simple.green.organic.happy.

Category: Eco Fashion & Beauty

  • Taking Care of Summer Hair: Anti Breakage Shampoo and Conditioner

    Taking Care of Summer Hair: Anti Breakage Shampoo and Conditioner

    Got crunchy, dry, damaged hair from processing, styling, swimming, sweating? We’ve got the fix for those summertime blues.

    If your hair is done properly and you’re wearing good shoes,
    you can get away with anything.

    -Iris Apfel

    (If you’re not familiar with Iris Apfel you simply must watch Iris on Netflix or at least read this.)

    I received Desert Essence products for free from Moms Meet as part of their blogger program to use so that I could post my honest opinions. 

    I get asked a lot about ways to protect and repair hair, since mine and my daughter Cassidy’s take a beating on a steady basis:

    • we bleach out sections several times a year and use fun colors on it every six weeks or so (the dyes we use are vegetable based, but the combing through during application is a little rough)
    • we are regularly in the pool or ocean, and in direct sun
    • we often shower multiple times a day due to sports/band practice/workouts/swim time

    To be honest, my hair is usually pretty crunchy. To paraphrase my new fave John Mulaney, I’m not so much getting old as getting gross. I’m not great at keeping up with getting it trimmed regularly— which is, obviously, the best way to keep your hair looking healthy. The second most obvious option is to not wash it so much, but that’s not really in the cards for us. We have combination hair: while the bulk of our hair is dry and somewhat brittle, the scalp and roots get oily quickly and sweat doesn’t help the situation. 

    I’ve tried applying countless oils and “smoothing” styling products to the ends, which cuts down on frizz but within hours leaves our hair looking, well, oily and limp. 

    So for years my solution has been to wash as often as needed and then apply a LOT of conditioner from ponytail grip on down to the ends, letting sit for as long as possible, rinsing REALLY thoroughly, and avoiding styling products other than the occasional emergency dry shampoo. (Dry shampoo is great, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t use it on a sweaty scalp. It grosses me out.) When getting into the pool or ocean, I’d braid my hair while it was still wet and then coat the braid in conditioner or coconut oil (which works and is a hot tip. Write it down).

    And then I was sent Desert Essences Anti-Breakage Shampoo and Conditioner to review and everything changed. I’m not even exaggerating.

    You may have heard of Desert Essence before. It was founded in 1978 and was the first company to bring Jojoba oil to the marketplace— it’s still their top product.

    Desert Essence Anti-Breakage Shampoo is infused with Country Life Maxi-Hair (an exclusive blend that includes biotin, keratin and Pro-Vitamin B5), helping to reduce breakage up to 61%. It also boasts jojoba and coconut oils, aloe, saw palmetto to smooth and fortify hair cuticles, and radish seed extract for shine. Aloe and shea butter in the Anti-Breakage Conditioner help detangle and condition hair.

    Holy cats. My husband Jeff usually says that running his hands through my hair is like trying to detangle spiderwebs: it knots almost instantly (I don’t brush very often, to minimize breakage, just finger comb while conditioning) and it’s generally the opposite of silky smooth. Within one use of Desert Essence, the texture of my hair changed. It was actually soft and shiny and less frizzy and you could get your fingers through it! And it continued to improve with ongoing use. And I only had to use a little bit of each product; no more huge globs of conditioner necessary.

    I was still struggling with the oily scalp and roots though, which is where stage two of Desert Essence to the rescue came into play. Along with the Anti-Breakage Shampoo and Conditioner, I’d been sent Desert Essence’s Smoothing Primer. This product’s ingredient list includes apple cider vinegar, quinoa protein, tea tree oil hydrosol, maiden hair fern, wild thyme, great burdock and jojoba. It’s meant to help close the hair cuticle, remove product buildup, and balance the scalp’s natural pH. It tingles, which is my favorite quality in a hair product (I used to buy a conditioner that MASSIVELY tingled which I loved but had give it up; it was causing massive oiliness and scalp buildup). But more importantly, my hair has tons more volume at the roots and doesn’t look like an oil slick the next day. You can use it after washing and conditioning, or you can use it in between shampoos to refresh your hair and scalp our without stripping your hair through overwashing. I LOVE IT.

    For an extra boost of shine and protection, I’ve also been applying a little of Desert Essence’s Anti-Breakage Hair Mask to my braid before swimming and then doing a nice deep conditioning after a day in the sun. It’s super hydrating and my hair feels like the promises made to you by the pictures in magazines.

