A trip to the store

Tomorrow as we flip our calendar pages from July to August, we realize that summer ends in a mere 31 days and soon it will be time for back to school. Personally, I can't wait to be back at college and I'm throwing myself into back to school fever. This means that I am, for the most part, done with my shopping. Yes, I may have a few sundries that need attending to, but all of the major things are done with.

Today I took another huge step in that direction by stocking up on all the toiletries I'll need to start the year. Unfortunately, since I got a job this summer my parents are less willing to pay for these sort of things, but at least I saved myself a trip to CVS when I could be in my dorm room watching movies online. Oops, I mean doing homework.

Plus, going without my mom meant that I could take longer to look for some different products. Although I'm not so concerned with food contaminants in my products, I am still trying to avoid parabens and propylene glycol for reasons I will explain when I full get a grasp on why I am avoiding them. Plus, with the whole "natural" movement that's been going on, a lot of soy has been introduced into products. This isn't a bad thing, unless some of the soy stays on my hands which then touch the ingredients when my boyfriend and I are cooking (and we cook a lot). There is probably a small risk of this, but I saw this as an opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone.

Normally, I could zone in on which products I want and be in and out of the shampoo aisle in a flash. However, they didn't have the Suave Rosemary and Mint line that I recently picked up, so I had to settle for something that did have propylene glycol (which I shall shorten to p-g), but at least no parabens. I figure that since I don't really know my whole stance on p-g, a little bit won't hurt. Besides, I didn't buy a lot and the stock I do have will buy me time until I can find a substitute. It was a tough decision, but I was in a CVS and not a natural market, so the selection was limited.

Next was body wash. I got a Suave Naturals product purely because it didn't have p-g or parabens, and it was on clearance. The catch is that it does contain "fragrance", which my boyfriend likes to avoid. This relates back to the perfume/gluten argument and also the fact that he likes to avoid additives when they really aren't necessary. Hopefully we will start making our own body wash using recipes from a book I found on natural home products, so I won't have to rely on fragrance-added products for too much longer. Plus, I can always give half of the bottles to my sister.

Deodorant was pretty much the same thing. There is fragrance added element, but that's to be expected. I don't really worry too much about the odor element, otherwise I would look into alum crystals or something. I really wanted the anti-antiperspirant in it and until I research more natural ways of getting that, I'll stick with the yummy plum and sakura scent.

My real killing was with my hair mousse. I have naturally wavy hair that basically is a huge ball of frizz. I use a mouse product to define it into curls and to kind of wrangle the beast, if you will. I took a look at the ingredients for the product I've been using for years and discovered that it contained both propane and butane. I've been putting gasoline and lighter fluid on my head. I did a quick online search a month or so ago for "natural curling products", but mostly came up for results for kinkier African-American hair. I took a cruise around the styling products section and found three contenders as a substitute. First was from Herbal Essences, but it had p-g. Next up was one (I forget the brand name!) that promised that it was fragrance free. So far so good. The last was from Wild Harvest Hair, and although it contained fragrance it looked to be pretty devoid of the things I was trying to cut out. I was actually considering the other product until I saw that it contained several wheat products. No good. I ended up going with Wild Hair Harvest and do not regret the decision. Or at least I won't until I actually try it and then I will revise my opinion.

So all in all I ended up avoiding most of the direct contaminants I was looking for and made a slight concession with the shampoo and conditioner. Fragrance may be an issue, but what I bought hopefully will just be a stepping stone until I can find better alternatives. The one thing I regret is that I couldn't find a new body lotion. Almost all contained parabens or some sort of oat extract which could hide gluten. Or they contained petrol byproducts, which I am also trying to cut down on. Well, at least I have a few recipes for body butter from that book I got, or in a pinch I could order some of Dr. Bronners Organic Body/Tattoo Balm. Hmm, I might do that....

I also have a warm fuzzy feeling that that one company whose name I don't remember labeled the wheat ingredients in an obvious manner. I don't even know what part of the wheat plant they were using because I just saw the word and put down the bottle. I wish that other labels were like that so that I wouldn't have to look for keywords like "soja" or "citric acid" and run them through my mental babel fish. Maybe it is about learning the keywords, but I love the companies that meet me half way.

D'aww

(images from here, here, and here)

Really, people?

I have a sunburn, and it's bad. I'm probably complaining so much because I haven't had a bad sunburn in years, but it hurts. This is probably due to the fact that I try to avoid sun exposure as much as possible so that I don't tan, but then when I visited my boyfriend on the farm he worked at I got a good five hours of exposure with only a white tank top to cover my back. Needless to say, moving my arms makes me feel like my skin is ripping.

So in order to combat the pain I'm applying generous amounts of aloe vera gel and moisturizer. Today, out of curiosity, I took a peek at the ingredients on my lotion. I probably didn't even need to look that far for the problem, because it said right in the name "oatmeal". Ah, yes oatmeal. The comfort of our chicken pox days. Normally it would be no problem and I would get some small satisfaction from using a "natural" product. However, oatmeal also has potential for gluten contamination. Oatmeal itself contains no gluten, however sometimes it contains traces of other grains from processing or even harvesting. The oatmeal listed on the label said "oatmeal flour", so there's a chance that bits of wheat got in there. I was very surprised, not so much by the ingredients but by the fact that I would need to find another product if I want to moisturize near my boyfriend.

Along with the oatmeal revelation, I also saw that the lotion contained some alcohol in it. Why? Doesn't alcohol dry out the skin? Forgive my ignorance, but it's like bringing a box of matches when you're trying to stop a fire. I checked my sister's lotion too and it also contained alcohol. So did the aloe vera gel. I also saw a paraben listed on my sis' lotion and propylene glycol in the aloe, both of which I am trying to avoid. So what's a girl to do?

For now I think I am going to keep using the aloe and my lotion, which doesn't cause a daily issue because I don't see my boyfriend very much during the summer. This, and I don't feel like going out to the pharmacy to look for alternatives right now. However, I did pick up a book a few days ago that has recipes for everyday household products from body butter to silver polish. Most look fairly easy to make and store, so in the future I'll be moisturizing with my own homemade products!