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!