App of the moment: Logical Harmony

I've been following Logical Harmony's blog and YouTube channel for a while now. To me these are both great places to find out about companies that are cruelty free, vegan, or both, and I trust the information Tashina provides, especially as she always researches all the products.  

One of the most useful parts of the Logical Harmony website is the 'What brands are cruelty free and vegan?' page which provides a list of companies that are cruelty free, which are not cruelty free, or which they are still waiting to hear back from.  

They are all pretty easy to find and I love that you can also find out which companies are also vegan and which have parent companies that do test on animals.

The reason I choose this list over any other you can find online is because of how thoroughly they check each company - doing a lot of research themselves and only including companies that are prepared to complete the documents they send out. As far as I'm aware there is no money involved to get on the list and it's also updated on a weekly basis, so you can be sure of the most accurate information.

Tashina has also provided an explanation on how you can turn this page into an app on your phone for both the iPhone and other Android phones. 

It's safe to say it's now my go to before I buy any new beauty products and I will be using it to move more towards vegan products as well.  Do you have any apps that you use to help you make more ethical decisions?

Ethical Clothing

This year I decided it really was time to do something about my clothing.   While I've never been a big shopper and have always been happy to shop in charity shops, most of the clothes in my wardrobe are not particularly ethical.  My goal is to have a smaller, ethically minded wardrobe full of great items.  So, these are the steps I'm taking to get me there.

Getting rid of items I no longer wear or love.
While I'm not intending on getting rid of every item in my wardrobe that doesn't fit with my long term goal straight away (I just couldn't afford it) I am getting rid of items that I don't use.  I had already been pulling out clothes over the last few years, but at the beginning of this year I went through every item and pulled out anything that I really didn't wear anymore, didn't fit me or that didn't suit my style.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the expectedly large pile but I did decide to take them down to my local H&M to try out their conscious fashion campaign and got a nice litte £5 voucher.
Now my wardrobe is still bigger than I want it to be but at least it's now made up of items I actually wear.  I've given myself an idea of how many of each clothing type I want (which I will adapt if I find it doesn't fit what I need) and once an item is worn out or I no longer get any use out of it I'll just get rid it, only replacing it once I've reached my goal number. 

Do I really need it.
This is something I'm going to use throughout my purchases and that is to ask myself if I really need the item before I buy.  I've already started doing this and to begin with it was more difficult than I was expecting to resist the urge to buy when I liked the look of something.  But I'm now finding that just by telling myself I don't actually need it is enough to put me off the item.

Buy second hand first.

To me the simplest way of ethical shopping is to buy second hand. The products are already out there so no extra resources are needed and it's usually easy to find a style you're looking for.  I especially like vintage clothing so this type of shopping is right up my alley. Charity shops are my usual go to when it comes to this type of shopping but ebay also brings out some good finds.  This has been especially useful when buying the dresses that I wear to work.

Ethical and new.

For items I can't find second hand I've been looking for ethical alternatives. On my list of things to look for are organic, recycled, fair trade and non sweat shop, or preferably a combination of those.  This one is a little bit more difficult for me as my bodyshape means I usually have to try before I buy and I can only really get the ethical brands on line.  I have been buying from the H&M conscious brand but I definitely want to drive a little deeper into this and get much more etical products. I'll just have to bite the bullet and order items I know I might have to send back.

Project Pan Update #2

I wasn't expecting to do particularly well this month as I'd already used up most of the easy products in January, but I'd actually did a lot better than I thought. 

Winter is the time when my skin is at its driest and scrubbing is an important step (which I usually forget) to keeping my skin soft. So this seemed a perfect time to use up the Miss Cole body scrub, except that it didn't do anything. The product went on easily enough and had large granules like sea salt, but it didn't actually remove any of my dry skin and the products in it even seemed to dry out my skin.  I also used up the Naturally Thinking Body Polish Salt Scrub which I've had for a while now (which I'll talk about more in another blog) and this item was much better, though still not scrubby enough for my needs.

