Monthly Archives: November 2008
Product Review: Nurture My Body
| November 30, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
I was able to try lots of great products from Nurture My Body. I had heard a lot of good things about their products. And guess what my plastic free readers it’s all in glass, beautiful blue glass!
I loved the way these were packaged. They were wrapped in tissue paper with a sprig of lavender. It smells wonderful when you open it.
All of the products are made with certified organic ingredients, no chemical preservatives, phthalate-free, and have eco-friendly packaging.
One of the products I got to try is a shampoo bar. It takes a bit to get use to using a shampoo bar over your normal liquid shampoo. Once you get use to it, it’s easy and works well. A big plus is of course the fact that it’s not in a plastic bottle.
Another product I tried was shaving cream. This is the one of the only natural shaving creams I have seen. I have to say I don’t normally even use soap when shaving. I did find my legs were much softer when I used this, and didn’t clog my razor either.
The Ginger Body Wash smells wonderful. It’s a nice scent and not overwhelming. It left my skin clean and soft. I love the use of ginger, as ginger is said to help you detox and help sore muscles.
I love using facial treatments as I’m sure most women do. It’s just so relaxing and I love the way my face feels after. I was able to try the gel mask which exfoliates but is very gentle and will not leave your face red or burning when you get to reading in the tub and forget you left it on, which happens to me ALL the time. Most masks leave me really wishing I had set a timer but this one didn’t have that effect at all.
The moisture cream was the last product I was able to try. It’s rich and creamy. You will not be disappointed with it at all. I love that it has antioxidants to help not only make your skin soft but also make your skin healthier.
Nurture My Body Is very committed to helping the environment. Their products are 100% biodegradable, cruelty-free, no petroleum products, no parabens, no phthalates, and 42 out 45 products get a 0 rating on Skin Deep and the other 3 get a rating of 1.
The packaging is recyclable. They reuse packing material and encourage other to do the same. They have even refrained from a mail catalog because of the waste. Instead they do a free e-newsletter.
Their company even runs on 100% wind energy! This is a company that practices what they preach. No green washing here. Check out their very easy to use website.
To make it even better Nurture My Body has been nice enough to offer my readers a 20% discount code. Just register as a guest on the website and enter the coupon code wellness into the promo code box when checking out.
I’m sure you can find lots of great gifts on here for the holiday season!
Winner of EcoSmart Giveaway
| November 29, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Sorry this took so long. Been busy with Thanksgiving.
The winner is Jenna!
It’s Easy Being Green
| November 28, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
A friend said she isn’t going green is she isn’t willing to do the work. Started thinking this is the reason a lot of people use. But is it really that hard?
Sure not everyone can plant an organic garden, buy solar panels, buy all organic food, etc… But can’t we all do something? You can save money while doing a lot of these things. Here is a very small list of things that are easy to do for anyone.
Recycling is a huge way to help the planet. Most towns have curbside recycling so while you will have to sort it from your trash it’s not much work. It will become habit. Some towns will give you discounts for having less trash so it could save you money. Even if you don’t have curbside this is something that will just take you a few minutes to drop off and the pay off is huge!
Donate everything you can! This is another thing that will just take a few minutes of your time and not only help the planet by keeping waste out of the landfill but will also help needy people. Don’t donate trash but if it’s in good shape pass it on.
Bring your own bag. While you will spend some money on this one it doesn’t have to be much. You can get reusable bags at most stores for about a dollar. If you want cute ones reusablebag.com has a ton to choose from and some are only around $5 a bag. Some stores give you a discount for using these bags. You may even have bags around the house that you can use. Any tote will work. This keeps a lot of plastic out of landfills!
Eat local. Check out your local farmers markets. You will often save money and you will help the environment. And you will be supporting local farmers.
Give up fast food or at least cut back. This is save you money, help your health, and help the environment. We don’t think much about going to get some fast food. It’s easy and cheap. We get our hamburger and fries and think nothing about the waste. The paper bag, the paper wrapped burger, fries in more paper, paper napkins, ketchup packets, paper cup, and straw. So much waste for food that is rarely that good. You will save a lot of money with this one!
Get rid of disposables. This is one where you will spend a little money but end up saving a lot.
Cloth napkins are not a high cost item. You can buy them or make them. They shouldn’t take up much space in your laundry either. Just throw them in with other loads. You will save a lot of money when you never have to buy paper napkins again!
