November 16, 2009
· Filed under vegan skin care and beauty
I have mostly passed through my acne phase. I still get the occasional, and I have given up on ‘perfect’ skin until such time as I can pay a dermatologist and a cosmetic surgeon thousands… so for the most part I really just need something gentle for cleansing and moisturizing my skin every day. And I have *definitely* passed into the crow’s feet phase. And the forehead wrinkle phase.
For what it is worth, a little disclaimer– product does not help my wrinkles. What helps my wrinkles visibly is a taking a tablespoon of Udo’s 3-6-9 blend (gag, but it really helps) each day, drinking plenty of water or decaf herb tea, and getting some rest and exercise to de stress.
Okay back to skin care.
I used to love Suave water rinsable cold cream, even in my acne prone younger days. I think that depending on your skin type, drying out your skin can actually aggravate a tendency to break out, and alcohol-free soothing washes with spot treatment with harsher chemicals are the ticket for me. But I am not wild about putting petroleum products on my skin. I love Juice Organics skin products, but they are expensive and they come in extra packaging that just adds to the landfill. I read that olive oil makes a great eye makeup remover and figured it had to be easier on my eyes and skin than the Beauty Without Cruelty stuff I was using.
I had to overcome some squeamishness but I have started using pure coconut oil like cold cream on my face– splash with water, rub in oil, splash with water, dry– and, straight out of the shower, like lotion on any other dry bits. My skin feels great, the oily feel goes away nearly immediately. I love it, and no chemicals. When I get anxious about teen-type skin issues, I slap some generic benzoyl peroxide ointment on the trouble spots.
Try it with caution… if you check the internet you read all sorts of miracle claims for coconut oil, but I also read that one blogger had a terrible revisitation of her acne. So take it slow. Now that I have bragged about it I will probably have a blowout worthy of my teens! But so far, all good.
Coconut oil has cleansing properties and only costs 6-10 dollars for a jar that lasts a while. I want to get a small attractive dish with a lid (like my grandma’s milk glass candy dishes) to put a bit of it in to set by the sink, like my friend Vidya, and then I can leave the rest of the jar in my fridge so it won’t go bad. I think it takes a long time to go bad… but it lasts a long time, too, you only need the teensiest bit for your face each time.
Wishing you soft, pretty skin cheaply, chemical free and in good health.
March 24, 2009
· Filed under vegan skin care and beauty, what you *don't* have to give up
PETA’s Proggy Awards are a resource to help me vote with my pocketbook and be more comfortable with my choices.
Today I was shopping on drugstore.com– that’s the only place I can find my Peaceful Patchouli shave cream and Liquid Rock deodorant (don’t bother with the enzyme deodorant, it’s worse than nothing!! I need my money back!).
I need more shampoo, and Beauty without Cruelty and Juice Organics are both pricey. I don’t have time to research other brands right now (but if I did I would use Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetic safety database, it RAWKS).
I googled cruelty free vegan shampoo and lo and behold! White Rain uses no animal products, does no animal testing, and as I remember well from high school their products are about a buck a bottle.
Woo hoo! That little gem alone will save me hundreds in hair care products! See what information goodies you can harvest here!
http://www.peta.org/feat/proggy/2008/
December 8, 2008
· Filed under vegan skin care and beauty, what you *don't* have to give up · Tagged cruelty free makeup, mineral makeup, vegan makeup
Remember when I said you didn’t have to give up having fun looking pretty when you go vegan?
I found some beautiful colors and an owner/colormixologist who gave me awesome customer service at PinkQuartzMinerals.
Doree really set me up.
I found her on the Etsy site– pinkquartzminerals.etsy.com.
I wrote her a question via Etsy and she responded nearly instantaneously. She answered my many additional questions quickly and courteously.
She mixed me up something custom but did not raise her extremely reasonable price. Her prices are great, she shipped very promptly, she offers samples, and her colors are GORGEOUS.
And I was very, very satisfied with my little custom color. It was for a costume, and I felt as gorgeous as one can feel when one’s skin is, well, it’s not easy being green, but she made it easy, I felt so pretty and the makeup was so light I hated to take it off. And I was GREEN.
I am also very satisfied with the lovely colors of eyeshadow and the bronzer color I chose. She suggested some foundations and I can’t wait to try those out.
Doree, you are the best.
November 10, 2008
· Filed under Reality (at least my reality) and veganism, vegan skin care and beauty, what you *don't* have to give up · Tagged beauty without cruelty, drugstore.com, ecco bella, lush
I have to pick on somebody besides Sarah Palin in my tag line now, don’t I. I can’t think of that right now, though.
I will say this much. Poor thing. I actually feel sorry for McCain and Palin… but I still ordered lots of post-win Obama stickers from Moveon.org. Heh.
Anyway. A friend of mine said the other day, but I would have thought you would have stopped shaving your legs.
WHAT? I shave them every day, in the shower. It’s faster that way, never a huge ordeal, over with, no worries. Why?
In Alabama we wear open toed shoes about 9 months out of the year, even to work. It is actually stated in my employer’s dress code that open toes are okay. It took me a while to get used to it– but I finally caved.
