Play in the Mud: Pure Earth Hair Wash product review

One of my friends likes to try different hair products.  She often gives me the products that don't work out for her.  A few weeks ago I opened a bag from her and found a bottle of mud.  No.  But really.

As I am about trying new things, I was fairly skeptical, but decided to try and keep an open mind.  I mean, I didn't believe in co-washing a couple of years ago, but here I am a faithful co-washer.

So anyway, I tried the Terressentials Organic Pure Earth Hair Wash in the Cool Mint "flavor." (Yes, they are called flavors, not scents.)  This particular flavor REALLY defined my curls and helped me to rock a nice 'fro this week!  The only thing I did not like was that mud got over EVERYTHING!  Mud was dried up on my bathroom mirror, sink, and MY SHIRT!  Hopefully it will wash out easily from my shirt.  I plan to use it again...this time wearing an old shirt ;-)

Natural Living

The longer I wear my hair natural, the more I desire to develop a natural lifestyle.  By this, I mean that being natural is much more than about twisting my hair, following Curly Nikki, and attending natural hair meetings.  It is about making healthy choices for my body that ultimately lead to healthy hair.

Last year, I went to a Naturally Flyy meetup and had a chance to hear Ms. Gwen Jimmere of Naturalicious.net speak about paying attention to the labels of the products we use.  Many items have parabens, which are carcinogenic.

I thought I was all good because the hair products I use, Shea Moisture, are paraben-free.  However, once home, I started reading the labels of my lotion and makeup and realized that they were not.  So in one swift heap, I rid myself of ALL of my precious makeup and lotions.

It was easy to find lotion.  Shea Moisture has many lotions and creams, and I also relied on tubs of shea butter.  The harder part was finding makeup.  Below is the what I found out on my journey.

Burt's Bees Super Glossy Lip Shine -- 2 out of 5 stars
While this product gave me the shine I needed, it didn't really moisturize.  It felt like vaseline or chicken grease on my lips.

Korres Lip Butter and Lip Butter Glaze -- 5 out of 5 stars
I found these products at Sephora and LOVE them!  They are made out of shea butter and rice wax.  My lips feel SO GOOD and soft after application.  And, it looks like "real" makeup!

Gabriel Color Eyeshadow -- 4 out of 5 stars
I purchased this from Whole Foods in the color Navy because they do not make Black.  I actually use a tiny brush and apply it as an eyeliner because it was hard for me to find an actual eyeliner that worked for me.  I like it a lot, just wish it was a little bit darker.

Crown's Royalties. -- 5+ out of 5 stars
Ok y'all, I saved the best for last.  Last year, I had a student in one of my classes whose mom I would run into at natural hair meetings.  It wasn't until halfway through the year that I connected that this lady selling makeup and jewelry at the hair meetings was the mother of my student.  Anyway, all of Ms. Crown's products are handmade and made with LOVE, do you hear me?!?!?  She sells out of her home, vends at different events, and has a website, crownsroyalties.weebly.com  I purchased three eyeshadows from her and have thoroughly enjoyed them.  They last long and look GOOD!

 Getting ready to head out for the first time with my paraben-free makeup!

Um, Yeah...We're Done!

So, this year marked my 10-year anniversary of my on-again, off-again, quite complicated relationship with Proactiv.  We are getting a divorce.

I can't even get all of this crap to fit in my trash can!

As a high schooler, my acne seemed to go from bad to worse.  My mom would try to "help" me, but I wanted to be left alone.  I kept hoping that if I didn't talk about it, it would just go away.  Well, that didn't happen. And by the time I was a senior, she went on a limb & ordered Proactiv.

It worked pretty well.  Except for the side effects.  The solution has a bleaching agent, so many of my clothes, sheets, pillowcases, etc. are/were discolored because of it.  Also, the mask uses sulfur, so I was walking around smelling like rotten eggs.  Yeah.  Not the business.

Over the years, I have realized that what it truly comes down to is that I have extremely sensitive skin, especially on my face.  I can't use scented anything (lotion, detergent, soaps, etc.); I have to keep things that touch my face (ie. the phone) really clean, & I can't have things (or ppl ;-) ) touching my face for long periods of time.  Otherwise, I WILL break out.

I've mentioned it before, but I've been on a quest to use beauty products that do not have synthetic ingredients.  Which is why I was OVERJOYED to find that SheaMoisture has an acne treatment kit!  It's at Target.

It costs more than the regular SheaMoisture products...about $16, but it's well worth the purchase!  I have really smooth, clear skin & I LOVE that it uses natural ingredients.

I also think that drinking a TON more water, keeping my hands off my face, & changing my communication methods have helped a whole lot.  I changed my cell phone plan so that I finally have unlimited texting...so I do that a lot more instead of calling.  Also, if I know I'm going to be on the phone for a long time, I have been using Google Talk on my computer, so that I don't have to hold anything to my face.

Finally, the skin I always wanted! :-D

Product Review: SheaMoisture

Soooo...I'm thinking about renaming my blog "Natural Hair Tips from My Cousin."

My cousin kept raving about SheaMoisture products for months.  She was even leaving cryptic voice messages on my cellular phone about it.  "Oh my hair is so soft now that I'm using SheaMoisture, blah, blah..."

I for one, am a creature of habit and slow to change.  I've been natural for 5 years and kind of had my products & regimen in-tact.  I had a styling product (that I think I may have mentioned in an earlier post) that I'd been using and loving for years and wasn't really looking for anything new.  On top of that, I'm quite frugal...my personal motto for most things in life is "5 dollars or less."  So, when I went to Walgreens to take a look at the SheaMoisture products, I was not thrilled about the price ($9.99 for everything that I saw).  I reluctantly purchased the Organic Coconut & Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie...mainly because I thought it smelled good.

Let me tell you, that purchase was WELL WORTH the $10 spent!  I have done away with my old styling product and am now hooked on the Organic Coconut & Hibiscus Curl Enhancing Smoothie for several reasons:

1. It smells SO GOOD!  Seriously, it smells like something you want to eat...even days after being applied.
2. It is organic & doesn't have weird, man-made ingredients.  When I look at the label, I can pretty much pronounce all of the ingredients & identify what they are.  I can't remember if I've talked about this before, but a lot of my family has had cancer (either survived it or died from it), so I'm very cautious about chemicals, ingredients, radiation, etc.
3. My hair has been SO SOFT and SO SILKY because of it!  I think part of the manageable texture might be because I have been cowashing, but I think the SheaMoisture product has something to do with it too.
4. The product is not at all sticky, but rather naturally oily.  My old styling creme always left my hands and hair feeling so sticky, that I was self-conscious about anyone touching it because of the sticky residue.  This product is not sticky at all and when I touch my twists, my hands still feel clean.

All in all, another great recommendation from my cousin!  Now, she's leaving msgs on my phone about a black tea rinse...yeah, I'm still skeptical about that one... ;-)