Exhausted and defeated are two (dramatic) words that could be used to describe how I felt about natural and non-toxic deodorants AKA those without aluminum and harmful chemicals. I had tried 20+ different deodorants that sold me on the promise to keep my pits B.O.-free BUT that was absolutely NOT the case. At least none that were actually non-toxic (I had tried some that had clever marketing to green wash their product).
So I gave up on using an all natural deodorant and stuck to a men’s deodorant UNTIL…
I read this article on Into The Gloss about using an acid toner as deodorant. WHAT THE WHAT?! I had never heard of this and started to dig a little more. What I found is that there are some deodorants very new to the market that are marketed as “acid deodorant”.
This was literally the best news I’d read that week, and I learned that they’re highly effective because acid kills bacteria which causes odor in the first place. As this study found, “by changing the pH of the [underarm], the bacteria are unable to act.”
So the grand reveal of the acid deodorant I’ve been using for the last 2 weeks with ZERO B.O. is…
NECESSAIRE LE DÉODORANT IN EUCALYPTUS ($20)
Necessaire is one of my most favorite brands. I love all of the products I’ve used of theirs and their packaging is just a cherry on top. It’s so Instagram-worthy and CHIC. When I saw that they came out with an acid deodorant, it was the only one I wanted to try out and I don’t plan on trying others. It smells so good. Not overpowering, just light and fresh. This deodorant contains mandelic and lactic acids and I haven’t noticed much more sweating than usual and I still smell fresh at the end of the day.
Off to do my pilates workout tonight – no stink included.
Rosacea is a real bitch to deal with. Let me tell ya, because I have dealt with it since the age of 10. Riiiight as I began to go through puberty, I was also slapped in the face with rosacea – literally.
So since I am an expert on the topic, I have some tips for you to help you deal with rosacea.
First things first, what is it? Rosacea is a common chronic skin condition characterized by flushing and skin redness on the face. Key symptoms are facial redness with swollen red bumps and small visible blood vessels.
Fun shit, right?
There is no magic potion to treat rosacea, HOWEVER, it can be managed with diet and the right products.
SO TA-DA, my top 3 tips to deal with rosacea:
♡ Remove or reduce inflammatory foods. When I did this for other reasons (overall health), my rosacea immediately got better. I used to have textured skin where I have rosacea – which is on my cheeks – but that went way down after I cut out gluten, processed dairy, vegetable oils, and processed foods. Of course I still cheat and eat processed foods sometimes, but cleaning up my diet has resulted in big improvements for my skin. Not only for my rosacea but also for my keratosis pilaris.
I feel like in the health community, the gut and diet is not addressed first, and it really should be. You know that term ‘you are what you eat’…? It’s so true and I have experienced the positive affects of eating well to help this issue.
I could write a whole post on cutting out processed foods, but here are some important tidbits that have helped me over the last several years:
Dairy: this food group is known to be inflammatory and I cut it out completely 5 years ago for 3 reasons: ethically I didn’t feel good about it (that has since changed), physically I felt sick eating dairy, and then the inflammation piece. Since then, I have learned that raw milk and cheese is the clean and obviously not processed. There is a gross-out factor for me, but if you love milk and cheese, look into raw.
Cut out packaged foods with more than one ingredient.
Eggs: totally a staple in our house. Most of the nutrition is in the yolks, so don’t leave those out. Try to avoid the carton white eggs.
Stick to unprocessed meats: we literally JUST cut out bacon. I know, SAD FUCKING DAY. I don’t restrict when I eat out, but at home, I make breakfast sausage using spices and ground turkey instead.
Fish: Most fish is considered clean, just be careful of the mercury content found in most fish today. Make sure that you are buying sustainably. Check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium web site for up to date info on what fish is safe to purchase in any given season.
♡ Clean your water. Yep, your water. After reading Hidden Epidemic and doing further research on disparaging minerals found in our water such as fluoride, I purchased this water filter for drinking water and this shower filter. The combination has seriously helped to improve my rosacea but also my overall skin health (and internal health), because we should not be ingesting and absorbing the shitty chemicals found in basic drinking water and bathing water. I will write a full blog post on this topic soon!
♡ Vitamin E oil and cream. Omigod this is this a skin saver. I just started using Vitamin E oil and cream after learning more about the amazing benefits of Vtiamin E. It is anti-inflammatory when ingested and it provides insane benefits for the skin when applied topically. It tones down redness and strengthens skin barrier functions. It’s also SUPER moisturizing, so I only use a liberal amount of pure Vitamin E at night. During the day, I do use a tiny amount as it protects the skin from the sun.
