly to the skin.
Time to apply my University reading!
I looked up a few sites that day to make sure that it was safe and something that could be used on the face directly and night after I washed my face before going to bed, I went to the kitchen, got out our Extra Virgin Olive Oil and put it right on my face. At first the smell of it made me think I was supposed to be making a salad. But alas, I was in the bathroom not the kitchen! My face had never felt better. Instant relief and moisture.
My face is pretty dry and I've often heard the comment that my skin is dehydrated whenever I have gone to get a facial. But what could I do about that? I've tried a lot of different creams, nothing seemed to "work." So I figured, why not give olive oil a try!
I wondered if it would clog my pores and be bad for my face, but a lot of the sites I read about olive oil said that it wouldn't clog pores, in fact, it was an anti-oxidant and beneficial to your skin.
So it's been just over two weeks now, and I've used it as my moisturizer every night and morning. My skin feels soothed. That's the best way for me to put it. Creams, even natural ones, have been too strong for my face and often sting or they haven't been able to moisturize enough.
I think I've found what works for me, and I'm sticking with it!
I actually found that the little bit of acne I have has cleared up and my face isn't as splotchy or worn out-looking. Always a good thing. And it's also now my eye make up remover. I haven't had anything take off mascara so easily and smoothly. My eyes are left feeling loved!
I've also learned that moisturizing your skin comes from the inside too, not just what you put on the outside. So have a teaspoon of olive oil helps as well as making sure you're getting lots of water. Hydrate yourself inside, and reap the benefits on the outside!
Here are some sites that I read about before rubbing oil on my face:
And here is a great video to watch about the cosmetic industry from the fabulous site Story of Stuff
This video above reminds me of how many harsh chemicals are in beauty products. It's been two years now and I'm still trying hard to stick to my "don't put anything on your body you wouldn't put in your mouth" motto. It's pretty doable. Just takes awhile to find out what works for you.
Once we had our own home, we wanted to make sure our air was clean and fresh. I read about some ways to do this that don't involve spraying mist in the air that makes you sneeze.
1. We open our windows. Our apartment permanently had its windows open throughout the Summer and Fall. Now that it's colder, we keep them closed, but air out for at least an hour a day!
2. We bought plants. And named them.
This is Spidey. He's a Spider Plant. He grows like CRAZY.
This is Craig. He's a Janet Craig.
This is Palm. He's an Areca Palm.
This is Lily. She's a Peace Lily. Without flowers at the moment...
3. We bought a Pheylonian Pure Beeswax Candle. Ya. I didn't know it was called that. But we got it from Grassroots and here's some more info on it, very interesting!
Smells good and cleans the air!
All three of these things are what we do to breathe easier. Between that and our cleaning products, there's no smells that we don't want in our home!
It's been awhile!
Here's a little update on the previous blogs.
So we did buy that IKEA couch.
It's in our livingroom looking all cool.
We love Dark City coffee. Went through our lb of coffee with family and friends and purchased some for friends and family as well. Really great company.
We're married and living in our own space now. So far it's been kept clean with water and nature clean products. Here's what we've been using to clean!
Good ol' steam mop. We really love our steam mop for our floors and bathroom. No added chemicals, just the pure power of steam.
H20 Mop Ultra
Nature clean products, here we come! We use and love all of these:
Nature Clean Dishwashing Soap
Nature Clean Shampoo
Nature Clean Liquid Detergent
Nature Clean Fabric Softener
Nature Clean Oxygen Bleach (on white and colours!)
Nature Clean All Purpose Cleaner
Peppermint Hand Soap
That's the update for now.
The next post will feature some of the things we've done to keep the air clean in our home, besides using water and Nature Clean products.
Until then, keep fit and have fun.
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January 2013 Update
The only thing we still use on this page is the dishwash soap. Other than that we clean with this spray and this scrub and steam. And use this shampoo and this for laundry!
I heard about it from a friend and it comes highly, highly recommended. You call to place your order, they roast your beans after the call is made, and you get the freshly roasted beans delivered to your door the next day. How fresh is that?!
They have a great selection or Organic, Certified, Organic Fair Trade and Shade Grown blends.
Can't wait!
You can read more about them and their coffee here: Dark City Coffee
So we were going to buy this couch from IKEA today for our apartment.
We loved the size, colour, cuteness and functionality. And IKEA is a great store that uses sustainable materials to create their products and most of their products are very safe for you and the environment.
However.
We found out it was stuffed with polyurethane which is supposedly bad?
This was Keith's email to me yesterday:
Our couch is: "Seat cushions filled with high-resilient polyurethane foam and polyester fiber wadding provide great seating comfort."
But the problem is: "Avoid furniture cushions and mattresses made from polyurethane foam/plastic as well as any fabric with acrylic, polyester or polyvinyl chloride, all of which can be toxic to the respiratory system. Polyurethane foam, which can cause bronchitis, coughing, and skin and eye irritations, may also release toluene diisocyanate, which can produce severe lung problems."
Hmmm... K
We're definitely still going to look at IKEA furniture, because they really do have great initiatives on a lot of their other items. Also going to look more into this couch and polyurethane foam before we make our decision, still may buy it!