It was a lot easier to use the Benefit High Beam once I had depotted it and I was using it on a daily basis, even when I was having a no make up day.  It's not completely finished but has now become too dry to use anymore, and there's so little left that I'm counting this as done.  I'm not really a highlighter person as I prefer a matt look and as I use a powder foundation this didn't really mix very well.  If I do decide to get another highlighter it'll probably be a powder highlighter, and Benefit is not a cruelty free company.  I'm now using the Maybelline white eyeshadow as a highlighter to help use that up.

The only nail varnish in this month's update is the Models Own Nude Beige.  I was concentrating on this one as I knew it was beginning to thicken up and managed to get a few uses out of it before it became unusable.  This is a lovely colour and Models Own is a cruelty free company so I would recommend it.  The only reason I won't be buying it again as a want to transition into more natural nail varnishes. 

The Natural Collection Fig Leaf lipstick is another product I've been working on due to its age rather than its cruelty free status.  I had hoped to get it all finished by the end of February but I think that was being a bit optimistic. Got quite far though and I think it should be finished by the end of this month.

I'm also hoping to at least hit pan on my Lily Lolo eye primer next month which I've been using every day I wear make up.

I've carried on working through the Sephora and Maybeline palettes this month and have managed to make quite a good dent in them. However, I have realised just how long it's going to take to use them up. This is especially true of the silver eyeshadow (which I put all over my lids every day I wear make up) which seems quite pigmented when you first put it on so you only put on a little, then the colour falls off quite quickly and you're left with just a glittery eye lid.  I haven't really made much work on the dark grey, but I am thinking of using it to cut my crease now and then to start working through it.
I think the only thing I'm going to have finished by the next up date is my Natural Collection lipstick.  So that should be a very short blog. :-D

Book Review: Green Clean

Green Clean: eco-friendly cleaning for the home

I've mentioned this book in the past in my blog about using Vinegar as a cleaning agent, but felt that it deserved its own post. I've had this book for years now and have used it to make many of my own cleaning products in an attempt to simplify and clean up the products I use to clean my home.

The book itself is broken up up into why you would want to go green with your cleaning, ingredients & recipes, and the specific information about cleaning specific areas on the house (it even has a section about beauty products).  Obviously the section I use the most is the recipe section where the recipe of my preferred and most effective bathroom and kitchen cleaners can be found.  Then I dabble in the other sections if something specific comes up I need to deal with.
While this book pretty much covers every area of cleaning you could possibly want, the thing I like the most is the fact that you can use a small number of ingredients to make a variety of cleaning products and that the recipes are easy to follow. 

I've never had any issues with the recipes being less effective than conventional cleaners and I love the fact that not only can I choose why they smell like but also that I don't have to wear gloves to protect my hands from the ingredients (though if you are sensitive to essential oils you'll still need them).
It's now got to the point that I can make up my general cleaner and bathroom cleaner without needing to refer to Green Clean, but I'm still be keeping this book for my less regular cleaning needs.

If you prefer watching recipe ideas rather than reading them you might want to check out Clean My Space's Do-It-Yourself Cleaning Ideas playlist on YouTube. 

Natural Deodorants

Like many people trying to move to more natural products the one product I'm having difficulty with is natural deodorants.  My reasons for wanting the move to natural deodorants is probably very similar to most people.  Firstly, as what I wash off my body (including my deodorant) ends up going back into natural world I would rather it was as natural as is possibly to reduce any possible impact that this could have.  When it comes to this I would rather be safe than sorry.  Secondly, mainstream deodorants contain a number of products, such as alcohol and sodium benzoate, that appears to be drying out my skin quite badly.  This is particularly obvious during winter and I'm finding that I'm having moisturise my underarms every night after I shower saving the deodorants for the next morning.  Thirdly, while the evidence coming from the scientific community have shown that parabens to do actually cause breast cancer and that aluminium does actually cause cancer and alzheimer (for more information go to the cancer controversies page on www.cancerresearchuk.org).  I've decided that I would still rather reduce the amount of chemicals not actually needed by my body that I put into it.  This is purely to see if remove these from my cosmetics will hopefully reduce the issues I have with allergies and my dry skin.  Lastly, I want to move away from products that are designed to block pores as part of their process.  While I am aware that my body is more than capable of sweating in other places and at removing toxins in processes that are far more effective than sweating, I would still rather just allow my skin in that area to do what it's meant to.