If you’re struggling with rosacea, try these tips. You will not be disappointed. I make it a point to share things that actually work here, and not things that are 85869603020 million dollars.
It’s tanning SZN! But you know we don’t like tanning beds. And that’s where a good fake tan comes in. Personally I like to have a glow year-round, but it’s something I do even more during the summer months.
There are a few tricks that you must know before getting that good faux glow though. Because we’ve all seen some bad fake tans, right? Like Oompa Loompa orange skin, extra dark palms, patchy-ness + more.
Let me say that I have experienced ALL of the above. And that is why I’m writing here today about the tips and tricks to practice to get your best, even, natural AND non-toxic glow.
Let’s get right into it:
PREP
At least 8 hours before you use a tanning lotion or mousse, shave everything you need to shave. This is to avoid having your hair follicles show up darker than the rest of your skin when you apply the self-tanner. They need time to close back up after you’ve cut the hair down.
After shaving, exfoliate your entire body with a dry brush or with a shower scrub. I LOVE this one from Nécessaire.
Do not apply fragrance, deodorant, or lotion (yet) to your body.
Quick break from the steps to talk about the tanning mousse that I recently started using and absolutely LOVE. Vita Liberata pHenomenal 2-3 Week Tinted Tan Mousse. I’ve been going through the process of replacing toxic beauty products with non-toxic alternatives which I recently did with my tanning products – not naming names here but when I typed in the self-tanner that I was using before into Think Dirty (you need this app if you want to make sure your bath, body, and cosmetic products are clean) – it came up as VERY DIRTY as in TOXIC. Think Dirty offers up a list of clean alternatives and that is how I found Vita Liberata. This mousse is streak free, lasts for 2 weeks on me, and it does not smell.
So, once you’re ready to start the tanning process:
Stand on a towel to protect your floor and the bottom of your feet
Take off all jewelry
Apply a barrier cream (lotion) on areas where your skin is thicker, like your knees, ankles, elbows, etc.
Start at the tops of your feet and work your way up your body using a tanning glove. I love this one and I wash it often.
When tanning your hands, form a bear/claw-scare pose with your hands to apply the self tanner so that it doesn’t miss your knuckles. I’ve walked around with tan hands with white knuckles before and it ain’t cute.
If you’ve heard about washing your hands right after your tanning sesh, don’t do it. You’ll end up with white hands and a tan body. LOL. Wait at least an hour if you can.
POST
If you start getting too tan, just shower. That will stop the tan from developing any further.
I try not to shave afterwards for as long as possible. No exfoliation either. Not even a loofah! You want that tan to last.
That’s it! Let me know if a video on this process might be helpful?
There are so many kinds and your head might be spinning trying to pick out the best pair for your hair. And then blend them in with your real hair. Clip-ins are my JAM and I feel like an authority on the topic because I have tried out so many different brands and styles. I’m pretty detail oriented when it comes to my extensions. They can’t look like they’re dangling from my head like an octopus or give me a penis head. You know what I’m talking about, right?!
Let’s get right into it. Here’s my guide on how to make sure your clip-ins look as natural as possible:
♡ Make sure that the hair extensions texture matches your natural hair texture. The best way to do this is to make sure that 1. the hair you are buying is 100% human hair and NOT at all synthetic. No plastic Barbie vibes here. 2. Take note of the amount of grams you’re buying. If you have thick hair, you’ll want to up the grams.
♡ Make sure the color is on point. Usually with hair extensions you can go 1-2 shades lighter or darker (give or take) and your hair will blend. However: I have had the most luck having custom color done. This will allow you to have the most natural, seamless look color-wise. When I had NBR extensions (not clip-ins), they were custom colored to match the highlight pattern and color of my hair perfectly. You could not tell where my real hair started and ended.
Side note: I recently went darker and LOVE my hair color so much. I wanted something more natural and seamless so Noelle at ash Salon toned by blonde way down to a bronde and left my roots alone for a pretty melt. I had purchased these Hair Shop clip-ins that were bright blonde to match my previous color, but she toned them with the exact same toner that was used on my hair to match my new hair perfectly.
The Hair Shop is my go-to place to buy clip-ins because the color selection is amazing, the quality of the hair is better than any other clip-in brand I’ve tried (and I’ve tried A LOT), and the customer service is fabulous. If you need help color matching, their team will help you.