And hose, even though they are recommended in my employer’s dress code, are a BIG, BIG, NO, NO with open toed shoes. And they age you. My mama told me so. And they’re made with petrochemicals/fossil fuel byproducts, too. Aren’t they? Yuck.
So back to what going vegan does not have to mean.
So this isn’t about food. But it is about what you DON’T have to give up just because you go vegan. Therefore it does fit under our title Vegan Without Cruelty.
Just because you’re vegan doesn’t mean you give up being sucked into other sorts of consumer and marketing scams like beauty products.
I don’t dye my hair any more– I do kind of draw the line at that kind of alteration of my natural looks. I miss it, I miss it bad. I look at the photos from my baby’s first Christmas and my hair just looks so darn good. I can’t stand it. I am so much prettier a dark, almost-black ash brunette.
But… well… it just seems wrong. Maybe later if i can find some good cruelty free plant based dye and get the guts to try it at home and be ready to live with the consequences if it turns out green – either walking around with green hair or paying the wonderful lady who cuts my hair a BUNCH O MONEY to fix it. After she recovers from laughing her butt off at me.
In our last town I had the best stylist in the whole wide world… she cost a pretty penny for the insanely cool, edgy dyejob and cuts she gave me… but her prices were quite good considering her amazing ability and my extreme satisfaction. But when I moved here I just stopped going to her. When you have someone great you just can’t bring yourself to try something new sometimes. I love the lady who cuts my hair– she is AWESOME too. But I haven’t ventured into color since I ‘lost’ her.
I want a tattoo real bad too. The only reason I don’t do that is because I am just plain chicken.
So breathe a sigh of relief. You don’t have to give up your shitty self-image and stop altering yourself or stop expensive slathering product all over yourself to go vegan. I haven’t. In fact, I just started, and I am loving it.
Although as I’ve noted before, I dropped 30 lb going vegan– a huge self image boost. But I’m also pushing forty and getting anxious about beauty– skinny don’t stop aging (okay so vegan might actually slow it, honestly!) and it certainly can’t fix ugly (sorry, Tater Salad).
So from my other blog, devoted to bargain hunting and saving time and money…
“I can’t believe I just did this. I just spent 45 bucks on Ecco Bella’s anti aging day cream and eye nutrients cream. But if I’d paid full price it would have been sixty four bucks– plus shipping.
Vitacost.com had a deal where you could get both for around forty dollars, their standard shipping is only $4.99.
I have Ecco Bella Eyeliner and Mascara, and I shit you not, their mascara is the BEST EVER. Plus it comes with a little mirror right on the tube, how AWESOME is that?
I’ve been needing an eye cream BAD. Concealer settles into the tiny wrinkles around my eyes– which would probably be invisible if I didn’t use concealer, but if I don’t use concealer I look like death. I actually scared myself the other day, caught unawares as I peered into the mirror to begin my morning primp.
The beautiful boy at The Body Shop in Atlanta told me the solution was a good eye cream, and my mom told me the solution is a concealer brush. So now I’ll have both.
The daily moisturizer I use– Beauty Without Cruelty with Alpha Hydroxy– well I ADORE it and I’ll probably buy some more of it but BWC AHA does not have SPF in it at all. It’s better, actually, for places that get scaly– not eczema, just trouble spots, you don’t need me to share with you which spots I’m talking about, believe me. It also seems to reduce the appearance of cellulite (okay that’s a hint, right?)
And LORD, I thought BWC was expensive!
But there’s an AWESOME sale on BWC on drugstore.com and you can get free shipping if you order enough stuff.
I usually buy my skincare stuff with joint account funds– that is, money my husband and I both contribute for shared bills. But the Ecco Bella, even with the huge savings, I just felt too guilty, and I bought it out of my own little nest egg.
On to drugstore.com… free shipping if you order enough, though their Peaceful Patchouli deodorant is 1/3 more expensive (6.29 or something) than on amazon.com (4.15 or something), I think the shipping savings makes up for it.
And one last frivolous purchase– in a strange twist since my extremely redneck and intolerant 20’s and early 30’s, I now love anything patchouli or sandalwood. But my little girl hates Kiss My Face Peaceful Patchouli Moisture Soap.
One day she came to me just after washing her hands and I said you smell good. She said, I used the soap in the green bottle you had on your sink. That was the remnants of a bottle of Lush’s Tramp, watered down to stretch out what was left for hand washing.
My little’un has complained so many times– do I HAVE to use Kiss My Face?– that I determined to buy her some more Tramp. (I’ll defer telling her what Tramp means).
It is vegan, although the last time I looked it does contain SLS unfortunately. But how often do we use it, and just on our hands… I went ahead and got her some, with my own funds from my own little nest egg as well. The shipping for it was slightly cheaper on Amazon… Lush has free shipping for orders over $100 but I don’t see myself spending $100 on anything at all any time soon.
I have on my wish list on amazon a book about make-at-home organic skin care. I may grab that some time soon. Wonder if what I make out of there will be cheaper or have results as nice as the stupidly expensive stuff I buy now?
Also I feel bad about adding to landfill problems. Those products are sold in teeny tiny little containers, so you run out quick, and have to toss the container, which may or may not be recyclable… I need to get that book. I will.
After I enjoy my Ecco Bella, BWC and Lush…
