Looking around on Etsy, I discovered Ethically Engineered‘s Gear Head Vegan Organic Conditioning Bar. This massive gear-shaped bar of conditioner weighs about 6oz. is lime scented and advertises lots of suds and ingredients that will leave your hair shiny.

The bar has quite a bit of weight to it and I actually needed to buy another soap dish for the shower to store it!

The ingredients on the label are listed as: white camellia oil, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, palm oil, salt, plant based colorants and essential oils. Camellia oil is supposed to help restore the pH balance and protect hair from drying out.

I’m not really sure which of the ingredients is the surfactant (it doesn’t seem like any of them are?), but this conditioning bar produces some great suds! Sure, suds don’t really indicate a product works any better than another, but having used the Lush solid conditioner, it’s nice knowing where I’m actually applying this conditioner – with the Lush bar it always felt like a guess.

I’ve used this bar for about three weeks and so far I’m liking the result. The scent isn’t very strong, but it does leave my hair feeling well conditioned. I would definitely buy this again!

After reading Cyn’s review about a different Organic Wear Mascara, I was a bit hesitant on trying the latest Jumbo Lash Mascara, but since there was a Try Me Free sticker on the one I picked up, I thought I’d give it a go.

For those that like green products this product has the following listed on the box:

• 100% Free of Harsh Chemicals
• 100% Free of Synthetic Preservatives
• 100% Free of Parabens
• 100% free of GMO’s (Genetically Modified Organisms)
• 100% Free of Synthetic Colors
• 100% Free of Synthetic Fragrances
• 100% Cruelty Free
• 100% Natural Origin

I love the packaging, it’s not your conventional colorful tube, instead it is a metallic green and looks like a fancy leaf. However, the leaf like shape can get a bit clunky when stuffed into a small makeup bag, but the look of it is shiny and different.

The brush of the mascara is similar to the CoverGirl LashBlast brush which is fat brush with spikes, which I really like. Now for the important part if the mascara. When I applied the mascara it gives some volume and does lengthen my lashes. I would use this mascara every day, but after only a few hours of wear this mascara also flakes. I get little black flakes under my eyes and on my glasses. In addition to the flaking, I also get smudges on the bottom rim of my eyes.

I really wanted to like this mascara, because it gives my lashes volume and lengthens, in addition to, being very easy to clean off. Unfortunately, after a few uses and having to deal with flakes on my face, I have to say this organic and green mascara doesn’t work for me.

I’ve been using the cherry gloss for years (and I should probably review them), but I recently decided to try their lip butters, which are available at Sephora for $10.

I use a brush to apply the lip butter and it gives a nice color to my lips. Without eating or drinking, the lip butter keeps  my lips moisturized for a few hours. Due to the pot design, it’s kind of inconvenient to carry in my purse, so I tend to just use it before I leave for a night out.

Korres Lip Butter is free of parabens, sulfates, synthetic fragrances, synthetics dyes, petrochemicals, and GMOs.

Ingredients:

Polybutene, Trimethylolpropane Triisostearate, Hydrogenated Polydecene, Hydroxystearic Acid, Polyethylene, Stearalkonium Hectorite, Propylene Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate, Sucrose Tetrastearate Triacetate, Tocopherol, Aroma (Flavor), Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Rosa Canina Flower Extract, Oryza Sativa Cera (Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Wax), Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Extract, Geraniol, CI 15850 ( Red 7 Lake ), CI 15985 (Yellow 6 Lake), CI 42090 (Blue 1 Lake).

I would probably buy this product again, but I might try the Lip Butter Glaze as well since that seems to be similar to this product but in a squeeze tube applicator.

The first item I decided to try was their Shangri-La Shea Butter Relief Lip Treatment.

There is no color in this lip treatment. I have been using it for several weeks during the day and before bed. So far it’s kept my lips soft through the night, which I’ve had problems with before.

Shangri-La lip treatments can be purchased from Vintage Sister for $4 and are available in vanilla with orange oil, lemon, peppermint, and unscented.

