Oh, the joys of summer! Hot weather. Sweaty feet. Smelly shoes. And it is so hard to get foot funk out of shoes!

I was thrilled when Naturally Fresh Deodorant Crystal sent me some samples to test out. The Naturally Fresh Foot Spray not only keeps your feet from getting stinky, but you can spray it in your shoes to fight the funk.  It’s easy to use, and works well.  It’s kept my feet dry and fresh on some of the hottest days this summer. Read more…

The lovely people at SallyeAnder Soaps sent me a package with a whole bunch of great-smelling products to review. Their bar soaps come hand-wrapped in cute little paper bags which are biodegradable. Based in New York, the owners founded the company because they needed to find a way to prevent their son from allergy attacks caused by bath products. Their soap recipes are all natural, so much so that they guarantee that all their products are actually edible.

Now, yes, the Almond Goat Milk Soap smells really awesome, but I don’t recommend having it for dinner. BUT YOU COULD IF YOU WANTED!

Other flavors they sent me included Lavender Moon, which “relieves skin problems like acne, fungal problems, burns, dandruff, dermatitis, eczema, inflammation, and helps improve circulation”, and their Milk and Mint, which helps “reduce excessive hair growth, fatigue, and headaches”. They also sent along their Hogwash! Soap which comes with the bold claim that it is enriched with cornmeal which provides enzyme rich stain removal properties. I have not tried removing any stains with it but it works great as an exfoliant in the shower!

The last product I tested out was their all-natural bug repellent called No-Bite-Me. Once again it is edible and DEET-free, which, I’ll admit, made me a little skeptical about how well it would work. I put some on right before going out to a bonfire party and I came back with zero mosquito bites. Um, AMAZING. I am usually like a candy store for biting insects.  When I was at the beach last week I got bit by a green head fly and it worked just as well when I dabbed a bit on the bite. The itchy pain was totally gone! I will be ordering many jars of this for our annual canoe trip.

I’ll also be trying numerous other scented soaps- particularly the Blue Vanilla Chai, Pumpkin Spice, Candy Cane, and Gingerbread. Can you tell someone is ready for summer to be over? But at $6.95 these local, all-natural soaps are a steal.

I wear silver jewelry almost exclusively, but it’s a real downer when the oil from my skin tarnishes the metal, leaving it dull and dirty-looking. Recently I realized I hadn’t been wearing a few pieces I own that I really like, and it was just because the tarnish made them less shiny and pretty than they used to be. I knew I could go out and buy some expensive, toxic silver polish to restore my jewelry to its original shininess, but after a little research, I discovered a natural way to get the job done that doesn’t involve toxic chemicals.

So I did a little experiment using a silver necklace my parents brought back from a trip to Alaska a few years ago. I hadn’t worn the necklace in years because it had turned so dull, but after just 15 minutes or so, it’s just like new again! Here’s how I did it: Read more…

A few weeks ago I was sent a couple of bath products from a company called One. Their mission statement is to make earth-friendly products that promote natural beauty as well as preserving the beauty of the earth. They use all natural products and recyclable packaging. Their vision also states: “From pampering bath formulas to nourishing moisturizers, the entire collection is infused with rich essential oils, natural butters and delicate fragrance, energizing the mind and body with quality natural ingredients.” Eco-conscious and pampering? Sign me up!

One sent me two different products to review; the You Wild Coconut You Body Butter, which came in an awesome tin and smelled like the beach in Puerto Rico, and the Extra Virgin bar soap, which came in a little recyclable cardboard box.

The coconut-scented body butter is great. After a day in the sun, hopping in the shower to exfoliate and then rubbing in some of that moisturizing lotion feels pretty amazing. It has a thick consistency but doesn’t make my sensitive skin break out. The coconut smell has caused three different people to try to steal it from me but I’ve managed to keep it out of the clutches of everyone but me. Because I’m selfish like that.

As for the bar soap, it is made with extra virgin olive oil (hence the name) and it smells clean and refreshing. It works just about as well as any other soap I’ve tried and doesn’t seem to irritate my skin at all either, which is always a bonus. The only downside to the soap is that it breaks into chunks really easily, which means I ended up with pieces of soap rather than one big bar. I still enjoyed it though.

As for buying One products, I believe they are only available at Target stores right now. Both of the products I reviewed say they are currently out of stock, but there are other scents available to try out. If you do, let me know what you think of them! I will definitely be buying this coconut body butter again in the future.

As I learn more about green living, one thing I’ve learned is to read the ingredients of everything I buy. When it comes to beauty products, I always look for items that are petroleum-free. There are ways to moisturize that don’t involve things based in oil, and the more I think about it, rubbing petroleum on my skin is kind of gross anyway.

