bluejeans07 | Entries tagged with hippie jean

I'll do a product review first and then we can talk about the dilemma. XD

By now I've pretty much settled into what products I use and what I look to avoid. That said, there are the few occasions when I'm like, "Crap, I need this" or something; mostly products I'd like to use while I travel. I just got back from Chicago and I try to limit the amount of liquids as much as possible when I fly because I don't often check bags, and at the same time, try to find products I can use in different ways. Lotion, whether it be body, face, or hand, becomes just lotion.
( Product Reviews )

Okay... now onto the dilemma. I've been given some products by some family friends on my parents' recent trip to Korea:

The peach shaped container holds a lip balm from Tony Moly and the two bottles are Skin Food's Fresh Apple toner and emulsion. Now the lip balm... I couldn't help myself, the container was just so cute that I ripped it open and tried it... and the lip balm itself tastes like peach Hi-Chew candies... T_T

However, I haven't ripped open Skin Food's products yet, and according to Wikipedia, "The appealing factor of Skin Food is the use of natural food and produce in its original form as ingredients in their products. In addition, the use of natural ingredients also plays a significant role in their success today." Which is nice but I can't read their ingredients list to see what preservatives they use... and I can read in Korean but I don't the names of the chemicals I'm trying to avoid in Korean. My mother read it over for me but couldn't help me either.

So... what do I do with these?! I've been curious about Skin Food's products but after working so hard to get rid of chemicals, to have these bits of adorable temptation fall back into my lap is maddening! I also don't want to seem ungrateful to the people who gave this stuff to me because they don't know what I'm trying to do and my parents have no idea how to explain their strange hippie daughter to family friends... but they're in Korea and don't read my lj anyway. So yeah. If anyone wants them, let me know... I'm scared of mailing these though because they're made of glass. D:

So much for 'no more regular hippie Jean posts'. This week is supposed to be another use up products week so I after I took a shower, I put on the Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream.

SO MUCH BURNING. It's a good thing no one else was home because there was a lot of screaming and a lot of, "OW!! OW OW OW!! BLOODY FUCK OW FUCK FUCK THAT FUCKING HURTS! OW!"

I have only used this stuff a handful of times but I was NOT expecting to get the reaction I did. It did calm down and my face does feel nice and smooth, but WTF?! It really hurt! The pain lasted probably at most half a minute but I have no idea WHY. Geez. Now I'm scared to touch the product again. Maybe I won't.

In other news, I went to Sprouts yesterday and today and bought a crystal deoderant stick, some Humphreys witch hazel (PACKAGING IS SO PRETTY), and some aloe vera gel. I didn't mean to go to Sprouts twice in one week but when I went looking for some aloe vera gel at Ralph's and Target, I was surprised to see HOW GREEN THEY WERE. Why put dyes into aloe vera gel?! Anyway, the reason I wanted to get some was to make this eye gel:

Cucumber Eye Gel

Ingredients:
1 Tbs. aloe vera gel
1 tsp. fresh cucumber juice
¼ tsp. cornstarch
1 Tbs. witch hazel

Directions:
Mix together aloe, cucumber and cornstarch. Heat until just boiling, about 1 minute in microwave. Remove from heat source and stir in witch hazel. Stir well and allow the mixture to cool completely. You should have a clear, jelly-like cream. Spoon into a small clean jar. To use: Dab a small amount under your eyes and be careful not to rub or pull the delicate skin under your eyes. Keep in cool place. Makes 1 oz. courtesy of http://www.spaindex.com/

Really excited to try this! :D

The one to the right with the black and white cat is the same potion of jojoba oil, witch hazel and frankincense, while the on one the left has all of them and some cacao butter in it. The cacao butter does make the potion solidify but it also melts really easily, I take it into the shower with me and then apply it after my shower on my face and neck. It's REALLY moisturizing which is good because the skin on my face just eats up moisture after a shower. Also, the cacao butter is working at fading my stretch marks! I'm so glad, I've had them since puberty so it's a relief to see them disappearing.

The main difference between using this stuff and commercial lotion is that lotion does absorb a lot quicker. Plain jojoba oil takes time to absorb into the skin, although jojoba mixed with witch hazel absorbs pretty quickly too.

Yesterday, I ended up wearing make up to go to a party. Using jojoba oil as a make up remover is SO SO NIIIIICE! Much better than a traditional make up remover, it's so moisturizing and it did a really great job getting all of the eye make up off of my face. I also used witch hazel for the rest of my face, then used the Trader Joes cleanser just to make sure. I really like the Trader Joes cleanser, my face always feels nice and clean after using it, it's really refreshing. For some strange reason, I loooove washing the make up off of my face, it just feels so niiiice afterwards. XD

I'm looking into getting some eyeshadow primer, I've been avoiding it but then I found out that because of my monolids, my eye make up always ends up smearing. Apparently eyeshadow primer can help with that so I've been looking into some options, the most popular eyeshadow primer seems to be from Urban Decay, I'm looking at their Eden primer which is on sale, but it's an XL size! Do I really NEED that much?! I mean, I would probably use it every time I put on eye make up, but I can't imagine being able to go through it considering I only wear make up for special occasions. But I like the sound of this one because it doesn't have parabens in it, and apparently if I buy some $12 lip gloss (also with out parabens), it'll ship free? I don't really need more lip gloss though (I have too many in various stages of use)...