Paper towels are another item that is good to replace. This is harder for some people but don’t worry it’s really easy. Buy some items like Skoy cloths and dish towels and you will be paper towel free in no time. Even if you only lessen your use of paper towels you will save money. Most likely you have dish cloths around already so you may not even have to spend any money.
Sandwich bags can be reused or replace them with reusable containers and Wrap-N-Mats. You will end up saving a lot of money.
Dress for the weather. Running the A/C and heater less will save you money right away and cost you nothing. When it’s cool use blankets and wear warm clothes. When it’s hot use fans (which use less power that the A/C), take off some clothes, and eat some cold foods.
Take shorter showers. Most of us eco nuts think 5 minutes is a long shower but any time you can cut off of your shower helps. One way to help cut your shower time is don’t shave in the shower. For girls just put the plug in the shower and when you are done shave in the water in the tub. Guys shave in a sink full of water.
Don’t run the water while rinsing your dishes. Rinse a lot of dishes at once in a sinkfull of hot soapy water. It’s easier and will save a lot of water verses rinsing with the water running.
Only do laundry in full loads. Wait until you have full loads to do laundry. You will save on water costs, soap costs and time.
Run the dishwasher only when full. Like with clothes this will save you time and money.
Unplug anything you aren’t using. Did you know your TV uses 40% of the power it uses while running when you turn it off? Don’t think any of us like paying for things we aren’t using. You can also get power stripes and plug items in to those then just turn it off when you want the items to truly turn off.
Turn off lights when you leave the room. Who is that light on for anyway? I think we can all handle turning the light back on when we need it.
Switch to CFLs. They will cost more than your normal light bulbs but last much longer. They also will save you on your electic bill. Be sure to not trash them since they have mercury. Places like Home Depot will recycle them for you.
This is a very small list of things you can do to help you and the planet. The biggest thing anyone can do for the planet is to buy less. We are to wrapped up in stuff. Just read the story of what happened to the poor man this morning at Wal-Mart, people so wrapped up in stuff they didn’t stop to help a dying man. We seem to be willing to kill for stuff.
I hope more of you will share your tips for my readers.
Happy Thanksgiving!!
| November 27, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Sorry haven’t been on here much. My other job (photography) has had me busy. I will be posting a lot of giveaways soon.
If you are driving be safe.
Giveaway: Wysi Wipes
| November 24, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
I did a product review of Wysi Wipes the other day and now you can win them!
Two readers can win a bag of 200 wipes each.
Here are the rules-
1. Post your e-mail!!!!! Every time people forget, you can’t win if you don’t leave an e-mail address. If you don’t want to leave it say in the comment that you don’t then send it to my e-mail address- love_cats05@yahoo.com (if you have a blogger account that has your e-mail that works as well, or if you fill it out in the info, just somewhere please!)
2. Go to Wysi Wipes and tell me a neat fact about the product.
3. Enter by Dec. 1st at 11:59 p.m.
Product Review: Natural Candy Store
| November 24, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
My nickname as a kid was the Candy Queen, so when I heard I was getting the chance to test natural candy I was very excited!
They sent me a Halloween Goody Bag with all kinds of candy. It included Surf Sweets Gummy Bears, Original Sundrops, Mini Glee Gum pack, Organic Fruit Lollipops, Raspberry Chocolate Filled Candy, Organic Root Beer Float Candy, and Surf Sweet Sour Gummy Worms.
My husband loves gummy bears, he has tried a lot of brands so he helped test the gummy bears. He said they are better than all the other natural brands he has tried and better than all but one overall. I feel so much better having him eat theses, they are full of just natural and organic ingredients. I thought they were great. I’m not a big gummy bear fan but these were very good. Nice and sweet and not that artificial sweet but like a piece of fruit sweet.
I normally don’t like sour candies but I really liked the Sour Gummy Worms. They were just the right about of sour and softer than most gummy candies I have had.
I used to chew a lot of gum. I have problems with my jaw so I don’t much anymore but I had to try the Glee Gum. The favor lasted a pretty normal amount of time and all of them had a very nice favor. When they do lose their favor it’s not a bad taste at all. I found it a lot softer than other gum. The Tangerine favor was my favorite.
Sundrops are a candy coated chocolate candy. My husband didn’t like them as well as the popular brand but still liked them. I thought the chocolate was much higher quality than the popular brand. I liked them enough I picked up a bag to put in cookies. I’m not only worried about dyes for health reasons but also because I’m allergic to some of them. So I’m very happy to have a candy like this that I can eat.