    Keep in mind that damage is damage— trimming is the only surefire way to keep your ends really looking healthy— but this particular line of haircare really has my hair looking and feeling so much stronger, silkier, shinier.

    You can save 20% Anti-Breakage and Smoothing Hair Care Products on desertessence.com with the promo code DELovesMomsMeet. It’s also available at Natural Grocers, Luckys Market, MOM’s Organic Market, and other local natural food stores; check the website for your closest retail location here.

    Now that I’ve got all that vain stuff about my hair out of the way, allow me to talk about Desert Essences, the company.

    Desert Essence was founded in 1978 around a simple concept: beauty is natural, and nature is beautiful. By bringing the best of nature’s offerings to personal care regimens everywhere, we strive to strengthen the bonds between our planet and all the beings that call it home. Creating a healthy, harmonious relationship with the Earth and our community is the foundation for all we do. We believe in being responsible to others, honest, and forward-thinking to create and preserve a better future for us all.

    Um, I love that. But wait, there’s more:

    • all Desert Essence ingredients are clearly labeled on the product and on the website; their products have biodegradable formulas, contain no artificial colors or fragrances, and the packaging is recyclable
    • their bar soaps are made using 100% sustainably harvested palm and palm kernel oil
    • they are a certified B-Corp Corporation, meeting the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability
    • they purchase wind power credits and print business materials on recycled paper
    • they use natural and organic ingredients from around the world, supporting a federation of Australian plantation farmers who signed a pledge not to use any artificial pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides
    • no animal testing of any products or ingredients
    • they partner with various charities and relief efforts, as well as with organizations like Plan International USA’s Because I Am a Girl Initiative. (With every purchase of their new Oil Blends, Restorative and Balancing Facial Oils, 1% of sales will be donated to help girls in impoverished areas get access to education so they can change their own lives, the lives of their families, and that of their community.)

    Oil blends? Facial oils? Yeah. Desert Essence has a ton of products that look like they smell SO GOOD, from skin care to bath & body to dental care. They also have a page to make finding gluten-free products easier (and they’re running a sale on them at the moment, check it out).

  • Aromatherapy and the Scents of the Season

    Aromatherapy and the Scents of the Season

    Scent is such a simple way to elevate your everyday. Find out how you can get a Mrs Meyers holiday set of limited time, seasonally scented cleaning products for FREE.

    mrs meyers holiday set
    This post contains affiliate links.

    Science confirms that certain smells can trigger emotions and memories, and to me it seems like an obvious, common sense practice. Simply put: smelling things that we believe smell good, or that evoke good memories, makes us feel good. Feeling good staves off to some degree feelings of anxiety, stress and depression, which are all too easy to come by during the hustle bustle of the holiday season. 

    As a bit of anecdotal evidence, I’ll say that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and it has everything to do with the sensation of walking into a warm house that is absolutely filled to the brim with the smell of a million good things cooking. It’s the best feeling in the world. Thinking about it leads to me to another, similarly wonderful feeling, of entering a room with a freshly cut Christmas tree inside and breathing in the crisp scent of pine.

    Scent is such a simple way to elevate your everyday, but because the smells of the holidays are so tied up in nostalgia the effect is that much more powerful.

    I particularly like when my cleaning products, especially soaps, smell nice. That’s because every time I clean or soap up, I’m reminded of the Thich Nhat Hanh story of how doing dishes can be a mindfulness practice, a moment of zen, as you’re forced to live in that moment and experience dish washing.

    All of this is my roundabout way of explaining (again!) why I love Mrs Meyers products so much. Most of the year, I use Basil dish soap and Rosemary laundry detergent, and it really, genuinely makes dish washing and hanging laundry out on the line an enjoyable experience for me. (I also buy the Rosemary hand soap, but I haven’t reached that level of mindfulness yet where washing hands is a transcendent moment. Washing hands is boring.)

    I also love Grove Collaborative. They have a really impressive selection of natural and non-toxic household, health and beauty products with very competitive prices. It’s stuff I buy anyway— dish soap, laundry detergent, body soap, face wash, shaving cream, sponges, essential oils for the diffuser, you name it— only it’s my favorite brands without me having to go out of my way to find them.