One of the things that drew me to this was a) I didn’t hate the smell, and b) the ingredient list looked short and uncomplicated as compared to most other body washes you look at. It doesn’t smell wonderful, but it doesn’t smell bad – it smells natural, if that makes any sense. It’s kind of sweet, but also smells like powdered milk, which is an ingredient. It’s much nicer smelling than the Grapefruit & Sugar Beet shampoo and conditioner I tried, which for some reason I really, really hated. Regarding the content, the only ingredients of any real concern toxics-wise is the ‘fragrance’ (according to Skin Deep), which is of concern because the actual contents of the ‘fragrance’ are not declared, so some can be eye or other irritants to some people. Skin Deep rates this product as a 4 on a scale from 1-10, making it only a ‘moderate hazard’. It looks good to me – better than what I’ve been using.

On to the actual performance of the body wash. When I tried it for the first time, I didn’t like how thin it is. It has about the consistency of a beaten egg and isn’t viscous or gel-like at all. I felt like I had to put a lot on my wash cloth to make it lather up. That said, when I did get an appropriate amount on my wash cloth & added a little water, it lathered up decently. I was also worried that it wouldn’t rinse off cleanly – I like that “squeaky” feeling of rinsing off soap & knowing I’m clean. This rinses off very cleanly! After washing with it my skin feels pretty moisturized, and not dry or tight at all. During the summer with humidity my skin doesn’t really get dry at all, so I’ll have to see how this performs in the cooler weather when my skin gets wicked dry, but I’m really liking this body wash for now!

I’d definitely recommend checking this out. It’s probably good for sensitive skin because of the lack of toxic crap ingredients, and it didn’t dry out my usually dry skin, and it doesn’t smell terrible. The bottle is lasting longer than I thought it would, even though I use a little extra to get the amount of lather that I like. Overall a great product from Burt’s!

The store partially drew me in because it is called “LUSH – Fresh Handmade Cosmetics”, which made me think they also had makeup. They don’t. It’s all bath/body/hair stuff, but what wonderful stuff it is! The products are all-natural/vegetarian, with over 70% being vegan. They use natural ingredients and about two-thirds of their items are preservative-free; the products are hand-made, they do not test on animals & don’t do business with suppliers that do, and they use ethical suppliers for their ingredients (this is all from their website).

I’ve been in twice so far, and the salesgirls have been very friendly and eager to help, but not obnoxious. The store smells delightful and it’s hard to choose just a few things to buy! My first time in, I started with two things: the Buffy body bar (bottom in pic) and the Therapy massage bar (top in pic).

The Therapy massage bar is a shea and cocoa butter bar with lavender & orange oil for a relaxing scent. They use organic fair-trade shea butter and cocoa butter for this product. It is designed to be massaged into the skin and not leave oil on your skin; it does absorb in pretty well. Cocoa butter is good for stretch marks & they advertise it as particularly good for pregnant bellies. Personally, I’ve been using cocoa butter products for years now on the stretch marks on my hips (from weight loss/gain, not pregnancy, lol) and it works very well to minimize them and really moisturize the whole area.

I picked up this bar because of my love for cocoa butter and the yummy scent: it smells like other cocoa butter products I’ve had before, but with a hint of lavender. The girl at the store explained that the reason the bar has one raised bump and three little holes on it is because apparently one out of every four babies is born with an outtie belly button, and this bar is marketed as being good for pregnant women. Cute! I’ve used this about a week now & it’s moisturizing, working great on my hips, smells yummy, so overall a great product; however, it basically does the same thing as the Cococare cocoa butter stick I have been using for a long time, which costs less than $2 at drugstores. I probably won’t buy the Therapy massage bar again just because of the cost as compared to the cococare stick, but it is really a great product.

Now onto the Buffy body bar. I cannot even begin to express how much I LOVE this! It is a scrub bar of shea and cocoa butter mixed with ground rice, almonds and aduki beans for exfoliating. It smells like shea and maybe a little oatmeal-y to me, but there’s no oatmeal in it – not a delicious scent, but I like it. I bought the smaller one because it was cheaper, have used it for over a week every other day, and it’s almost gone, so I will buy the larger one next time.

(Buffy after a few uses, showing the abrasiveness of it)

I use this bar in the shower right before I get out: just scrub wherever you want, then rinse & dry off. It leaves your skin feeling like you’ve already put lotion on - it’s not greasy, and your skin feels just so soft & smooth. I have a huge problem area of dry skin in the winter on my hips, and I usually have to slather on lotion after a shower because it gets itchy.  I use the Buffy bar and don’t feel the need to put any lotion on whatsoever, and it has eliminated dry flaky skin I get on my hips. It is actually a bit abrasive so be careful if your skin is super sensitive, but I love it on my arms & legs in addition to any other dry skin areas. I will keep buying this again and again, I can’t say enough good things about it!