The organic lollipops are really good. My husband and a friend helped me test these. My friend Audrey tried the green apple. She loves green apple stuff (I don’t) and she said it was good and not to sour. My husband had the watermelon and he really liked it. I tried the other favors which included lemon, pomegranate, and tangerine. All were very good but my favorite was the tangerine. These are lollipops you can feel good about giving your kids! And you may want to steal a few.
My husband also tried the Root beer candy as I do not like root beer. He said it was better than any other root beer hard candy and a nice flavor and long lasting.
My favorite candy is the Raspberry Chocolate Filled Candy. It would last a long time if you could keep from eating it to get to the chocolate. It’s like a very high quality version of the popular chocolate filled lollipops. I loved these so much, I have already ordered a whole bag of them!
Natural Candy Store is a new favorite of mine. With my love for candy, health, and the environment this store is perfect for me. So many natural and organic candies to choose from you will have a hard time picking. My husband and I just ordered a boatload of candy from them for Christmas gifts and to have around here for the holidays.
They have lots of candy that would make great stocking stuffers like organic chocolate Santas, organic candy canes, gingerbread house kits and so much more. I also ordered some natural snowflake sprinkles for baking. They have all kinds of sprinkles and even natural food coloring! I will warn you while prices are very good there are so many wonderful candies you will have a hard time staying on budget.
More on the Wolves
| November 23, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Please watch this video, even if you think the wolves should be killed. I doubt even the person who wasn’t happy with my last post would agree they all shouldn’t be killed. In the video there is talk of having a hunting season, with a limit on a number that can be killed. The bill trying to be passed would not be a hunting season but all out war.
If you watch this and agree that at most there should be a hunting season and you don’t want the wolves wiped out again please go to this site to help stop Bush. You have until November 28th to let your voice be heard.
Product Review: EarthLust
| November 23, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
EarthLust is a family run business. It was started by a mom that wanted her baby’s health protected as well as the environment.
The bottles are made of high quality, food grade stainless steel. They are unlined and the plastic lids are made of BPA-free #5 polypropylene. They have beautiful non-toxic artwork on them. They also come with a carabineer and optional sports tops are available for the 13 and 20 ounce sizes. They come in 13 oz, 20 oz, and 1 litter sizes.
I got to try one of the bottles and it’s wonderful. I own many bottles from a popular stainless steel bottle company and this one is very different. When drinking it without a sports top, I like the EarthLust better. The lip is very smooth and easy to drink out of.
I love that it is a small business. The prices are great. These would make great stocking stuffers for everyone on your list.
My favorite store that carries the bottles is MamaGoesGreen.com . Right now you can get free shipping on the bottles with the code: CHRISTMAS, so hurry and stock up for Christmas!
Product Review: Crinkle Co.
| November 23, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Just in time for Christmas I got to try out some recycled wrapping paper. They are also printed with soy inks!
Crinkle Co. sells wrapping kits to make wrapping easy and pain free. The kits come with everything you need, even the tape! They give estimated times for wrapping and the gift wrap is the longest with 5 minutes.
There are a lot of designs and styles to choose from. I love the pillow boxes! My husband is a present shaker and is always guessing what his gifts are (almost always right too!) so I like wrapping gifts in packages that make it hard for him to guess. I also like packaging that can be reused.
The only cons to these products are that they come in plastic. But so do the rolls of paper that are not recycled so it is a better option for sure! Also great for anyone who can’t stand wrapping because they make it so easy.
I have loved using all of it for my gifts this year and all of them look beautiful. The designs are awesome and I love that it comes with nice ribbons.
So check out Crinkle Co. for all your wrapping needs.
Product Review: WysiWipes
| November 23, 2008 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
WysiWipes are biodegradable, scent-free wipes that start out as a small tablet and when you add water they grow to the size of a normal cloth.
They have an endless number of uses. I have used them with some cleaner for a quick clean and also with a disinfectant to clean carts at grocery stores.
I try not to use even biodegradable one use items a lot but at the same time I find they are nice to have around if you need something easy or quick.
A lot of us eco-friendly people carry our stainless steel water bottles around with us everywhere so why not stick a few of these in your purse or car for when messes happen. You can even reuse them for awhile, depending on what they were used for last.
Check out their website for more information.
