Natural Galore: Recipes, Reviews & Such

June 9, 2008

Soul Improvement

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — advina @ 12:00 pm

After a few turbulent days and weeks, I have finally settled back (to some extant) into my routine again. While I was away I decided to make a few changes in my life that I hoped would make my life a little easier… And lo and behold, I sure is! For one thing, I bought a few Vegan cook books. I adore the book La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer because EVERY thing I have made so far has been more than awesome.

I also started baking vegan with Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and frankly, if you don’t have it already… I think you should! Some results (and a vanilla one soon to come) can be found in my Flicker account.

These minor improvements have made what I eat so much more versatile, yummy and easy that I can’t imagine my life without them! Another thing which have made my life certainly more comfortable has been using Rosa Mosqueta® Rose Hip Moisturizing Cream by Aubrey Organics. Finding a moisturizer is like finding a holy grail at times. Much like the deodorant, its a product that enables you to feel a little more comfortable with yourself. This might sound like an odd statement, or like something oddly superficial… However, walking around when your face is suffering an allergic reaction from some “natural”/”hypoallergenic” moisturizer makes me feel a tad self conscious. Another problem is walking around with dry dry skin or (suddenly) way too oily skin.

I think I am probably right when I say that you want your moisturizer to make your skin feel elastic, not itchy or dry, without any break outs or oily spots and the all important… Not make your face freckle even more. A lot of moisturizers have awful ingredients in them, such as those find in here:

What annoys me about it is that, when you don’t know what to look for you are bound to buy products that ultimately harm you. After quite a long search I ended up with Aubrey Organics. My skin is sensitive, very dry and I am prone to freckle; therefore, I was looking for something to moisturize my skin in a hot weather with minimal issues. I did find it in the Rosa Mosqueta® Rose Hip Moisturizing Cream. Now, the EWG rates it as a 2 hazard, but! it the rating is so high due to Vitamin A and Tocopherol (which is basically Vitamin E). I do realize that this is not *obsessively* natural but I have yet to find anything better.

The smell is decent enough, kinda rose like. The consistency is kinda weird and almost shiny. It feels almost watery and it absorbs nicely providing you don’t put too much on. Its totally vegan, biodegradable, and mostly organic. The bottle is not too big, but certainly not too small… still, you do pay at least 16$ for it at Whole Foods. I managed to buy it for 12.54$ when I bought it online at Vitamin Life though it was processing for literally a month before it was sent, so be advised to plan well ahead. Value wise its not a bad deal and my face looks and feels quite good. I totally recommend it, but if you find something more natural than be sure to let me know! The one thing I do wish it had was some sunblock protection. I guess it might make it less fitting to sensitive skins, but it sure would make my life easier. I use Badger’s sunscreen on it, unhappily. I will rate the sunscreen in another post.
All and all, I give it 8 out of 10.

Oh yeah… You might wonder why I don’t use it (a.k.a. Vegecol with Aloe Moisturizing Cream) and I am glad to answer that I did! Only it seems that my skin is more dry than anything else and it flaked when I did try to use it. It also WAYYY more expensive for something sooo small. I use it at night so that I wouldn’t feel like I wasted my money on something useless.

January 8, 2008

Disappear no more!

Filed under: Uncategorized — advina @ 7:46 am

So, I haven’t updated the blog for quite some time now and I just wanted to apologize for that. I have written some reviews but I haven’t posted them as I frankly felt they weren’t that interesting and readable! But, this weekend I will redo them and post them, throwing in probably also a review about another deodorant.

I have also been considering whether this blog should remain focused on only on cosmetics and such or should it also expand and include some vegan/vegetarian recipes and general product reviews…

If you think that would be interesting to read about, please drop me a line!

Have a great rest of the week and see you soon!

Advina

November 4, 2007

Why, you ask?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — advina @ 7:29 am

Hey everyone,

Some time ago, probably around April, I became aware of the fact that I was using make up and some face creams by a company that still used animal testings. I was annoyed because I felt like I had finally found that great face cream I had dreamed of all along; no break outs, no dry skin… it seemed perfect. This realization that it was in fact terrible for my skin (with some visable signs) created an amazing journy which continues still.

My personal quest to find companies that did not abuse helpless Olsens became suddenly a quest to find products that would just not encourge the growth of cancer cells in my body! Yeah, that sounds real scary, I know… but the fact is that we as consumers aren’t always aware of what it is that we consume! Surely I can make my skin healthy and looking pretty and avoid generally stinking without totally harming my body?

The rational answer was “ofcourse I can!”. But where would I start? It was very time consuming because I could not find one location that would provide me with everything I had needed to know, such as were those products really natural? The truth is that to get to the products that really work while still being insanely natural I had to weed through quite a lot of products and ingredients, plus spend not an insignificant amount of money (I am still an unemployed student!), not to mention becoming a little (more?) paranoid. But why write about it? I really didn’t think I should, but thanks to a great friend I had realized that I might be able to help other people who, just like me, need more than just lists and random reviews (if any), but real experience and real opinions.
So after doing all this virtual leg work and trying a substantial amount of good and terrible products, I think I am ready to share my very personal prospective and resources.

So here is my disclaimer! I will start my reviews by saying that I am a 23 yearold vegetarian female student living outside the U.S., and in no way am I a scientific expert or being paid by some evil coorparation to speak ill about something or other while praising something else. I relay on the EWG reviews of the ingredients inside each product before I buy it (while using my own discration, as you will read on…) and my reviews are based on my skin, my body’s responses, my sweat, bad grammar at times and a very hot summery kind of weather. Take what you will out of my reviews, be a smart consumer and may we all live healthly well into our old old age. Feel free to write me anything and suggest any products you want me to try.

Thank you Kiki, and I hope to see all of you around!

Ciao,

Advina

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