One other thing; at Lush they use very little packaging. The bars, soaps, bath bombs etc are sold without any packaging and displayed in bins and stacks (which makes for pretty cute displays). They put things into little paper baggies when you buy them, for which they use as much post-consumer recycled materials for as they can, or you can buy tins for $2.95, which are re-usable of course. I bought tins with these two items.

 So to conclude, Lush is a new favorite of mine. I’ve made a second purchase  already and will be continuing to go back to try things out. If you have one near you and haven’t been in, absolutely check it out.

EDIT 5/2/10: DO NOT leave your buffy bar in a hot car Mine melted to liquid in the car yesterday on the 6-hour drive home from Jersey. I was so sad last night when I got in the shower & realized it was totally dead! I don’t know what you can do to remedy this if it has to be in a hot location, but my apartment gets pretty hot in the summer so I’m going to have to figure something out.

While I liked GoodGuide because of the environmental friendliness and society ratings, Cyn directed me to another site, Skin Deep (cosmeticsdatabase.com), which basically does the same thing but goes more in depth. Products are given a score between 0 and 10, with a product rated 10 being a high hazard. They list much more information about a product’s ingredients and the hazards associated with the ingredient than GoodGuide does. It does not, however, contain any data about the company’s ‘green-ness’ or ethical/societal practices. Skin Deep is run by the Environmental Working Group, who describe their mission as “to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment.” (they also run a site called the Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides, a website about pesticide use in produce) Being in public health, this group actually interests me on a number of different levels, but right now we’re focusing on cosmetics & personal care products.

So, after finding GoodGuide, I started browsing through the site for items I use. I settled on my Aussie Hair Insurance spray conditioner to check out first.

I realized it probably was not the most natural product in the world, but was still disappointed to find some questionable ingredients and a couple of not-so-good ratings for the company in environment and society. Here is the page. GoodGuide has two ingredients listed as controversial: DMDM Hydantoin, a preservative which can release trace amounts of formaldehyde, and “fragrance”, which could contain anything – apparently there is no requirement for companies to disclose what they use for fragrances, and many contain compounds that can be irritants or allergens to some people. The company received average or below-average marks on several other items including energy management, air pollution and quality & safety (just a disclaimer: I have not done further research on these matters for this company, I am just rehashing it here). In total, this product received a rating of 6.6 out of 10 from GoodGuide

After I was made aware of Skin Deep, I checked out this product there too (Here is their page on it). At first I was a bit more concerned reading about my Hair Insurance on this site than on the other (and remember, this site does not take environmental or ethical practices of the company into account for anything). However, once I looked over the ingredient details a bit I realized they were basically the same. The DMDM hydantoin and “fragrance” are listed first and given a 9 and 8 rating, respectively. They go into more detail about the other ingredients too, even though none of the others listed are rated over a 4. Concerns with the less hazardous items included allergies & irritation. The product was rated a 6 out of 10 (“moderate hazard”) from Skin Deep.

The biggest concern with this item, based on the little bit of research I’ve done, is the formaldehyde from the preservative hydantoin. Here is Skin Deep’s formaldehyde ingredient page (lots of detailed information there), and it rates the chemical itself as a 10 out of 10, or a high hazard. It is a known carcinogen and can irritate eyes, throat & nose when inhaled – obviously at least a mild concern when it’s in a mist you’re spraying on your hair.

Now, let me actually review the product. A few months ago I realized I wanted to try a spray conditioner to help with the frizzy halo my hair gets after I blow dry it. I’d had some years ago from a different company (might’ve been Pantene) that I couldn’t find anymore, and someone recommended I try Aussie. I picked it up for not too much money and started using it right after I blow-dry my hair. The bottle actually says to use it when your hair is damp, but I’ve found it’s best for me when I use it on dry hair. It works wonders! I get way fewer frizzies & flyaways after using it; my hair stays nice and smooth & shiny, and doesn’t make it feel significantly heavier or greasier when I use it. I don’t go overboard with it, just spray nice & lightly over my whole head. I usually wash my hair at night, and when I wake up the next morning my hair usually looks amazing. I have been really happy with it.

