Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps

Today I want to talk about the Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps: All-One Hemp Pure Castile Soap (bar soap) and 18-in-1 Hemp Pure Castile Soap (liquid soap)!

I love Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps.  I love that I can read all the ingredients, they smell good and the ingredients are minimal.  I have been hooked on both the Magic All-One Soap (citrus orange scent) and the 18-in1 Pure Castile Soap (almond scent) for the past year.  Both create a great lather and you feel really clean after using them. I can’t shake bar soaps, because I’ve been using bar soaps for too many years, so I use both the bar soap and castile soaps in the shower.  The liquid soap is also great for travel—I purchased a small travel sized Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap bottle and refill it with my large Costco-sized bottle.  I purchased both on Amazon to try to get the best deal, but there may be other smaller online stores who give out discount codes with a better price. Replacing your soap with these is one easy way to take out the extra chemicals you would typically get from normal bar soaps.

Pros:

-Nice lather

-Smells good

-No nasty chemicals

Cons:

-Bar soaps are pricier than chemical counterparts

-$4.49 for the bar soap

-Starts at $4.25 for the 4oz. size

EWG Skindeep scores: 1 (both received a score of 1)

Click here to read the EWG Skin Deep report on the liquid soap and here to read the report on the bar soap.

The GREEN Re-boot and Natural Chapstick!

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since I've posted, but I am coming back and re-booting my blog as a GREENER beauty blog (*insert applause sound effect*)!

Over the past two years, I have been trying tons of more "natural" products in an attempt to have cleaner makeup and skin care.  With all the research I've been doing on EWG.org, you realize how many chemicals there are in all the everyday products we use.  In the process of trying to go greener with my beauty products, I've tried things I love, and products I wanted to love (but didn't), which will all be blogged about soon!  

Don't get me wrong, I'm not 100% green--there are a few things in my make-up arsenal I can't manage to give up just yet, but I'm trying to limit my beauty vices.  Until I can find a good, more natural alternative that gives me similar results to the more chemical-y, mainstream counterparts, I'll keep them in my regiment.  You still have to live, right? :)  I'll be posting weekly--stay tuned for greener (and my not-as-green) beauty reviews!

Here is my first GREENER post for 2014:

My natural lip balm remedy:

Dr. Bronner's Magic Organic Lip Balm!! 

I was lucky enough to purchase this on a whim at Target and am I glad I did!  My eyes were drawn to the word "organic" and who am I kidding, more often than not, I will buy any lip product if it feels right (which is way to often).  Most of the time, I'll try a new lip balm, use it a few times, find it doesn't hydrate my dry lips enough, and that's the end of it.  I have a graveyard of barely used lip balms (I know, not so green of me, tsk tsk).  This one was different--from the first time I used this Magic Organic Lip Balm, my lips felt very hydrated and my lips sighed in relief!  I felt this way not just with the first use, but every time thereafter--hence, it's been my lip balm of choice for the past 1.5 years--MAGIC!  I normally can't stay faithful to a lip balm for more than a month or two because it seems that lip balms just stop working for me, but Dr. Bronner's and I are going strong!  I've gone through 4 tubes of this stuff--I've tried the Lemon Lime, Naked and the Orange Ginger.  Lemon Lime and Naked are fabulous--Naked just smells like nothing (if you ever wondered what nothing smells like, purchase one of these).  Orange Ginger on the other hand--not so much--the ginger smell was too overpowering and I couldn't handle it.  I personally don't like to eat ginger, so the thought of having to smell it all day made me feel a bit queasy.  But if you're a ginger fan, you may LOVE it, and in that case, please purchase!  

The only downside to this lip balm is that it doesn't contain any SPF, so you may want to look into something else for when you're out in the sun.  Otherwise, it has managed to sneak it's way into my "staples" list--which is tough, considering how annoyingly dry my lips are!

Pros:
-works on very dry lips
-inexpensive (I buy mine online or at Whole Foods)
-contains less than 10 ingredients
-I can pronounce every ingredient on the label

Cons:
-none so far

Information from EWG/Skin-deep:
Hazard Score: 1; Data Available: Limited

http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/product/176372/Dr._Bronner%27s_Magic_Organic_Naked_Lip_Balm_%282008_formulation%29/

Buying this lip balm has opened the floodgates for me and the Dr. Bronner's line.  I'll be posting soon about the other products I use from his line and what my thoughts are on those too!