    The way it works is that you build yourself a virtual “pantry” of products, which ships once a month (you can change the date of shipment or skip a month if needed.) I get a reminder before shipment that a delivery is imminent, so I can go in and quickly remove items that we’re still good on or add things I need. Since I tend to forget to buy things like dish soap when I’m out, that’s a huge help for me— plus, with a VIP membership shipping is quick and free!

    Grove Collaborative is constantly adding new items I’ve never seen sold before, and offering little bonus freebies that keep my love for them going after all this time. If you’ve never tried them before, this is a freebie you don’t want to miss.

    Mrs Meyers has just released their limited-time seasonal scents: peppermint, orange clove, and Iowa pine. They are wonderful, and such a simple, little indulgence that sort of ushers in the holiday season for me. (The WHOLE holiday season. Let me bask in Thanksgiving before you start with the caroling, please.)

    When you place your first order of $20 using my link through November 19th 9pm ET, you get to experience the magic of Mrs. Meyer’s for FREE with this Holiday Set from my friends at Grove Collaborative.

    • Free Holiday Mrs. Meyer’s hand soap
    • Free Holiday Mrs. Meyer’s dish soap
    • Free Holiday Mrs. Meyer’s multi surface spray
    • Free Grove seasonal kitchen towel
    • Free Shipping & 60 Day VIP Trial

    Existing customers get a free set of Grove walnut scrubber sponges. I love those, too, as much as you can really love a sponge.

    With the VIP status: for 60 days, you’ll get free shipping, free gifts, price matching, exclusive sales and personal service.

    I should warn you that last year, Mrs. Meyer’s seasonal scents sold out quickly. This offer is only available through November 19th or until the sets are gone, so don’t miss out! Here’s how it works:

    1. Sign up for Grove Collaborative here. You will receive the Holiday Set for free when you sign up.
    2. To receive this offer, your order needs to be a minimum of $20. Choose the combination of products and scents you love and receive your first box within a few days.
    3. That’s it! Click Finish & Pay and place your order.

     

    Enjoy the scents of the season and making new aromatherapy memories. 🙂 

  • Safer Fun in the Sun: Road Testing COOLA Organic Sunscreen

    Safer Fun in the Sun: Road Testing COOLA Organic Sunscreen

    The best sunscreen is the one you wear, but I have strict rules about what works for our family. Here’s what we thought of COOLA’s organic sunscreen products. Discount code at the end of this post!


    I’m gonna soak up the sun
    I got my 45 on
    So I can rock on

    -Sheryl Crow

    I received this product for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com) to use and post my honest opinions. Compensation for this post was provided and this page may contain affiliate links.

    “Soak Up the Sun” is one of a handful of songs that, for me, ARE summer. (Others: “Santa Monica” by Everclear, Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out,” “California All the Way” by Luna, “2” by Blur…)

    These are songs that I associate with the long drive to the beach with friends, from my college years and beyond. We always went late at night so as to miss beach traffic— I still do this with the kids— and on Friday nights you could (and still can) find a station that’s bumping hits live at some dance party at a club. Depending on who was driving, we’d put the top down, open the sunroof, roll down the windows… and sing along to the radio at the top of our lungs. 

    Then we’d get to the beach, and watch the sun rise, and most times fall asleep on the beach. There’s nothing like a nap on the beach, especially in the morning; the sand is cool beneath you, the sun warm on your skin, the breeze in your hair, the sounds of the surf and people laughing seeping into your subconscious. 

    I’ve only been sunburned a handful of times, and that’s exactly how I did it.


    One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime.

    Just one or more blistering sunburns before you turn 18 more than doubles your chances of developing a potentially-deadly melanoma later in life. White women who had over five blistering sunburns between ages 15 and 20 have an 80% increased risk for melanoma.

    I still love to nap on the beach, but you’d better believe I wear sunscreen when I do it now. I also tend to avoid the beach entirely between the hours of 10 and 2. I do not like to be sunburnt, and I don’t want my kids and husband, who are more likely to burn, to get any more sun exposure than strictly necessary. I am militant about sunscreen and limiting time in the sun. 

    I am also super picky. My oldest suffered from severe eczema as a kid, and to a lesser degree still does. Mav, although fairly dark like me, just finished up a round of Accutane and so has to be careful about the sun. Cass is fair and burns easily. I am sensitive to fragrances.

    I require a sunscreen to not cause a skin reaction, that isn’t full of chemicals, that doesn’t reek to high heaven, that has the staying power to hold up to sweat and surf (and often, the pool). 