Now, don’t get me wrong; after reading up on the ingredients in this spray and the health concerns about them, I am not freaking out, throwing it away and sure that I’m going to get cancer from it. I was a little disappointed to learn about the undesirable ingredients and will probably look for something to replace this when I’m done with it, but chances are, if I can’t find something that works as well, I’ll keep using it, albeit a little more sparingly. I’ve been having problems with my eyes feeling dry and irritated lately, and even though I’m sure it’s a number of different things contributing to that, this spray could, for all I know, be aggravating my symptoms. I am being careful not to use too much and careful not to get it in my eyes.

In conclusion, this product works exactly as I’d hoped it would and I like it. However, researching what’s in some of your favorite products can lead to a rude awakening if you are interested in using eco-friendly, non-toxic products. This product isn’t as bad as I’m sure some are, but do your research – you might be surprised! Your favorite product may be more toxic than you realized and the company that produces it might be dumping toxins in the creek out back. However, one thing to remember if you find a questionable ingredient in a product you use is don’t freak out! Do your research, be objective, read the material. I care about trying to support companies that are environmentally conscious and I prefer trying to use more natural products that are better for me and the environment; if you feel the same way, it’s worth it to do the research.

However, once I began using eye primers (like Pixie Epoxy), mascara, and heavy eyeliner for smokey looks, I quickly discovered that the normal cleansers weren’t going to be effective. Sure, they worked — it just required a bit more scrubbing, which might be fine on other parts of your face, but around the eye? Not so much.

In this article, I’m going to talk about three products: Philosophy’s Purity Made Simple Foaming Cleanser, Philosophy’s Just Release Me Eye Makeup Remover, and Burt’s Bees Orange Essence Facial Cleanser.

You might be thinking it isn’t fair to compare one eye makeup remover against two face cleansers. Well, why not? Some people suggest using sunflower oil and that certainly isn’t a cleanser!

To start with, I picked several eye products: e.l.f. mineral eyeliner w/powdered eye shadow on top, e.l.f. waterproof eyeliner, NYC liquid eyeliner, Wet N Wild liquid liner, e.l.f. sugar kiss glitter liner, and NYC waterproof mascara.

And made four sets of lines on my arm with each product. I used Tarte Clean Slate primer underneath and let everything for about 3 hours.

My method for each product will be the same: I’ll use a q-tip with the product and some water. At the top of the test patch, I’ll use minimal pressure when rubbing on the product. Below that on the same patch, I’ll use a bit of scrubbing pressure, which you probably wouldn’t use on your eyelid. Then rinse with water and see what happens!

Now for the results!

Philosophy’s Just Release Me Eye Make Up Remover

I’ve actually just started using this product this week. Picked it up at my local Sephora. This is a dual-phase item, so you have to shake the bottle before you use it. I keep forgetting. The reason I picked this up out of everything in the store was the list of ingredients which are short and free of parabens & sulfates.

When using, I apply a dab of it to my wash cloth, pat it on my eye and give it a second before I wipe. Works well! Used a similar method with this q-tip test.

As you can see, with minimal rubbing, nearly everything is off. All that’s left is a bit of the waterproof mascara. On the bottom, I didn’t rub much harder that the top of the test patch and everything came off.

I will say that there is a slightly oily feel to the product. It doesn’t bother me because I follow up my eye makeup remover with a face wash to get my face clean and that gets rid of it without anything extra. A damp cloth should do fine if you need it.

Burt’s Bees Orange Essence Facial Cleanser

I’d picked this up at Target, hoping that it would also remove eye makeup. Burt’s Bees products are a bit touch and go for me, but it wasn’t too expensive so I thought I would give it a try. As a facial cleanser, it works fine, but for eye makeup…

As you can see, light rubbing left residue in the two eyeliners (elf mineral smudges and elf waterproof), got the three liquid liners off, but didn’t even touch the waterproof mascara. With regular mascara I can tell you it leaves a big raccoon eye mess.

It also stings a bit if you get the tiniest bit in your eye. Yes. Hello, orange oil!