So I’m pleased to tell you about Sula Shea Butter Balms, a line of gently scented, all-purpose body balms. They’re made with ingredients I can pronounce: organic shea butter, organic sunflower oil, beeswax, organic jojoba oil, rose geranium essential oil, and rose otto essential oil.

These handmade balms come in .37-oz. tins, so they’re very portable and not messy at all. My favorite thing about this balm is that it’s so versatile — you can use it on your hands, feet, lips, face, cuticles, and even your hair. I like using it mostly on my hands and feet because it moisturizes without feeling greasy. The sample I tried is the Rosa Demascena scent, which is light and flowery and not overpowering at all. Other scents include Bergamot and Neroli Blossom.

Sula Shea Butter Balms retail at Anthropologie, Ulta, and sulabeauty.com for $8-$9.

Memorial Day is now behind us, which means it’s officially beach season. We’ve all been told over and over again how important it is to wear sunscreen when you’re out in the sun for any length of time, but did you know that instances of skin cancer have gone up since sunscreen was invented? It’s true — because sunscreen is not a free pass for a day of fun in the sun. It’ll keep you from getting burned, but it won’t prevent skin cancer.

However, the sun may not be the only thing to worry about on bright summer days — research shows that sunscreen itself may actually cause skin cancer. Remember, sunscreen is a chemical that you rub directly onto your skin, and about half of the 500 most popular sunscreen products contain vitamin A that directly contributes to malignant cell growth. Read more…

This is me, and more importantly (for the purposes of this post, at least), this is what my hair looks like on most days.

Long, straight, fine, flat, kinda boring. You can see why I’m often on the lookout for some products to add a little life to it.

That’s why I was so happy to receive a sample of Pre Game Texturizing Spray, a natural, eco-friendly spray designed to add some beachy texture to your hair for that sexy tousled look. Pre Game is free of parabens, alcohol, petrochemicals and propellants, and it’s cruelty-free. Read more…

Lady slipped a tube of Dr. Dandelion Lip Rescue in the birthday care package she sent me this year, and it is one of my all time favorites.  I’d never heard of Dr. Dandelion before, but Lady has a gift for picking the very best products, and I was excited to see the super simple ingredient list:

Organic sunflower oil, beeswax, castor oil, peppermint essential oil.

It stays solid, but melts easily on lips, making it a fantastic choice for really chapped lips, when dragging a more solid lip balm across your mouth might encourage cracking.  And unlike some of the natural lip balms I’ve tried (and declined to write about) there’s no grit to it.  It feels completely smooth on my lips.  The peppermint oil leaves a nice tingly feeling.   Read more…

A couple months ago, I was standing in the shower thinking about Greenists post ideas. (Well, more specifically, I was standing in the shower showering, but also thinking of Greenists post ideas, because I am a big fan of multitasking and because we all know lots of good ideas happen in the shower.) And as I lathered up the bar of soap I’d picked up at a recent craft sale, it occurred to me that I should write about what a good idea it is to switch from disposable plastic poufs and bottled shower gel to old school bar soap. I was thinking about how much less packaging bar soap uses and how easy it is to find bar soaps that aren’t full of unpronounceable chemicals and how switching to bar soap is just the kind of simple, good idea The Greenists love to focus on. And then I searched the archives and realized… Allie already wrote about that. Of course she did! OK then.

A good tip is always worth repeating, so I decided to mention it anyway, in my Not-Quite-New Year’s Resolutions post a while back. And I’m mentioning it again now not because I like to beat a dead horse, but because the good people at Anima Soap sent me some samples of their fine products, and they’d probably like me to tell you about them.

Read more…

Did you know that most brands of makeup and skin care products contain toxic ingredients that can cause cancer, reproductive problems, disruption of the endocrine system, allergies, and a whole mess of other nasty problems? It’s true. All it takes is a little experimenting with the Cosmetic Safety Database to see how many parabens, phthalates, formaldehyde, and other icky ingredients are found in the beauty products you see in corner drugstores. Cosmetics are not as heavily regulated in the United States as they are in Europe, which means if you care about your health, you should be careful and read those labels before rubbing anything on your skin.

Fortunately, there are some responsible and eco-friendly beauty experts out there who are producing makeup and skin care lines that are safe and make us beautiful. One such beauty expert is Ava Anderson, who has launched a non-toxic skin care line that scores a big fat zero in the Cosmetic Safety Database’s toxicity scale. That means nearly every one of her products is completely safe for everyday use, so your skin can be healthy and glowing without the use of nasty chemicals.

Oh, and did I mention that Ava is only 15 years old? That’s right — this high-schooler recognized the need for non-toxic beauty products and did something about it. I can say with absolute certainty that I was nowhere near that cool when I was 15. (Heck, I’m still not that cool.) Read more…