Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Update on Green

Back in October, we did a post on organic living. It's been several months, and we still love all our clean and green products and haven't once missed the old, chemical-filled ones. We clean our house every weekend, and we've only had to make new batches of our homemade window cleaner and surface cleaner once (further proof that we're saving bank).

Our Seventh Generation Free & Clear Natural Laundry detergent has been great on our laundry, and hydrogen peroxide and vinegar have taken care of any stains and brightened our whites. We've also added natural fabric softener sheets ($4.49 on drugstore.com) (dryer sheets) to the lineup, to much success. (Little to no static per load).

We were totally surprised the first time we used them;
they're brown and crinkly! 


We're still loving our handsoap (Mrs. Meyer's Liquid Hand Soap in Lemon Verbena). We buy it in bulk from drugstore.com or at Target (it's the same price either way) and use it in the bathroom and the kitchen. Also in the bathroom, we've been rockin the natural toothpaste - clean and sparkly teeth, and in the natural makeup has been great on my skin. 

On that note, let me introduce my newest and most favoritest product (oh yeah, it's so good I don't even care about grammar): Queen Helene Oatmeal 'n Honey Natural Facial Scrub ($4.60 on drugstore.com)

Oh. My. Goodness. I use it in the shower in place of two face washes (one with abrasive little beads to clear dead skin, and one from Mary Kay that I've used since I was fourteen). So far, I haven't had any breakouts or extra oily skin or anything. It has the most heavenly feel to it - you only use a dollop and the oatmeal has the most soft, yet tingly scrubbiness, and it smells divine. It's light, and it does the job well and leaves my skin feeling amazingly soft and clean. I'm obsessed. I think I shower just as an excuse to use this. 

Also in the shower, I've switched from Neutrogena's body wash to Dr. Bronner's (if you read my blog regularly, you know how I feel about Dr. Bronner's): Dr. Bronner's Organic Fair Trade Shikakai Soap in Unscented ($15.29 on drugstore.com)

I was going to get the citrus kind, but they didn't have it on drugstore.com, and as it turns out, I don't even mind! The smell is very light and natural, and (to my surprise) the soap comes out a really scummy brown color, but no worries, it lathers up nicely. I can't even believe how clean I feel after I use this soap - it's completely awesome. My skin feels soft and light and just so clean. I definitely recommend going green with your soap - it's wonderful on your skin. Stephen had some issues with it drying out his skin a bit when he used it over the weekend, but after a few days it adjusted and hasn't been a problem. Besides, that's what lotion was invented for. 

I kid you not: it's amazing. 

 The other new product I've switched to is lip balm: Yes to Carrots Lip Butter in Citrus


This stuff is fantastic. I had seriously chapped lips and it took care of them in just a day. It's made with all natural products and nothing harmful - just the type of thing I'd like to put on my mouth. I've also tried out Dr. Collin's lip balm in vanilla with spf protection, and I like it, too, but there's just something about the Yes to Carrots brand that my lips love. I definitely recommend it, and it was only like two bucks at Hy-Vee.

So all-in-all, the whole organic process is going well. There are a few tricky non-organic things left that I've having a hard time switching to:

shampoo: we use Aussie and it's cheap and works well

hair products (like smoothing serum, chi spray to keep my bangs from frying, and the occasional hair spray) - old habits die hard. 

Face lotion - I just switched last week to the new face wash, but I've used Mary Kay's since I was fourteen for both the lotion and face wash, and I've used olay night cream since high school to keep my face soft...I haven't found any natural products that I've wanted to try, and like I said, old habits die hard...so we'll see. I'm sure I'll make the switch eventually. 

What about you? Do you guys use any natural, green, or organic products or am I the only crazy one? Stephen thinks a lot of it's a bit silly, but it makes me feel better because it's good for me and for the environment. You can't really beat that, I suppose. 

Love,
Vanessa 





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