Even after some scrubbing, there are still smudges and bits of mascara left. When I was using this regularly, I was washing my eyes twice just to get everything off. I definitely won’t rely on this as an eye cleanser.

Philosophy’s Purity made Simple Foaming Cleanser

This was the first facial cleanser I purchased at Sephora last year when I started on my cosmetic bender. Clearly, I haven’t used it too often as there it still a third of the bottle left. In any case, I had been using it and assuming it got all my makeup from the day off, so while I was doing this test, I thought I would try it out on eye makeup.

Well, it sort of works? The mineral eyeliner and waterproof liner seem to come off all right, as does the Wet N Wild and Sugar Kiss glitter liner. The NYC liquid liner and waterproof mascara are both still stuck on, even after a fair bit of rubbing.

I will probably keep using this as my facial cleanser, but definitely can’t rely on it to get off my eye makeup.

And just for laughs… hand soap!

Just curious to see how regular hand soap (Method brand from Target, in this case) does at cleaning off eye makeup.

Well, it does amazingly well at everything except waterproof mascara (which is what that dark line on the left is too), which will come off if you scrub like crazy… which no one wants to do because we’d like to keep our eyelashes intact. But if you’re in a bind and don’t have anything else, I suppose it’s better than nothing?

And there you have it. I hope that was somewhat helpful and/or informative!

Physicians Formula’s Organic Wear 100% Natural Origin Mascara was one I was really hoping to like.

(Sorry about the stock image. I don’t have the product anymore.)

The company’s site describes the product as:

• Revolutionary 100% Natural Origin formula contains the purest ingredients and provides 5x Lash Boosting for lash length, volume & definition naturally.
• 100% Recyclable Eco-Brush defines each lash with ultra-soft plastic bristles.
• 100% Free of Harsh Chemicals, Synthetic Preservatives, Parabens, Clumping, Smudging, Flaking, Fibers & Dyes.

All of that sounds really good! Even looking at the ingredients on the box, I didn’t see anything objectionable:

INGREDIENTS: CITRUS AURANTIUM DULCIS (ORANGE) FRUIT WATER*, GLYCERIN, IRON OXIDE, MICROCRYSTALLINE CELLULOSE, GLYCERYL STEARATE, WATER, BEESWAX*, JOJOBA ESTERS, TAPIOCA STARCH*, COPERNICIA CERIFERA (CARNAUBA) WAX*, STEARIC ACID, GLYCERYL CAPRYLATE, ALOE BARBADENSIS LEAF JUICE*, CELLULOSE GUM, CUCUMIS SATIVUS (CUCUMBER) FRUIT EXTRACT*, GLYCINE SOYA (SOYBEAN) OIL*, HYDROLYZED ORYZA SATIVA (RICE) PROTEIN, LEUCONOSTOC/RADISH ROOT FERMENT FILTRATE, MAGNESIUM ALUMINUM SILICATE, OLEA EUROPAEA (OLIVE) LEAF EXTRACT*. MAY CONTAIN: TITANIUM DIOXIDE *PRODUCED FROM ORGANIC FARMING.

So, I went to my local Rite-Aid and picked it up. I can’t remember the price exactly, but it was about $8 – which is an average drug store mascara price and very inexpensive for a natural mascara.

I wanted to like this product, I really did. First problem – it had a weird smell. It wasn’t really a chemical scent, but it smelled a bit sharp? Possibly a little glue-like. That went away though, so it didn’t bother me that much.

The weird, bendy, spiked wand didn’t bother me. Actually, I think it worked pretty well for application. This mascara doesn’t add volume, but it does add some length. It was what I was expecting when I bought, so I was happy with it.

The huge problem was after about 4 hours, it started to flake like crazy. I had black specs all over my face and some of it got into my eyes. I wear glasses constantly and don’t rub my eyes, so it wasn’t even from that.

I figured I would give this product a second chance, so the next day I applied the mascara again. Same thing occurred and this time, my eyes got a bit red and irritated — probably from the black flakes falling in them.

So that was it, I gave up. Thankfully, Rite-Aid has a great cosmetics return policy, so I was able to bring it back and get a refund.

Which is funny, since I bought the Organic Wear because I’d previously returned a L’Oreal Double Extend Mascara, but I’ll talk about that in another post.