All natural winter hair care supply !

I have been trying to eliminate chemicals from my life, mainly by using beauty products that has very low chemical contents or none at all. I also try to eat healthy and incorporate as many herbal vitamins as I can into my diet. And finally I try not to take any allopathic medicines (only when I really have to), because I don't agree with popping pain killers for a mild head ache at any given chance. Which is why I try to tackle the root of the problem by eating healthy and taking my herbal vitamins.

So long story short, I bought a supply of natural hair products today. A shampoo, a conditioner, a hair serum and an oil. And none of these products are tested on animals so that's a big bonus!

The first two products I would like to talk about are the Naked Rescue intensive care shampoo and Naked Rescue intensive care conditioner. These two products are 97% chemical free, they contain no sulphates, parabens or petrochemicals. Most of the ingredients are naturally derived, and the two main ingredients from this range are shea butter and olive oil. I personally need something that nourishes and adds more moisture to my hair, because my hair gets really dry/frizzy in the winter time.

After using these products I can tell you that they are incredibly efficient. They cleaned and moisturised my hair really well. I would suggest it to anyone with dry or damaged hair. And I would also like to add, that you should try to switch from your normal shampoo to a more natural shampoo, believe me it will do wonders to your hair and it STOP it from excessively falling out.

I bought the Naked Rescue intensive care conditioner 250ml for £3.98 and the Naked Rescue intensive care shampoo 250ml for £3.98, both from Boots. This is a very small price to pay for gorgeous healthy locks ;). I would buy this product over and over again.

If you want to know more about these products check out their website.
http://www.nakedbodycare.co.uk/all-products

I also bought a hair serum from Body Shop, the Grapeseed glossing serum and it is: alcohol, paraben, SLS and colorant free! This product contains hardly any chemicals and it does a great job at giving my hair a nice natural shine. I wont say this is the best product I have used but it does the job but it is nothing to revel about. 

I bought this Grapeseed glossing serum 75ml for £7 (it was a bit costly)

You can buy it here : http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/bath-body-care/haircare/grapeseed-glossing-serum.aspx

And I saved the best for the last! I bought my very first bottle of Moroccan Argan oil I wanted to see what was all the hype about and I can assure you this will not be my last bottle! This product has to be the best thing I have used since I discovered coconut oil.Argan oil is incredibly light, it does not leave any sticky residue like other oils, which is why I am going to use it as a hair serum after washing my hair. It also penetrates the hair very quickly leaving you with wonderful shiny healthy hair. Argan oil is 100% natural and has no chemicals that can cause any side effects. It is a multi purpose natural beauty product, you can use it on your skin as well as your hair. It eliminates: lines and wrinkles, acne, age spots, scars, psoriasis and eczema, stretch marks and dry frizzy hair! 

So without any further delay I would like to present my favorite new natural beauty product!! Ta-da!!

I bought it from Holland and Barrett for £6.79 it was on sale, so grab is before the offer ends ( I am thinking of stocking up). 

You can buy it here: http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=3722&prodid=4287

And FINALLY I decorated my mini christmas tree. Feeling rather festive =) 

Spirulina face mask (The Green Monster) !

I try to eat healthy, well at least I pretend to. A few months back I bought a packet of Spirulina (type of algae plant) powder, I tried it out and absolutely hated the taste of it. I know it works for a lot of people but I found it really unpleasant and therefore inedible. I didn't want to waste the powder so started looking up other uses for it. The best use I found apart from eating it (which I cannot digest) was to use it as a face mask! So I thought I would give it a go.

Before I tell you how to make the face mask I would like to point out the benefits of Spirulina for your skin. Spirulina is the best source of anti-oxidants you can find for your skin. It contains almost all known anti oxidants: C, B1, B5 and B6, the minerals Zinc, manganese, copper, amino acid methionine, beta-carotene and vitamin E. It also contains gamma-linoleic which is a rare acid found in breast milk and primrose oil. Gamma-linoleic protects the integrity of skinn cells and muscles and forms new cell membranes!!

This face mask is the perfect mask to prevent and combat ageing skin. Who needs twenty different chemically based beauty creams when you can add this to your beauty regime twice a week. I assure you it works wonders. My skin always feels great after applying this mask and it also has a lovely earthy smell to it!

                                         To make the mask

All you need is one and half tablespoons of Spirulina powder and two tablespoons of olive oil

Mix it really well ! So the consistency is quite thick like a face mask. 

And finally slap it on and keep it on for 15-20 minutes and then wash it off with luke warm water!

     I call it the Green Monster because...

                                                  And you are done!

You can buy Spirulina powder here for £11.99 for 200g : http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=3970&prodid=4337&cid=142

Enjoy <3 

Get squeaky clean, acne free skin the Natural way !

Luckily I never had a bad case of acne but I did have the occasional spurts of acne attack! Whenever this happens I wake up with a face full of big ugly painful spots. Panicking!!! I always head to my pharmacy and pick up the first anti acne cream/face wash that could spot on the shelves. Without really thinking about what kind of long term damage it can do to my skin.

Although these products did help with the acne (in the short term), it did made my skin incredibly dry. To prevent the acne from coming back i kept on using the products but soon after I realised, that instead of preventing the acne from coming back it caused further skin irritation (dry skin) and subsequently caused more acne because i kept on picking on my skin, due to the dryness.