Another option is NYX eye shadow base, a friend told me that this one works better than the Urban Decay and it's cheaper too. It does have parabens in it, but I like NYX make up and have been using it for their stuff for awhile. Their make up is cruelty free, and it's featured on RuPaul's Drag Race! XD Meh, I'll think about it some more.

I think this will be the end of weekly updates from Hippie Jean for awhile, I've settled with the skin care products I'm using so I'm going to start looking for hair care products next. I do need to find something else for body wash, I'm currently using Bath and Body Works which I've been using for years but I think I'd like a change. I'm curious about some of the hair and body stuff that Mountain Rose Herbs makes so I'll probably order some from there and try it out once everything I'm using runs out. :)

Blooper pic! Atom tries to... 'help'.

Reaching the end of a 'use up products' week and I thought some pictures would be good to show what I'm currently using.
( Ramble ramble blah blah )

I tried using the jojoba oil as the only moisturizer that I used this week and I have to say that I'm veeery pleased with it. The weather's been fairly dry here lately and my skin (especially on my legs) tends to get dry and itchy. Usually I have to apply lotion on my legs at least twice a day, but with the jojoba oil, I just apply it once and I'm set for the whole day! Very nice. However, I did notice that the jojoba oil on my body absorbed a lot quicker than it did when I applied it on my face and I'd have to suffer with having an oily face for an hour or so. I wouldn't mind it too much except it got on my glasses a lot and they had to be washed a few times.

I'm currently thinking that I'll get a small bottle and mix the jojoba oil with the witch hazel and see if that helps. I also received the my frankincense order so I'm wondering what would happen if I mix a couple drops of that as well. And I've been reading about shea butter lately (mostly for getting rid of some embarrassing stretch marks), but now I'm debating about just mixing it all together and seeing it forms some sort of super lotion that'll be anti-aging, moisturizing, organic and cruelty free. But that may be getting ahead of myself, I probably should just start small. xD

Anyway, I have a week to think about it since it's 'use up the commercial stuff' week. Luckily I don't have too much left, the only thing I have a lot of is the Kiehl's face cream and I've also started using it on my feet as well as my face, which horrified my aunt. xD

Lately, I've been reading about chemical preservatives in lotions, shampoos, conditioners, and other products, and everything I read either pisses me off or depresses me. It's like play Russian roulette with chemicals that can cause cancers, Alzheimer's, or just irritates my skin. That's the side that depresses me, what pisses me off is that in the end, these companies probably don't give that much of a shit of how these chemicals are affecting the bodies of their customers as long as we keep giving them money. Everything gives us cancer these days after all, how can they tell if their products are the ones directly related? Maybe they are, maybe they're not, there's no way of being able to prove it, but these are the products that I have been directly rubbing into my body for years and if I'm ever going to reach my goal of becoming a neon jogging suited granny that can dance to Soulja Boy in my 60's, then I better do something about it.

Long term, my goal is to find products ranging from skin care, hair care, and cosmetics that won't have harmful chemicals, is cruelty free, and is preferably small business. That's a tall order these days so that's my long term goal. For now, I'm just going to look to replacing my lotions and moisturizers with something more natural and excludes preservative chemicals such as parabens and sodium laurel sulfate. I want to cut down on products that have these chemicals because while all commercial chemicals do have low, FDA approved levels of preservative chemicals, these chemicals DO build up in your body from all the different products that people, especially women, use. The only things I use daily are my cleanser and lotions so if I can cut out the chemicals in those, then I've already cut out a lot chemicals for me. Also, I'm lucky to have fairly good skin so really the only things I'm looking for something that is anti-aging and moisturizing.

Luckily, Trader Joe's cleanser doesn't include these chemicals but they do have it in their lotion so that's now out, but I think I may have a potential solution. I've been reading about cleansing and moisturizing with cold pressed oils, first from great time wasting blog Honey Rock Dawn" and then from other places on the internets. I've already been using witch hazel as a make up remover and for cleaning the skin whenever I get the occasional pimple or blemish and it's been working great. I'm going to try out using jojoba oil as my main moisturizer and body lotion, and add a drop of frankincense essential oil in the bottle for my face for anti-aging. I still have some lotion from Bath and Body works left and most of a jar of Kiehl's ultra facial cream that I got from my aunt for X-mas so I'll be using those up along with the jojoba and frankincense, but once those are gone, it'll be all natural all the way baby!

I'll be sure to keep writing about what I find as I experiment. My plan so far is to rotate the products so that I'm using the chemical products every other week. I'm also going to exclude make up for now since I don't wear it that often but I am going to look for other hair care alternatives (Trader Joe's nourish spa products carry parabens). But like I said, my skin isn't bad at all, it just gets dry once in awhile (like now with the dry CA winter), I don't expect these products to change my life or make me look like a shining beauty or anything. I just want something with less harmful chemicals that'll do what I've come to expect the lotions and things I've been using to do.