Nellie's All Natural

You may have seen this lurking at Community Natural Foods, Sunterra, the farmer's market...I came across it at the Calgary Stampede and the laundry detergent was too much of a steal to not buy and try it out.

Being on a recent all-natural kick, the short ingredient list and environmentally friendly benefits really have me vouching for Nellie. It reminded me of Borax but the difference is, you only need a measly tablespoon per load and I feel more comfortable using it on delicate fabrics. The shorter and more understandable the ingredient list the safer in my opinion. No fragrances that give me headaches, no weird colored dyes, no irritated skin!

The real test was whether it would freshen my brother's clothes. It's a fact that boys stink. It's also a fact that my brother tends to leave his wet clothes that have been swishing around in commercial detergent, hard water, and his sweat in the washer for hours. We all know that musty wet towel smell. I've tried adding baking soda, washing with Borax, rinsing with white vinegar, all good methods but takes a lot more effort. Nellie's actually worked! One tablespoon, one wash. If Nellie's can get the smell out of all his laundry then it is the real deal! This is worth every stinking penny!

www.nelliesallnatural.com/

The Skinny on Oils

Have you ever wondered what you're putting on your skin or read the ingredients in the products you use?

Being a long time product junkie alongside being a trained professional in the spa industry I never really thought about how products might be affecting my skin, just that I loved trying new products and never hesitated to shell out more $$$ for something that would really work. People who've looked in my bathroom cabinets can attest!

During my trip to the Dominican the humidity made my skin the softest it's ever been. The heat made my face so sticky that a simple Dove bar soap I only used on my body before was the only thing that I felt got my face feeling clean enough. And the moisturizers I used made my skin feel stuffy so I stopped using it in the morning and only used a simple face cream at night. When I returned to Calgary I realized my skin had never been more clear and even toned since I was 12.

I concluded that the products I had been using made my skin so sensitive and reactive that in order to combat the symptoms, I would switch to a different product. The majority of products are manufactured by chemists using ingredients that are not found in nature. Imagine rubbing chemicals into your skin day by day that may have come from the same place we get our gasoline. To stop the cycle and minimize exposing myself to so many unknown ingredients, I decided to mimic the conditions my skin was exposed to in the Dominican. Minus the sun!

It all boils down to biology. Our skin is meant to secrete toxins and produces natural oils to keep it moist and functioning properly. Take away the oil by over-washing and pasting on oil-free creams and we are risking free radical damage, inability for it to purge dirt, causing dry cells which clog pores and trap dirt and oil. You guessed it, the perfect recipe for blemishes and premature aging! Stripping away the skin's natural oils will also cause it to overproduce to compensate. The skin does more than just secrete, it also does the opposite. Everything gets absorbed through the skin. Where are all those hard to read ingredients going?

Natural cold-pressed carrier oils are great at mimicking the natural oils of your skin. It's easily absorbed and only contains one ingredient, pure and simple! So I've managed to find several uses for these oils. I use coconut oil as an all-over body moisturizer. Jojoba and sweet almond oil is great as a makeup remover and nighttime moisturizer even gentle enough to use around the eye contour. Avocado oil is great as a conditioning treatment for your hair before shampooing and so is sweet almond, olive, and jojoba oil. I confess to putting these oils in my hair before a hot yoga class. Don't laugh I was multi-tasking and it worked amazingly! ;)

It can take some getting used to, putting oils on your skin, especially your face but in my experience the oils do wonders and the money I'm saving is the icing on the cake!

Milky Way

I've been drinking milk alternatives for quite some time. Not due to lactose intolerance or a milk allergy. My love for soy milk started from childhood, drinking the Vita brand that incorporated a bit of very tasty coconut milk. That soy drink is sweetened but I became accustomed to plain soy milk all the same. When I have drinks at Starbucks, very rarely do I not order with soy. In my opinion they just don't taste as good when it's just regular milk! I'll go through the types that I've tried.

Soy Milk

Pressed from these little beans you can reap the benefits of protein without the cholesterol and fat in cow's milk. It's a legume which you can feel good about drinking because it's healthy and packed with vitamin E. It has a slightly nutty taste, which I really like and also comes in various flavors. When purchasing soy milk watch out for added sweeteners. Many brands have added sugar and you could unknowingly be consuming unnecessary amounts. Because the calcium in soybeans are not actually digestible by humans, calcium additives are usually included in the carton. You can even try making it yourself - my dad has cooked up batches of soy milk from beans right on the stove numerous times.