I first tried to use natural deodorants many years ago, but didn't have any luck with it and just ended up feeling dirty and smelly and so just gave it up.  However, recently I decided to give it another go and this time I was more determined to give it a go.  (At this point I should probably point out that I sweat a lot and I do mean actually sweat.  If women glow, men perspire, and horses sweat I am a sweaty horse.)

I started using products that I could get easily here in the UK.  

First was Jason's Calming Lavender Pure Natural Deodorant Stick.  I'm not sure if I was just using this completely wrong or didn't try using it for long but after 1 week of using it you would think that I hadn't used any deodorant at all.  I may try Jason deodorants again but I think I need to research that a bit better.  Next I moved onto dr.organic Organic Tea Tree deodorant.  I tried a tea tree deodorant as tea tree is meant to be such a good anti-bacteria and I use it regularly in my beauty and cleaning products.  However, what I didn't count on was the fact that tree tea smells very like how I smell when my deodorant stops working.  While I may have been clean and bacteria free I found the smell quite disconcerting  and stopped using it.
As these products hadn't worked for me I asked a friend of mine who lives in Canada to send me over some North American natural deodorants as there seems to be a better selection.  This was just to cover me at the beginning of moving onto more natural products as the start is apparently when you smell the most while your skin settles after the change of deodorants.  I also read a bit more about the transition to natural deodorants and while before I had read that you had to give it a week before you skin settles, most of the information now states that you really need a month before your skin begins to settle back down.  With all that in mind and my new Canadian deodorants I gave it another go.

Next on the list was Green beaver Tea Tree Natural Deodorant.  When I first started using this I was a little worried about the tea tree scent due to my previous issue, but the grapefruit in this did help reduce this (though I did still find myself wondering now and then).  With this product I definitely needed to re-apply this throughout the day but I liked the fact that it was vegan and cruelty free.  The main problem I had with this was the fact that I did have a bit of an allergic reaction to it.  To begin with it wasn't a huge reaction, but my armpit skin was a little red.  However, this worsened throughout the month and the area became quite tender meaning that I couldn't make it to the end of the month.  It is likely that it is the sodium bicarbonate in this product that I reacted to.  Unfortunately this product is in many natural deodorants and is a product that others have also had a reaction to.  I did also feel more damp then I'm used to, but it wasn't too bad and I got used to it after a couple of weeks.

Unfortunately I didn't have much luck with my other Canadian present, the Desert Essence Tropical Breeze Deodorant.  Once I had realised that I was definitely reacting to the Green beaver natural deodorant I moved to this.  The smell is definitely better with not a whiff of tea tree in site, but despite the claim of long-lasting protection I did need to reapply this again during the day (though much less that the others mentioned).  The big issue I had with this is that I had an allergic reaction to this too, even more severe than with the Green Beaver deodorant.  What I'm not sure about is did I react to this deodorant the way I did because my skin was already irritated and am I also allergic to corn starch (an ingredient that is also regularly used in natural deodorants and that some people have had problems with).  As I'm not entirely sure what it was I was reacting to I'm going to give this deodorant another go once my skin has completely healed again.  The other issue was that this deodorant felt particularly damp when I put it on and didn't seem to dry at any point.  It then remained damp throughout the day, which I was very aware of and made me feel very uncomfortable.

Despite the problems I've had with these two deodorant I would recommend both of these as long as you're not allergic to sodium bicarbonate and corn starch and don't mind having to re-apply them during the day.

