taking sides on pretty (organic vs. lab made)

It's a choice you make for yourself. All organic and natural sound great...but in my experience sometimes it's a little lacking in the results department. An ingredients list with words as long as my arm doesn't seem much better, and even though I own ingredient dictionaries it is a bit time consuming to look it all up.

At an International Dermal Institute (Dermalogica) class I was at they talked about how their products are made in the lab and how the only guinea pigs they use are their employees.  It was pointed out that when a product is created in the lab it can synthesize the ingredient from nature...but it will turn out the same every time which in turn would create consistent results.  To me, I think seeing and feeling results is a bigger issue than the ingredients list.

Also, I'm currently more concerned about whether or not a product was tested on animals.

What are your main concerns when picking out products?  Do you look for organic certifications? Do you look for the bunny?  Do you go by price? Let me know...I'd love to hear your thoughts.


Cheers xoxo~~Tam

pretty delightful Lush haul

I'm such a an easy sell.  Really, tell me how lovely something works...show me how soft something feels and if it smells nice to boot, I'm in.  Which is why at the end of my interview at Lush when my interviewer said "Hey, walk around the shop, check things out, get to know what we've got" (or something similar) I ended up with a couple of items and some samples.  I could so work there, everything I tried felt and smelled soooo nice.

I only got a couple of things that I actually needed (I have some willpower...not a lot but oh well).

1. No Drought, Dry Shampoo: Citrusy, but not heavy.  It actually is a powder (unlike other dry shampoos that spray onto your hair).  It's first three ingredients are cornflour, magnesium carbonate and talc. So, we've got flour, a salt/chalk like substance, and a powder all of which are going to help absorb oils and dampness (as I like to use this kind of thing after the gym). I like that you can just shake a little into your palm and rub it in, and it didn't leave a powder residue.  I've read other tips that say you can use baby powder to remove oils, but that always felt like it left my hair feeling like a powder wig...and seeing as I'm not one of our founding fathers, it's a look I avoid.

2. Prince, Shaving Cream: Shaving cream that is an actual cream, I've been using light lotion consistency stuff forever. This comes in a tub (and the sales guy assured me that it lasts a long time).  Again, it has a lovely light scent and it's great for both the scruffy gents (who it appears to be marketed for) and the ladies (I was told this was a staff fave).  For best results they recommend letting it set for a minute or two on your damp skin, which will help to lift up the hairs a little for a closer shave). Haven't tried it yet, but I'm actually excited to get to shave my legs which is a completely new feeling for me. (The key ingredients for this shave creams are cocoa butter, linseed oil, witch hazel and orange blossom.)


It was recommended to me to try their Ro's Argan Body Conditioner after shaving to really help lock in moisture.  My mom tried this little sample out on her arms and fell in love instantly because it really improved the look of her arms.  Main ingredients: argan oil, shea butter, and rose absolute (pretty sure that's for fragrance) and lemon peel.

They also threw in a sample of their Ocean Salt scrub, which smells super refreshing.  It can be used for the face or the body, and is supposed to be good for all skin types too.  Main ingredients being: sodium chloride (duh, salt) ;0), grapefruit extract, lime extract, and vodka.


So, all in all I do hope my interview went well, but if it didn't at least I got some good stuff out of it.  (Really keeping my fingers crossed that it went well though). :0)

How important is scent in your product purchase? Do you have any great Lush experiences?

pretty with plastcizers? (a note on nail polish ingredients)

Looking at the title, I suppose this could be a post on a salt scrub...but it's not.  I recently took a class regarding the ingredients that go into cosmetics.  One of my classmates recommended "Not Just a Pretty Face" (2007; Malkan, Stacy) for further reading.  I'm only on the second chapter, and I keep going back to a main lesson we learned in class that day; take cosmetic ingredient info with a grain of salt.  As in, there are many shades of gray in this area.

The chapter I'm reading is talking about phthalates in cosmetics.  They are what is considered to be a plasticizers; meaning basically that they help to keep things from being brittle.  They are have been found in things like nail polish and hair spray.  After reading the chapter I went online to do a little recent research. I found this interesting from the environmental working group:

DBP as a plasticizer in nail enamel

The plasticizing and film-formation properties of DBP make the chemical particularly useful for nail polish. After nail polish is applied, some of the ingredients volatilize and leave behind a film that is the coating over the nail. DBP is one of the ingredients left behind, reducing brittleness and cracking in the polish.

If the DBP stayed intact in the polish, women might absorb negligible amounts of the chemical into their bodies. But a group of scientists in Hamburg, Germany showed that water-soluble components of the polish, like DBP, are dissolved out of the polish each time they contact water, a conclusion they reached after measuring the leaching of DBP from nail polish that had dried for three days. In fact, one of the reasons nail polish eventually chips is that it becomes brittle as DBP is leached out of the film. This means that every time a woman washes her hands, DBP is washed out of her nail polish and contacts her skin. The scientists conclude that "water-soluble components... attain the skin during extensive but transient contact." Therefore, a woman wearing nail polish not only can absorb DBP through her nail, but also has multiple opportunities to absorb DBP directly through her skin.

The book I'm reading has phthalates seeming way more harmful, which is why I suppose that all of this info needs to be taken with a grain of salt...and also why it's important to wash your hands. :)

pretty good school day

I've been attending classes at the International Dermal Institute for the last couple of months.  It's nice that they offer post-graduate education for estheticians because you really don't learn enough in school.  I feel like I learned just enough to pass the State Board exams...but we didn't really delve into some of the skin care areas that I find interesting.

Today I took a class in cosmeceutical ingredients.  And right off the bat it was pointed out that actually "cosmeceutical" is actually more of a made up marketing term than anything else.  All it really is, is a combo of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. So basically any product out there that uses vitamins, antioxidants, and/or peptides can go ahead and give itself the fancy-schmancy title of being a cosmeceutical.

I got a lot out of the class, and hope to incorporate some of my new found/refreshed knowledge in future posts.