    Most importantly it has to work.


    Getting sunburn— any sunburn— every other year can triple your risk of melanoma skin cancer.

    Sun damage is cumulative. Only about 23% of your lifetime exposure has taken place by age 18.

    Moms Meet sent me a package of COOLA organic sunscreen products to try out and review, and I was excited. Sadly, the package arrived after we’d already left for our beach vacation, but we managed to put them through the paces at home. 

    I’ve actually used COOLA before, during obstacle and mud runs (I’ve acquired some wicked tan lines using other sunscreens at races, presumably I sweated it all off), and my fair-skinned husband has been using it all summer at the beach. We had the unscented variety, which does actually have a scent which I don’t love, but also doesn’t particularly bother me. Neutral and effective.

    This time, we got to try the:

    I wasn’t sure how much I was going to love the Guava Mango scent, but it actually smells fantastic. It’s not subtle, but it’s not overpowering either. Eco and luxe. I’d wear it as a perfume.

    Everything else also smells nice and clean and not overpowering. That’s kind of rare with sunscreen, so 10 points to Gryffindor for that.

    As you can see, the sunscreens rated well with the EWG, based on efficacy and the safety of the ingredients (on a scale of one to ten). The spray rated higher because it’s a spray: there are relative concerns about inhaling a spray, plus with spray sunscreens there’s always the possibility that you’re getting more on everything around you than actually on your skin, but you think you’re well protected.

    This spray is thorough, though.

    organic sunscreen

    As you can see, Cass is well saturated even before rubbing in. In addition to being awesomely scented, the Sport SPF 50 Guava Mango Sunscreen Spray is:

    • ultrasheer and antioxidant-rich, not greasy or drying
    • water resistant for 80 minutes (as are the lip balm and mineral sunscreen we tried)
    • Broad Spectrum SPF 50 protection
    • “Farm to Face” sourced, with 70%+ certified organic ingredients like Cucumber (anti-inflammatory
      and soothing), Algae (improve the production of skin’s collagen and promotes skin firmness and tone), and Strawberry (rich in Vitamin C to help fight and protect against environmental damage) Extracts
    • not cheap, at $36, but it’s a fairly large bottle and although I can’t give exact numbers I know our other bottles have lasted a long time.

    If you’re not into spray sunscreen, though, the tinted sunscreen stick glides on easily, rubs into the skin well, and fits handily in your pocket or a small purse. Cass and I both tried putting it on and then going out in public for the day;  it felt like it stayed put, even more so with a little powder and then a spritz of the setting spray. It seemed fine for both of our skin tones, as different as they are.

    I love the idea of keeping powder and the setting spray on hand, to soak up oil and boost your SPF throughout the day. This is an idea I hadn’t encountered before and one I embraced pretty quickly, as I have super oily skin.

    The lip balm is emollient and lovely and smells delightful. People tend to forget about protecting their lips from the sun, including me.

    The best sunscreen is the one you wear, and these products were all a joy to wear: not heavy or sticky or overwhelmingly fragrant. As I mentioned, I’ve had good luck with COOLA organic sunscreen before, and these new products are only an improvement on the original. I’m pleased as punch to add them to our pool bag.

    Just remember:

    • Apply your sunscreen liberally and reapply often, especially after sweating or being in the water
    • Don’t leave your sunscreen in the car! The heat can impact efficacy. I’ve heard a TON of people say this summer that their usual sunscreen left them burnt and I suspect this is why.
    • Check the expiration date; I usually see this more as a guideline when it comes to food but when it comes to your skin, better safe than sorry.
    • SPF refers to a sunscreen’s sun protection factor:  the amount of time needed to burn sunscreen-protected skin versus unprotected skin. So fair = 10, olive = 15, dark = 20. With COOLA Sport SPF 50 Guava Mango Sunscreen Spray, my olive skin is good for 750 minutes. Cass or Jeff would need to reapply at 500 minutes, which is a nice long beach day.

    You can find COOLA Sport SPF 50 Guava Mango Sunscreen Spray at Sephora, Ulta and Nordstrom (full list of locations here). Online, head to coolasuncare.com or Amazon. Check out their other cool organic skincare products too, like their sunless tanners and sampler or travel sets.

    Discount!

    Save 20% off until September 30th at coolasuncare.com with code Elton20.