The last deodorant I tried (and which I'm still using) is the dr.organic Manuka Honey.  I got this deodorant initially as I knew that the Manuka Honey would help with the healing of my irritated underarms.  I do really like the smell of this item and it actually lasts all day without me having to re-apply.  It is apparently made with a non pore clogging formula as well as being aluminium, SLS, paraben, and alcohol free.  Cruelty free and vegetarian (obviously not vegan because of the honey), it basically covers almost everything I'm looking for.  They do also claim that it is natural but a quick read of the ingredients list indicates that this is not completely true.  On the plus side I did notice sodium bicarbonate at the bottom of the list and yet, instead of having a reaction to it, my skin has actually healed quite well.  This hopefully means that I can still use deodorants containing sodium bicarbonate, as long as they contain other products that counteract its effects.   I would actually recommend this to others as an effective more natural deodorant which is easy to find at Holland and Barretts.

I do still have other deodorants to try and will write about those once I do.  If you have any recommendations about what other deodorants I should try then please let me know and I will give them a go. 

App of the moment: Skeptical Science

Apologies for the delay in this post - have been ill this week :-(

Whenever someone finds out that I do actually believe in human induced climate change and am trying to live a more sustainable lifestyle I'm always asked a lot of questions.  The weird thing is that even now people who don't believe that it's important don't seem to have to give any reason or facts as to why they believe that to be the case, but if you do you have to be able to give a well rounded argument full of figures and scientific evidence for your opinion to be valid.  While the decisions I make and the route I've decided to take is based on facts and figures I've read and researched, when it comes to discussing this with other people I find that all the information I've accumulated over the years just leaves my head and flies away.  

So I've been glad to find Skeptical Science, an app I've downloaded onto my phone.  

The pages are pretty easy to navigate through and I specifically like the News one which allows me to remain up to date easily.

The most useful page, which conveniently is also on the front page, is the Browse page which lets you search through all the arguements uploaded onto the app.  

For each arguement against climate change you'll find a factual response, filled with information from scientific research and diagrams, which can be used when talking to others. 

You can even add an argument on the Report page in case you come across one which hasn't already been added.

I especially like that it's very non emotional and fact based, which fits my personality perfectly. 
You can get it for iPhones and Androids (I got mine from Google Play) and it's completely free. Definitely worth a nosey.

Project Pan: Update 1

This month I've done pretty well in using up products, managing to finish 6 items so far.  Unfortunately I don't think this is going to be a regular thing, but it's a good start.  So, what have I finished?

The eye shadow is the mid-brown eye shadow from the Sephora eye neutral eyeshadow palette.  Though I liked the colour I didn't like the texture which was quite dry and almost chalky, not too easy to blend.  As far as I'm aware Sephora isn't cruelty free either.

The lip sample was the Vapour lipstick in Saucy.  This was a lovely colour and colour texture, and it smelt ok as well.  I will definitely look more at this company once I've used up all the lip products I have now and am looking to get more.

I've also used up one of the Nature coconut lip butters I have (still one to go).  I got this in a gift set a couple of Christmas' ago, but, despite it's name, it's not natural at all.  It;s also quite a gloppy, thick texture so I only use this when I go to bed.  It does take a long time to use up so I'm not expecting to finish the second until nearer the end of the year.

Next along is the Bourjois 123 Perfect CC Cream.  I loved this product.  The texture was lovely and despite its thinness it did a very good job at correcting any colour imperfections I have.  It was also very moisturising and contained an SPF of 15.  The only problem I have with it is that it doesn't last throughout the day, even with powdering, but it did wear off pretty evenly.  I would recommend it though, especially if you want a more natural look.  I didn't repurchase it as I'm now using my Jane Iredale mineral foundation and will probably carry on using that from now on - mainly due to ease of use.

Lastly were the Miss Cole body wash and moisturizer.  Neither of these were much to talk about.  The smell of the body wash was alright but I didn't feel particularly clean afterwards.  On the plus side it didn't feel like it was stripping my skin at all.  The moisturizer was just watery and didn't really feel like it was doing anything much.  The biggest issue I had was that both contained SLS and I think that this has set off my eczema again.  I'll be glad once I've finished the body scrub as well.

Next month I think I'll be very lucky if I've finished any products at all, so I'll probably just have to show the items I've hit pan on.  I did have to depot the Benefit highlighter which has dried a little (and by 'I' I mean I gave the product and some wire cutters to my boyfriend for him to open it up).  That way I should be able to use it up completely and a little more easily.