Modern Wife

Tag: cosmetics

  • My Daughter’s Homemade Lipbalm

    My Daughter’s Homemade Lipbalm

    I tend to skip the lipbalm. Instead of putting on lipbalm when my lips are dry I just drink more water and eat more hydrating fruits. Most lipbalm is made of petroleum, which is a burden on the immune system and obviously wouldn’t be helping me in the long run.

    Until I tried my daughter’s super awesome lipbalm.

    My daughter made this fantastic lipbalm out of healthy kitchen ingredients:

    2 teaspoons organic virgin coconut oil
    1 teaspoon raw honey
    a few drops vanilla or peppermint extract (optional)

    Ingredients for homemade lipbalm - coconut oil, raw honey and peppermint extract

    Mix them all up and store in a little plastic container. She made one by recycling a used HDPE juice bottle. Another time she upcycled plastic Easter eggs. My kid is amazing!

    If the weather is warm, keep your lipbalm refrigerated when you’re not using it to prevent the coconut oil from liquifying.

    I love my daughter’s lipbalm. I use it all the time. My lips stay soft and moist from the healing powers of coconut oil and raw honey.

  • Safe Cosmetics

    This video, “The Story of Cosmetics,” is presented by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the same people who created the really eye-opening and much-recommended to watch, “The Story of Stuff.”

    I’ve been reading about toxic ingredients in cosmetics and body products since 1997 when I first read Dr. Hulda Clark‘s book, “The Cure For All Cancers.” Back then I was a toxic cocktail of body products, and it showed on my acne-ridden face. I was stuck on a vicious cycle of covering up my acne with toxic cosmetics, thus causing more breakouts to cover up. I had to go cold turkey, through herbal cleanses and zapping sessions, and endure the many months of my body detoxing from the abuse I had heaped upon it for years. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t instant. It took at least a year, if I remember correctly. There were many times when I questioned what I was doing, and was tempted to fall back to my old habits. Whenever my courage flagged, I read more and more books about the subject matter. Natural Organic Hair and Skin Care: Including A to Z Guide to Natural and Synthetic Chemicals in Cosmetics comes to mind, in addition to other titles by Hulda Clark.

    When my skin finally cleared, my mind cleared as well. I became well-versed in body product ingredients. I could quickly pick out ingredients to avoid: anything with the syllable prop in it, such as isopropyl alcohol and propylene glycol, sodium laurel sulfate, anything with the syllable benz in it, such as benzoyl peroxide. These big ones alone are difficult to avoid. It doesn’t matter if the bottle says “All Natural” or “Organic” on it. Almost every product on the store shelf has at least one of these chemicals in it. They are petroleum-derived and toxic. Do Not Want.

    I became known among my family and friends as an all-natural girl. It’s tough when my mom proudly shows me a new body product she’s using with the words “All Natural” in big letters on the bottle, and then when I turn to read the label the first ingredient on it is propylene glycol. Why must I always be the bearer of bad news? Help me out here. Let’s all get educated on the ingredients of the products we rub on our selves and our children. Read those labels and learn to discern between a healthy product and a toxic one.

    The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has made it easier for us by compiling a list of companies who are committed to producing only products that are safe and nontoxic. See if your favorite products made the list. Let your dollars vote on the products that are safe and nontoxic to us and the environment. You and your family are worth the effort.

  • Recipes for Natural Cosmetics

    Recipes for Natural Cosmetics

    excerpt from The Cure For All Diseases
    © 1995 by Hulda Regehr Clark, Ph.D. N.D.

    Eye liner and Eyebrow Pencil

    Get a pure charcoal pencil (black only) at an art supply store. Try several on yourself (bring a small mirror) in the store to see what hardness suits you. You may need to wet it with water or a Vitamin E perle first. Don’t put any chemicals on your eyelids, since this penetrates into your eye. To check this out for yourself, close your eye tightly and then dab lemon juice on your eyelid. It will soon burn! Everything that is put on skin penetrates. Otherwise the nicotine patch and estrogen patch wouldn’t work. Not even soap belongs on your eyelids! Charcoal pencils are cheap. Get yourself half a dozen different kinds so you can do different things.

    You could also use a capsule of activated charcoal. Empty it into a saucer. Mix glycerin and water, half and half, and add it to the charcoal powder until you get the consistency you like. Use a brush for eyelashes; use a finger for eyebrows.

    Lipstick

    Beet root powder
    100% vegetable glycerin

    Combine 1 tsp. vegetable glycerin and 1 tsp. beet root powder in a saucer. Stir until perfectly smooth. Then add 1/2 tsp. of vitamin E oil. Snip open vitamin E capsules or buy vitamin E oil. Very thick olive oil can be substituted. Apply liberally with your finger or a lipstick brush. Do not purse or rub your lips together after application. To make the lipstick stay on longer, apply 1 layer of lipstick, then dab some cornstarch over the lips, then apply another layer of lipstick. Store in a small glass or plastic container in the refrigerator, tightly covered in a plastic bag.

    Face Powder

    Use cornstarch from the original box. You may also try arrow root starch or potato starch. Use your fingers or a tissue to apply because applicators can carry bacteria.

    Blush (face powder in a cake form)

    Add 50% glycerin to cornstarch in a saucer to make paste. Slowly add beet root powder to the desired color. Use part of a charcoal capsule to darken it, if desired. A drop of food grade alcohol will also darken it. To make 50% glycerin, add equal parts of glycerin and water. Try to make the consistency the same as your brand name product, and you can even put it back in your brand name container.