Cosmetics

A good rule of thumb for women struggling with infertility is to behave pre-conception as you would in the early stages of pregnancy. That means a lot of people abstain from alcohol, caffeine, and certain foods when undergoing fertility treatments. When it comes to your hair, though, opting to let your grays or roots show is to some akin to leaving the house in your underwear. I had the worst of both problems - gray roots - and was appalled when I heard that coloring my hair was something else that I needed to give up when trying to conceive. Along with my questions of whether a glass of wine was ok when we were taking… [more]

The slogan for JUICE Beauty is Buy it because it's ORGANIC...Use it because it WORKS. Hey, truth in advertising, for a change. I think this is truly a good product, and not one of those where they sneak in all sorts of chemicals and add one botanical ingredient and call it "organic." I just tried their Blemish Clearing Serum for (surprise, surprise) oily/combination/problem skin. I also get a zit or two a month (actually, now that my hormones have been nicely balanced and I zap stress with yoga, it's a much rarer event, and only one or two little pimples), the perfect things with which to test this product. A quick glance at the box shows that it's made with… [more]

When I first look at this little vial of, basically, purple glitter, I was a bit taken aback. Half the fun of buying makeup (if my memory serves me correctly) was getting it in a fun little cake, plus a cool compact contained thing that fit in your hand, and an applicator that looked like a teeny weeny paintbrush, enough to bring out one's inner Picasso. Of course, go into your local drugstore and take a peek at the 1000000000 ingredients that you can't pronounce plus that many of the colors that are used are made from coal tar...and even thr stuff that doesn't have coal tar has all those chemical colors, D&C Red 33, FD&C Yellow, which have already been shown to… [more]

image courtesy of the Breast Cancer Fund I read a really sad breaking story this morning about the death of Dana Reeve, Christopher Reeve's wife, from lung cancer. Besides all the tragedies she had in her life, she also didn't smoke! She was only forty-four, only a few years older than I. That hit home. Our family has been "involved" with cancer on quite a few occasions, unfortunately. It's odd that in Korea, with my older relatives having to overcome amazing hardship with the wars, poverty, etc., cancer was pretty unheard of in our clan. A few female relatives had osteoporosis, something you get from a starvation diet that your body never quite recovers from, but… [more]

Did you know that This report states that only 11% of the 10,500 (often industrial) ingredients in cosmetics have been evaluated for safety. Health conscious teens toss makeup

I currently don't wear makeup because

1. I'm lazy
2. It's expensive
3. I think my face actually looks kind of ok the way it is

Most people seeking to be healthier, whether pre-conception or otherwise, know enough to clean up the diet: throw out or limit the junk, transfats, dyes, and try to eat organic and hormone free. But did you ever think of what's entering your body through your everyday slather of hand lotion, spritz of perfume, or lipstick? When I was little, I used to think human skin was just like saran wrap, some inert substance that kept the bag of innards and blood from falling out. Skin, however, is much more than that. It's the body's largest organ. People rarely think about the permeability of skin. It's waterproof--you take a bath, you don't become waterlogged, but it is permeable. That's why things… [more]