♡ Have your clip-ins cut to accentuate your hair cut and style. This one is SO IMPORTANT. You don’t want to be walking around with hair that doesn’t blend. Whether you have layers or no layers, you’ll still want to have the extensions cut to make the whole look natural.
After mine were cut, I took one weft out at a time and labeled each one with where it was placed on my head and I keep them all labeled in a drawer with hair ties around each weft. For example: on the top right side of my head, I label that weft “top right” so that I know exactly where each piece goes. I snap them all in super fast – less than 2 minutes!
Let me know if you have any questions – I love helping you with this kind of stuff!
Woah boy is this a big topic…one that I have wanted to write about for a long time.
WHY I QUIT VEGANISM.
If you’re vegan or if you’re not vegan, I hope that this post helps you in one way or another. I’ve compiled facts and resources for you if you’re inclined to dig deeper and do more research on this topic. More on that as we go.
2000 was the year that I stopped eating all red meat after my family and I drove by Harris Ranch on I-5 as we traveled to LA from Northern California. Seeing those cows packed into confinement made me so angry. I declared right then and there that I was done with red meat. Looking back, I totally get that this was Speciesism.
But I stuck to my word and never touched red meat again…after one last In ‘n Out burger because they were my FAVORITE. Spoiler: I wish I knew better and did not stop because NOW I am grossed out by it and don’t have the desire to eat red meat.
I continued with everything else though: poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy. Just no beef.
In 2014 I decided to go vegan for ethical reasons. I hate the idea of exploiting animals. By the beginning of 2016, my body was screaming at me to stop. I spent several months prior to quitting veganism trying to ignore my body’s cues. I experienced extremely dry skin, indigestion almost all of the time even after eating the ‘right’ combinations of foods and eating little to no ‘junk’, fatigue, and the list goes on. Side note: one of the junky foods I would eat a lot were Beast Burgers from Beyond Meat. Finally an option packed with protein! Until I came to learn that Beyond Meat products are packed with bad-for-you ingredients. Occasionally I’d cheat and eat fish. To my dismay, I would feel SO. MUCH. BETTER. My digestive issues resolved, and I felt satiated. The way that I felt started to really nag at me and I constantly weighed my options: feel good in my body but feel guilty AF about the impact of my choices.
I lumped animal products into one evil category of factory farming. You know those horrifying videos of animals being abused. I have not watched one purposely and I never want to. But I do know what goes on at many factory farms. I saw it with my own eyes at the California State Fair with a dairy cow. What I was not aware of was a whole other world of meat, eggs, and dairy, grown by independent farmers who practice regenerative agriculture. “In short, regenerative agriculture is a system of farming principles and practices that seeks to rehabilitate and enhance the entire ecosystem of the farm by placing a heavy premium on soil health with attention also paid to water management, fertilizer use, and more. It is a method of farming that improves the resources it uses, rather than destroying or depleting them”. {via}
These farmers use techniques that enhance their environments and treat their animals humanely, allowing them to engage in their natural behaviors and eat the food they’re meant to eat. The additional benefit is that the meat, dairy, and eggs produced by these farmers are more nutritious than your run of the mill shitty factory farm.
I chose my health and my body as my priority and having the education behind independent farmers and the benefits, I do not place any guilt on myself for consuming animal products now. I am very selective about where my meat and eggs come from – I still don’t consume dairy because it grosses me out and I am lactose intolerant. Tip: If you’re looking to forego grocery store meat, I highly recommend visiting your local Famer’s Market to support your local farmer(s).
Let’s get into the specifics of why and how eating meat is not something that you should feel guilty about – because this information helped me a lot. All of this information is via The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Paleo Leap. You can visit their site to read more about the biological benefits as well as environmental benefits, but here is a brief list:
♡ Meat contributes greatly to our overall health and contains many nutrients that cannot be obtained in any amount from plants:
Carnosine, a molecule found in meat sources, is an antioxidant that protects against degeneration.
Vitamin B12, found in meat, helps make DNA, prevents certain types of anemia, and contributes to the health of nerve cells.
Meat is a complete protein source with a higher biological value.
Meat is a good source of the difficult to get vitamin D, contains vitamins B1, B2, B6, and the minerals zinc, selenium, and iron.
There you have it. I hope this helped you if you’re vegan and feeling guilty about the thought of adding animal protein in to your diet, or if you’re just looking to make healthier choices in general. Because I wish I would’ve read something like this when I was struggling.
