An Adventure in the Bathroom: Part I

Get your minds out of the gutter ladies!
If your a typical woman, like me; your bathroom is probably filled w/ varying brands of shampoos and conditioners, lotions, face masks, cleansers, exfoliators, detoxers, scrubs, moisturizers, and different deoderant scents...I think you get the point! All of these products you probably rotate through, finding that as soon as you find a product that actually WORKS it starts doing the opposite a month later, and you find yourself staring at dead ends and an overused flat-iron. Or; tired dry skin, wondering WHEN your going to give it a break and let it breath.
I used to have a bathroom filled w/ "Wonder Products". Things like Clearisil Icy foaming cleanser, Got2b In Your Face masks and scrubs, Oil of Olay moisturizers and make-up removers, Pantene Pro-V, etc. There's always the "Exfoliating" body washes like Tone, and Caress.
I'm here to tell you that these amazing wonder cures that stop working, or cause an increase of your problem, are actually the root of all evil, BUT not your last source of salvation. In the following series of blogs, I'm going to teach you how to eliminate the majority of your bathroom space stealing products; so get ready to clean your shelves!

About a year ago, I started to go "Au Natural"(No not giving up on shaving my legs and washing my hair EW!) I slowly threw away all my bathroom products, until I was left w/ an almost barren shelf(I had more bathroom products then my whole family combined) I replaced all of my products w/ natural home remedies and natural products.

Now why are the Pharmacy brands of body care products so bad for you?

Moisturizers:
Most of the moisturizers on the market, contain Mineral Oil.
Mineral oil:(a petroleum product) is basically an illusory quick fix for dry skin, but over time your skin can no longer produce its natural oil, and relies on the mineral oil. After awhile your skin becomes immune to the oil and dries out. So; you end up buying WAY more lotion, and switching brands to fight off this over-dried skin problem.

The other main ingredient of lotion, is Alchohol; no matter what name they put in front of it, its still a petroleum product. They add this nifty little ingredient to DRY OUT the skin, so that you don't break out from all the skin irritating chemicals they add.
(If your really curious about all those big words on the back of your products, you can always get this book from your local library: A consumers dictionary of cosmetic ingredients By Ruth Winter)

The solution: Try Organic Jojoba oil, $7-9 dollars a bottle; it mimics the skin's natural oil, great for acne prone skin! It soaks in quickly w/out that icky oily feeling, and you only need a few drops. One bottle lasts months, and it doesn't go rancid! Jojoba oil is also a carrier oil, so you can even buy a little bottle of your favorite essential oil for about $3 bucks at Whole Foods, and add about 5 drops to your bottle of jojoba oil, and have a scented moisturizer.
Where can you buy it? Whole foods, Trader Joes, or the Natural section of your regular grocery store. Don't be discouraged by the price, your skin will love you!

You can also try Raw Cold Pressed coconut oil, about $12 bucks a jar at Whole Foods, or online. It will get rid of stretch marks, smells awesome, GREAT for tanning; it is practically indestructible to heat, so its an awesome skin protector.

Next time I'll give you some great tips on exfoliators and scrubs!