Almond Milk

Almond milk is very finely ground almonds mixed with water. I haven't tried to make it at home because almonds are insanely expensive and a one litre carton of almond milk at Superstore is only $2. This is my personal favorite because it contains half the calories per serving than skim milk, soy milk, or rice milk. It also tastes like skim milk and substitutes in recipes exactly like cow's milk! Like soy milk, some brands have added sweeteners. It's very high in protein, very low in fat, and is tolerated well by people sensitive to soy.

Rice Milk

It's basically the water left from boiling a lot of rice. As you can guess, this milk contains a lot more carbohydrates than the others because of the high content in the grains. You can also guess that it tastes like the water that rice is cooked in. In other words, it's not that tasty. You're better off drinking what you can strain from congee. I think rice producers got a little too adventurous with this one. You can tell this is not my favorite. Although I do like a good rice cordial!

So if you're thinking of replacing regular cow's milk for health reasons or if you are switching to being vegan there are alternatives. It's great to change up your drinks with something different from time to time and these alternatives have a longer shelf life! You don't have to refrigerate until it's been opened so you can always have milk on standby.

Meditation and Awareness

Meditation can mean many things to different people. To me, it's a state of awareness attained by completely being unaware of your current state. Confusing, I know! How do you think about nothing when you're trying to make yourself think of nothing?

I've been practicing yoga for about three years, on and off. My experiences with meditation started in the yoga studio during the first Savasana of each practice. At first my time spent meditating turned into falling asleep and either jolting awake or scaring myself awake when I started snoring.To prevent myself from falling asleep I began to mindfully concentrate on my breaths. This kept me awake but also led to thinking about what I was going to eat after or what plans I had for the week.

Practice after practice was spent like this during meditation, I didn't know what it was supposed to be or if I would ever get anything from it. Eventually I would start lucid dreaming, being completely aware that I was awake but still dreaming. These dreams were silent. Most of the time they were irrelevant to my current situations, sometimes I think they were indications of what I needed or what I desired most. Sometimes it was people, other times just objects floating in black space.

One practice I decided to focus on my third eye with my eyes closed. I remembered just focusing, then my mind going blank, no emotions, no feeling, complete silence. The next thing I could remember was seeing subtle waves of purple moving across my mind like billows of smoke wafting from a cigarette or a long, slow-moving flame. I remembered thinking it was the most spectacular thing I have ever seen with my eyes closed in an awakened state. I watched it for as long as I could but the more I thought about it, the more excited I got and the faster I came out of meditation. The color quickly disappeared. The next time it appeared was about a week later, when I was awaking from a sleep on a Saturday morning - the time when our minds are at a standstill, in between knowing we are awake and not knowing anything at all. After searching the internet I discovered that seeing purple during meditation is quite common and is believed to signify opening of the mind. Very cool! :)

What happens when we meditate, we can't tell for sure. There are no tangible results to measure what has changed. I believe that it trains the mind to not focus on one thing and to let go. What we experience and how we react comes from inside after all. Seeing things with a clearer mind releases the weight and moves us forward. Being aware that outside forces can only harm us as much as we will allow them to. Things continue to eat at us for as long as we want them to. Only when we are consciously aware can we consciously make a change. Your soul will tell you. It's easy to be content and happy when you forget about everything else and realize life is ultimately about you but the events that happen in life are not always about you. Forget and let go but be aware. :)

My 10 Favorite Asanas

In no particular order, here are my favorite yoga poses and their benefits. Most of these pictures capture the poses in their full form but there are always variations.

Bound Warrior - Builds strength, improves limberness in the spine, and is a great stretch for the whole upper body.

Tree - Works on balance, concentration, and strengthens feet Remember to do the same to each side with all poses for full benefits.

Cow Face - Supposedly it's supposed to represent a cow with one ear up, one down, and the legs are the lips. Personally I think that describes a donkey. This is a deep stretch that strengthens the spine and with regular practice, helps to relieve hip and knee pain.

Eagle - Also a strengthening and balancing pose, this decompresses the spine, knees, hips, ribs and shoulders.

Half Moon - Strengthens and improves balance, this aids digestion and lifts the mood.

Half Pigeon - Personally this makes me want to swear because it's a very intense way to open the hips and mine are apparently fairly tight. The more challenging, the more you need it. We hold stress, tension, and anxiety here so it can release a fair amount of emotions and feel very frustrating. This pose stimulates organs, decompresses the spine and improves alignment.

One Legged Down Dog - Yes, it looks like a peeing dog. This builds upper body strength, relieves stress, improves digestion, and alleviates cramps.

Plow - Good for headaches, insomnia, thyroid, and abdominal organs. This will also give a good stretch to the back and shoulders, especially if you spend your day hunched over a computer.

Revolved Head to Knee - This is pretty much good for everything. Your muscles, back pain, organs, you name it, this is good for you.