So I did a little research to find out what was causing my skin to become so dry and irritated. I found that most acne creams and face washes has an ingredient called Benzoyl Peroxide. 
Here is the MSDS (the chemical material safety data sheet) for benzoyl peroxide. It should tell you the harmful effects of this chemical.

http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9923063 


In 1995 FDA changed Benzoyl peroxide category from 'safe' to 'safety unknown' then to
'An ingredient of concern'.
The FDA found that this chemical releases free radicals in your skin. These free radicals are known to cause premature ageing and severe wrinkling. And yes these are the free radicals we are asked to avoid at any cost. The FDA did further tests and found that Benzoyl Peroxide that was applied to the skin of test mice, resulted in the formation of tumours within the skin . Yes that's right it caused tumours!. Long term use of this product can basically give you skin cancer.

There are many alternatives to achieve healthy acne free skin, without using any unnecessary dangerous chemicals. Such as:

Neem cream! Neem is probably the best thing that you can put on your skin it basically does everything an acne cream does and more! Anyone can use this product, so you don't have to have problem skin to use this neem based moisturiser. So... what does it do exactly?!

Neem relieves dry skin
It soothes itchiness, redness and irritation
It improves general skin health and immunity, combating bacterial infections such as acne, boils and ulcers.

 You can buy this product here for £5.25 http://www.avogel.co.uk/neem/neem-cream/ 

Another alternative to chemical based acne cream/face wash is Tea tree oil ! Tea tree oil is 100% natural and particularly good at targeting the spots. Whenever you have an acne outbreak you can apply a small amount of tea tree oil directly to your spots.The tea tree oil causes the spots to dry up and shrink because it possesses anti-bacterial, anti fungal, antiseptic and antiviral properties.

You can buy it here : 10ml for £7

 http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/shop-by-range/tea-tree/tea-tree-oil.aspx
 0r 30ml for £10.75
 http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=272&prodid=452&cid=63

So, lets stop buying these chemically riddled beauty products and go buy what nature has to offer!

Be naturally flawless

I am a firm believer in having flawless, natural and healthy looking skin! Now to achieve flawless skin, I am sure we all have tried numerous products, the latest most 'revolutionary' products that we all keep on seeing advertised on television. But sometimes consciously or subconsciously we ignore the harsh and harmful effects of these highly saturated chemical based products on our skin . When I picked up this generic Dove body lotion, I didn't think of it much and thought it's cheap and cheerful and it would do the job! From the front of the packaging it had everything I wanted from a moisturiser so I carried on using it. One day out of curiosity I decided to look at the back of the bottle and realised that I was having a hard time making sense out of one single word in the ingredients list, let alone the whole list.

Now, this is a Dove body lotion... how much of this actually makes any sense to you?

To me it looks like something out of my calculus book (for those who don't know me, I am absolutely terrible at maths and have the hardest time grasping any mathematical concept). I despise maths and reading this ingredient list evoked similar emotions in me. However, with the help of my handy handyman, Scott (my boyfriend) who is also a doctor of Chemistry, we started making more sense out this situation. He informed me that every chemical has a material safety data sheet MSDS here is the link to the website with every possible chemicals listed !
http://www.msds.com/

Here are few of the ingredients listed in the ingredients section of the Dove body lotion and here are the potential health hazards it can cause. 

Steric Acid - slightly hazardous incase of skin contact, to read more about this chemical check out : https://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927609

Phenoxy-Ethenol - This is extremely hazardous in case of eye contact and very hazardous in case of skin contact. To read more about this chemical check out: http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9926486

ETDA Disodium - Hazardous incase of eye and skin contact (irritant).To read more about this chemical check out: 

http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9925851

I do understand that these chemicals are only used in very small doses, however using these products over a long period of time surely contributes to illnesses that we may have in the future. We must remember that these chemicals are 'legal' chemicals, but just because it is legal it doesn't mean that they are beneficial to our skin, or any good for our overall health. Sodium nitrite legally has to be stored in a locked toxic cupboard yet it is used in the UK as a preservative for just about every pork product! Salt would do, but would be less economical for the company selling the pork products.

Anyway going back to my main point. I think we should be more careful about what we are putting on our precious skin. We don't want to riddle our skin with nasty chemicals! It might be a short term fix, however long term it may very well damage your skin, causing further skin irritation. Which will probably lead you to buy stronger chemically potent products. So after using the current bottle of body lotion you are using (if it has a lot of harmful chemicals check your chemicals @http://www.msds.com/) I would advice you to buy a product which makes your skin and body happy! My favorite natural moisturiser has to be coconut oil. I personally think that coconut oil has to be the best multi purpose product I have ever used. I use it for

Moisturising my skin

Deep conditioning my hair

Cooking and Baking 

Massage oil (it's great for a hot massage) 

Lip balm

cuticle cream (just dip your finger in the pot for a minute and get flawless cuticles!)

A 500g jar of coconut oil lasts me approximately two months (because I use it for everything) it would probably last you longer if you just use it for moisturising. And it only costs round about £10. Make sure the coconut oil you do buy is pure (extra virgin), and has no added preservatives to it. A good place to find coconut oil is at http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/ 

Happy moisturising !!