Kindergarten Trends

Now that Memorial Day has come and past, people everywhere are talking about new summer trends. I generally ignore the summer trends and follow the sit on my butt with my toes in the sand trend.

Speaking of trends, Little Guy has been loving life in Kindergarten. Lots of new buddies, learning new things and of course snack time. Lots of new peer trends to follow.

When I sent Little Guy off to kindergarten I knew that he would pick-up a few new ideas from the other kids. I was thinking more along the lines of violent movies and nasty new words. Oh no, Little Guy has picked-up some ideas worse than pretending that he is a character in Star Wars. Little Guy and his friends talk about hair care.

Conditioner to make their hair lay flatter. Gel to keep their style even through a sweaty recess. The little boys in the class compare their hair routines and share tips.

After my initial shock wore off, I decided to indulge this new Kindergarten fad and search for an organic gel, free from plastics and other nastys for Little Guy to goop on to his strawberry head.
The Skin Deep Comsmetics Safety Database is always my first step when looking for a new product for my family's skin or hair. Lots of products will say "natural" or "safe" and it equals a load of greenwashing. The facts need to be checked out.

Trends will come and go. Here's to the first grade trends include reading and math. Is that too wishful on my part?

Make Me Up Before You Go Go

Just because I like to hug an occasional tree doesn't mean that my face has to look like one. No, we are not talking about going as far as say Tammy Faye Baker . Just a light dusting a make-up to enhance the right things.

On the day I learned about the Skin Safe Database, I also learned that I was completely and voluntarily poisoning myself in the name of all that is cute.

Scary sounding polysyllabic frankengredients that cause fun side effects like neurotoxicity, allergies, developmental /reproductive toxicity and biochemical or cellular level changes were included in my products. All contained in the everyday cosmetic brands you find at the drug store or department store. Just because the product is pricier, doesn't mean it is safer either. Many of the high priced cosmetics are the worst offenders.

When it finally dawned on me that my skin is my biggest organ and what I put on my skin does penetrate into my body, I decided to make some serious changes.

I started on the first step of the staircase. With with my lipstick. Who wants something toxic so close to their mouth?

The next steps came quickly. Eye shadow, mascara, foundation, powder. Nothing above a 3 on the database. Most closer to a 1.

In my search, I have discovered my two favorite brands...

Coastal Classic Creations is owned by a friendly woman named Jane and her husband. The have made it their mission to educate your teenagers just beginning to use make-up and breast cancer patients who are keeping their bodies as toxin-free as possible.

My favorite product from Coastal Classic Creations was a surprise to me. Instead of traditional eye liner, try dipping a wet brush into Surfer's Beach eyeshadow. Beautiful!

The friendly people at Afterglow Cosmetics were helpful in choosing the correct colors for me. "What would you recommend for the Irish Spring commercial girls?" My favorite product has to be their organic setting powder (light). Beautiful!

Of course I forgot to take a before picture of my make-up drawer...here's the happy after picture. Simplified and safer!

Lick Your Lips

I am a gruppie. That means that I like to look cute and wear lipstick while keeping my body and the earth healthy and safe.

Over the years I have worn tubes and tubes of lipstick. Finally it dawned on me this summer that I had no idea where the lipstick went went it disappeared. Does the worn lipstick fly in the air back to some unknown lipstick factory in the sky? I must have been eating all of my lipstick! Seriously gross.

So, I smartened up and tossed all of my fancy smanshy lipstick tubes and compacts. I performed my usual Google search and found the Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database. Basically you can type in any brand, name or category of a health or beauty product and they will rate it on a scale of 0 to 10. Then, Skin Deep will tell you about all of the horrible diseases and reactions that your product can cause.

WARNING: This site is addicting. You will put in every health and beauty product that you or anyone in your family has ever used. You will be horrified. You will call your Mummy and beg her to toss her bar of Lever 2000 soap. It has a seven rating and can cause endocrine disruption and cancer. My new soap, made by Kiss My Face has a zero rating. Beautiful.

After the soap, I started by looking for a lipstick with the lowest possible number I could find. Most of the lipsticks with ratings of one were only available in the UK and Australia. Damn you UK and all of your wonderful products!

Finally, I found a company out of California. Afterglow Cosmetics lipstick rates a measly one. A huge improvement. The brand I was using before has a sky high rating. I was practically insured that it will cause some horrible disease in my future.

Remember when we used to chose makeup brands because they didn't test on animals? Then it we had to worry about foreskin testing? Now it is dangerous chemicals and additives. What is a busy gruppie to do?