Extended Triangle - Relieves backache, improves flat feet, and relieves stress.

Namaste!

Luscious Lashes

Long, thick lashes are what every girl wants. They frame your eyes and define their shape. Unfortunately, not all of us are blessed with a perfect set of dark, thick curly lashes. Genetics, age, chemo, whatever the cause, some of us just don't have it. Here are the alternatives:

False Lashes

Ever look at mascara commercials and ads and think that if you buy it you will have those lashes? It's not going to happen unless you put on some false lashes first.

They are very affordable, ranging from $5-20 in stores depending on how fancy you want to get. You can even try Ebay to order multiples from Asia where girls sport false lashes daily. They come in full strips or individuals (which are more like clusters). The strips are easier and faster. The individuals give a more natural look or accents certain spots. These lashes can be reused, just remove glue remnants and store carefully. To clean them, very gently dab a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol and lightly sweep over the hairs.

TIP: To avoid looking like you have two rows of hairs growing out of your eyelids, lightly curl your natural lashes first, just from halfway on the hair shaft to the tip. Don't over-curl. The curl in your natural lashes will match the curl in the false ones. Apply the lashes as close to the roots as possible without losing contact with the skin. Very carefully use the flat end of a toothpick to gently dab a little glue to the outer edges of the lash strip as reinforcement. If it looks like a mess, don't worry, the glue dries clear. Lightly sweep one coat of mascara over the entire set to bind your natural lashes to the false ones. Use a liquid liner to finish to blending.

Lash Extensions

Done in the beauty salon, these are more expensive, up to $160 for a new set and maintenance visits anywhere between $25-50. However the benefits are clear: they look real and are fuss free. The esthetician applies each hair one by one and last anywhere from 3 to 4 weeks, shedding with the natural lash or from wear and tear. These cannot be worn with mascara if you want them to last. Oils will separate the lashes from the glue and too much steam will do the same.

Lash Serums

What's the hype around these? They promise fuller, longer lashes and the best part is, they are REAL. They start from a $10 lash conditioning treatment to a $170 serum that was formulated by physicians. Lucky you, I bought into some of these claims and tried a couple myself so you don't have to!

Rapidlash is a $60 tube with very meagre contents. A thin, nightly application is all that's needed and is supposed to last up to 6 weeks. It was created after an ointment for glaucoma patients resulted in thicker, darker, and longer lashes as a side-effect. After 3 weeks, I definitely saw a change. After four weeks people were asking if my lashes were real. That's how long they were! Because of the price tag, I sought an alternative after the tube ran out.

Avance is a Korean lash serum that I ordered from Ebay after doing some research. $8 a tube plus shipping was a steal, not to mention how much more of the product I was getting. I applied this liberally, nightly. My lashes turned out thicker and I guess fairly long but not as long as with Rapidlash. I liked that this was less pricey and the results were comparable.

There are many serums in the drugstore, none of them I've tried but my theory is that if you condition your lashes by keeping them nourished they will take longer to shed, thus each lash is retained longer. I can attest that once I stopped using these serums my lashes shed normally and they didn't reach the same lengths as before. Or I could just be getting old. :(. Applying lash serum has worked it's way into my daily routine now and I won't be stopping anytime soon. :)

Origins

Not to blatantly promote but...this is really good stuff.

I've been using Origins for about 7 weeks now. Typically, when starting a new skin care regimen it can take up to 6 weeks for your skin to adjust to the full benefits. Common misconceptions people have when trying something new is that if it doesn't work right away or if they find conditions get worse, the product will not work. In many cases the skin is adjusting or may be purging which is why breakouts are common when switching to something new. Be patient!

Although it's all very scientific I am going to contradict that lesson. I am not patient when it comes to my skin. If reactions don't subside in 10 days, it's gone! Having more than my fair share of skin ailments in my lifetime I've tried dozens of products. DOZENS. What makes me move on to the next is that after the honeymoon period if you will, the skin gets too comfortable with the product and it begins to get problematic again. This usually happens after 4 months. Another major factor to skin changes is the four seasons. Winter and summer months are particularly unfriendly to it so it's important to change up the products.

My choice to go with Origins started after I got tired of trying products that clean well but leave my skin irritated or end up clogging my pores. The main culprits: synthetic ingredients, preservatives, artificial fragrances and fillers. The only way to avoid any of these are to go organic and all natural. In came Origins. After reading thousands of reviews I tossed my regular products and bought the three most important products in a skincare regimen. Cleanser, toner and moisturizer. Four weeks later I now have a night cream, two masks, eye cream, body wash, body cream and a mattifying lotion. So far no reactions! I highly recommend. Worth every dollar!

http://www.origins.com/index.tmpl