Wednesday, February 27, 2008

All Natural Product Reviews

I have been reading over some product reviews except I really don't find many reviews for natural products. So I think I am going to start doing some product reviews. I am going to make a star rating system for now.

1-* Would not use again probably will not finish what I purchased.

2-**Would not purchase again but might finish it just because its all natural and it is greener to finish it then toss it is the garbage. plus there is a little that I like about the product.
3-*** Might purchase again but the is a couple of things that bother me about the product. But it isn't that bad.
4-**** Would buy again but there is something I find a little off. Just something small that I can be picky about. Such as an ingredient or fragrance.
5-***** Great. I love it. It is one of the best products I have ever tried.

I will probably change these to be more veggie cute later but this is just the new quick work up of star ratings.

*****Kiss My Face obsessively natural Chinese Botanical Lotion $10.99 per16oz: I really love this lotion. Normally I purchase lotion and never use it. I am happy to say I have found a natural lotion that I love the smell of and can be proud to wear it because I know it has not been tested on animals and contains no animal ingredients. So it smells great, makes my skin feel smooth and awesome and I am proud to use it. It is a little high in price but for this product that gives me a piece of mind that ok with me. It does have a list of around 39 ingredients. Which is a little long but at least they are all natural and most are plant extracts. It is really nice to that most of the ingredients list has its origin list beside it. My skin is very dry this winter and it has really made my skin very smooth again which is of course great. The product is 100% biodegradable and the bottle is also recyclable as a plastic type 1.

**** (4 stars)Alba Terra Gloss Shimmering Natural Color 5.99 .42oz : This product is similar in flavor to the conventional lip gloss which I am really not a fan of. The color BLOOM which I picked out is really nice. It does moisturize my lips and sticks around for a little while. So if you don't mind re applying every so often it good. I don't mind. The color does stick around for a little while after the gloss goes away. I would say you would need to reapply (depending of what you are doing) around every 2 or 3 hours which isn't bad. This product does include beeswax. So it is not vegan. But I do feel alot better using it just because it is an all natural company. This product also contains tocopheryl acetate which protects from the suns UV Rays. But lists natural flavor which annoys me because you don't know exactly what is in it. The last thing is I'm not sure how I feel about the silica ( which most natural and conventional products include) because of health and mineral mining issues. ( If anyone has any info on that throw it my way please. Thanks

**
Burts Bees Lifeguard's Choice Lip Balm 2.99 .15oz: This product I really loved till I read the ingredients list. Which contains lanolin ( Secreted from the skin of wool animals). I don't use wool and I don't intend on buying this product in the future. Before I noticed the the Lanolin I really liked it. The one thing that was a little strange about it was that it kinda turns your lips a white cool. Which really didn't bother me. This product reminded me of the chap stick my parents used while I was growing up that came in a little round container that you dab your finger in and apply it to your lips. The BB Lip balm is in a tube made out of 50% post industrial recycled plastic which is very nice but it does not have a recyclable triangle. But it still gives you that tingle on your lips when you first put it on ( I liked that). This product is not tested on animals.


**** Alba Moisturizing Cream Shave Mango Vanilla 8fl oz: I love this product. It makes my legs silky smooth after shaving. It smells really great and the smell sticks around until the next day. It is a great moisturizer. I never have any nicks, cuts, or irritation. My legs used to itch a little after shaving and with this shave lotion they do not. The only questionable ingredient to me is Sodium Hydroxide (also known as lye) it is found in things like oven cleaner, cleaning detergents, & drain cleaners. The other products come from more natural sources most plant extracts. This product is 100% vegetarian & not tested on animals. It is also packaged in a recyclable container. (4 Stars)


Monday, February 18, 2008

6 years Together w/ a Pittsburg, Carnegie & Whole Foods trip

This picture is of Pittsburgh right as you exit the Pitt tunnel.

We have been planning on going to Pittsburgh since mid summer last year. This is really sad considering we only live about 2 and a half or 3 hours away. Any ways I wanted to go see the Bodies exhibit at Carnegie which was amazing. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I have to admit it was a strange feeling walking in to an exhibit that has real human bodies. But the learning experience was amazing. The one thing that I didn't really think would be in the exhibit was fetuses. When I discovered they were it was a really different feeling but I still decided to go through. It turned out to be the most interesting part to me. To see a fetus at the different stages of their development was sad because they were all gone but at the same time an experience that I can not put into words. There were fetuses that showed bone structure from I think 9 weeks to 17 weeks. In 2 week increments. You see pictures on tv and in text books of babies with webbed hands and toes but to see the smallest tiniest finger bones totally developed in the 9 week old fetus it was indescribable to me. There was also fetuses from week 1 and up ( I'm not sure how far) there was 6 I think. I have always known life was amazing but after seeing the different stages of fetal growth it is more amazing to me than ever. The whole exhibit was ... WOW. I might have to get "J" to go back again. To see and read all of the information all at once makes it hard to put it all together. I also went to The Strip for some produce shopping and for some spices. Then we went to the Whole foods store which I love. We don't have one here in WV so anytime we have the chance to go to one I stock up on everything I need. But I really didn't get much this time. I should have stocked up on a little more. We seemed to get stuff like lotion, lip gloss, Shave lotion, & soy protein powder instead of food. But were we live you really can't buy Kiss my face lotions & Alba products. There is actually no store that I know of around me that sales Alba at all. So... Anyways I love Whole foods I think I could live there. But we did get some food that is really yummy. We made it home about 10pm Sat night so that was really good. On Sunday we slept till 4:30pm. I can't believe that. Its crazy. It was a really good week end. On Saturday was also the marking of our 6 years together. So Happy Anniversary to us... :)
"J" was extra hungry that day and decided to eat the old stadium.. Lol
Additional info: Well I just realized that I didn't post on the food we had the day of our trip. oops.. So we didn't have time to go to any restaurants so we purchased food on the Whole Foods Hot Bar & Salad Bar. Most of it was really yummy. We had the Sweet & sour Tofu, Vegetable fried rice, Soba Noodles, & the soy popcorn chicken. We really enjoyed everything except for the Soba noodles which looked great but tasted nasty. The soy pop corn chicken was really good tasted really close to real chicken which made me go back and check to make sure it was soy. Scary sometimes how something are so close to tasting like meat. The texture is also pretty good. Some pieces have a fatty texture that is a little off. But that might be because it sat in my fridge for a couple days. The S&S Tofu & Veggie fried rice we mixed together and was really good. I have never really tried tofu except at the house. This tofu was really good and had a good texture. I really haven't liked tofu in the past but after getting used to the tofu idea the texture of this tofu was really good. But that all we really had that day.